As is customary when a bill is first introduced, there was no official discussion of Bill 25-0094 to authorize the sale of Baltimore’s trash transfer facility on Sisson Street.

But things got hot and heavy after the Baltimore City Council meeting adjourned on Monday evening.

A group of residents challenged Odette Ramos and Jermaine Jones over the plan to relocate the operation to a site on Falls Road that straddles their council districts, alongside the Jones Falls Trail and waterway.

“This isn’t what we do, it’s just not,” fumed Dick Williams, of Friends of the Jones Falls. “We don’t kill nature.”

A week after Mayor Brandon Scott’s proposal, which would open the door to hundreds of garbage-toting vehicles a day traveling to a site along a treasured stretch of urban waterway, here they were face-to-face with two key lawmakers.

“This is 19th century thinking, putting your waste next to water,” chided Jan Danforth, as she, Williams and five other people approached Ramos and Jones in the council chambers at City Hall.

Ramos made clear, however, that she supports putting the trash facility on Falls Road, explaining her reasons for viewing Scott’s plan as the best option possible.

She also bluntly declared that the sale is a foregone conclusion.

“Sisson Street is moving,” she said, tracing the process to when Seawall, a prominent Remington developer, “came to us five years ago and said they were interested in the property.”

Communicating with The Brew yesterday, Ramos took ownership of the most controversial part of the proposal – moving the trash transfer facility to 2801 Falls Road, currently a Potts & Callahan storage yard.

“I was the one who Potts & Callahan came to when they said they were no longer in need of the property,” she texted. “I suggested it for the new site.”

(She said last week she’s working against the part of the plan that shuts Falls Road to through traffic at Mill No. 1.)

“Don’t Trash the Falls”

More than a dozen people came to the meeting to make their feelings known about the Sisson facility item, which was missing online on the council’s draft agenda.

Some carried fliers that said, “Don’t Trash the Falls.” A trio of Ziger/Snead architects and designers, one of whom commutes to work over that stretch of Falls Road, also attended.

“I’m concerned about the plan and its relation to the other plans for Falls Road and its impact on the waterway,” said Dustin Page. “I mean, putting trash near the water.”

Jacob Taswell said he believes this stretch of Falls Road “has huge potential as a recreational and corridor. So I see putting a trash facility there as a negative for the city.”

• Vision of a more inviting Jones Falls Trail collides with Scott administration’s trash plans (7/18/25)

• Rough reception as city proposes moving Sisson Street trash drop-off center to a site along the Jones Falls (8/13/25)

Though they were attending the meeting as city residents, they said they were also involved professionally in design work for projects to enhance the area for Friends of Jones Falls, the Streetcar Museum and the Jones Falls Gateway project.

They tracked down Councilman Ryan Dorsey to ask when they will have an opportunity to testify against the Sisson sale bill.

He directed them to Jon Laria, chairman of the city Planning Commission, the next stop for the measure.

After that, Dorsey explained, the bill will go to the committee he chairs, Land Use and Transportation, another opportunity for public comment.

Saying his committee is very busy, Dorsey said the bill might not be scheduled for a hearing until October. “There are more bills assigned to my committee than all other committees combined,” he noted.

Protest and Pushback

The residents’ conversation with Dorsey was brief, but their back-and-forth with Ramos and Jones went on for some 20 minutes.

Ramos said she told Seawall years ago to go to community groups and engage with them about closure of the Sisson Street trash transfer station and possible replacement sites.

After those meetings (“the consensus was it cannot be in a Black community,” she said), no acceptable site emerged.

“But its current location at Sisson is perfect,” one of the residents protested. “North, south, east, west – it’s perfect for the whole city!”

“It is not,” Ramos retorted. “It’s perfect from a location standpoint, but not from a facility standpoint. The traffic is really bad – it backs up through to Hampden.”

A residents challenged her, saying the Scott administration’s Falls Road plan would itself cause congestion in Hampden.

Another declared, “I’ve gone to Sisson. I would not say the traffic has ever been an issue there.”

“You’re right,” Ramos said, backing off. “It’s on the weekend and on the hazardous waste drop-off days.”

Ideal Facility for Workers?

At this point, Ramos moved to another argument: that workplace conditions justify relocating the facility.

“Because of the idea of the development potential, the city said, ‘Okay, if this is going to happen, let’s rethink what an ideal facility would look like for residents, but also for the workers,’” she began.

Ramos spoke of the surge in city spending to upgrade solid waste facilities after some of them were critiqued in a series of scathing reports by Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming, and cited a worker’s death of heat stroke last summer.

“A lot of those facilities are past their sell-by date,” observed Councilman Jones, who otherwise let Ramos do nearly all of the talking.

This argument, too, met with pushback from the residents.

“Is there data available about safety or hazards to workers there?” demanded Mt. Washington resident Susan Sperry.

“The information that was shared at last week’s meeting was misleading, linking a death of a DPW worker from another site to this site,” Sperry stated.

Reconsider Alternatives

Some other things the residents were told by Ramos:

• That Seawall’s redevelopment plans, including acquisition of the Sisson Street property, are in the Remington Master Plan adopted by the Planning Commission.

• That she will alert citizens in her newsletter about public hearings on the bill and and hold a Potts & Callahan “site visit.”

• Other alternative sites were considered as possible Sisson replacements but none, for various reasons, fit the bill.

What about the city-owned property near Camp Small, one asked, referring to the city’s wood waste storage and reclamation yard?

“The neighborhood didn’t want it,” Ramos said, adding that last year’s fire at the site “showed that was the right decision.”

What about the property at Howard and 25th, a large, level tract that was once proposed for a Wal-Mart-anchored development?

“It’s right next to communities. No way that’s going to work,” she said.

Another site considered and rejected, Ramos said, was the salt dome over on North Avenue, but “the land was too small for what was happening.”

“They’re going to need more salt because before they were only doing main streets, but now they’re going to start prepping side streets,” Jones told the group.

What about the Bramble Site?

The conversation never really covered another property that city officials are known to have carefully considered – 400 West North Avenue, a former railroad yard on the west bank of the Jones Falls owned by MCBKA North Avenue, an offshoot of Harborplace developer David Bramble’s MCB Real Estate.

The 8.3-acre parcel is used to store contractor vehicles and supplies and to hold excavation material from various city digs, including the Ashburton water tank project.

The Planning Department and others believe the Bramble site a good – even the best – location for a trash transfer station, sources have told The Brew.

The residents ended the conversation by urging Ramos and Jones to look harder at making one of these locations work.

“Why can’t we go look at those rather than tour where we don’t want it to be?” Danforth asked the two lawmakers.

Another resident asked Ramos why they are pushing ahead with the plan “when there is so much opposition to it?”

“That’s why we have hearings,” Ramos answered.

“I think it’s time for a referendum,” Danforth declared to murmurs of approval from the others.