The director of Baltimore’s Department of Transportation (DOT) is leaving her job, just as city officials are preparing to change downtown traffic patterns and close lanes to make way for the redevelopment of Harborplace. Mayor Brandon Scott announced on Wednesday that the DOT director, Ve ronica Perry, is stepping down and that her last day will be Oct. 1. He did not say why Perry is leaving. Berke Attila, the director of Baltimore’s Department of General Services (DGS), will serve as interim director of DOT while the city searches for a permanent replacement for Perry. Terrel Chessen, deputy director of DGS, will serve as that agency’s interim director.  The moves come as city officials are preparing to reconfigure the key Inner Harbor intersection of Pratt and Light streets to make way for a $900 million private redevelopment project led by MCB Real Estate. The plan calls for the city to close the five-lane Light Street-to-Calvert Street “sweep” and turn the street bed over to MCB so it can be part of the footprint for a four-building development project that includes two residential towers, offices, shops, restaurants and open space. Under the city’s plan, the number of lanes along part of Light Street will be reduced to give MCB more land for its project. Light Street will be realigned so that northbound drivers who now take the Light Street-to-Calvert Street sweep will be able to continue driving north on Light Street to Pratt Street, where they will have to make a right turn to get to Calvert Street or Pratt Street. North of Pratt Street, Light Street is currently one-way southbound. The city’s preliminary plans also call for Light Street to change so that it will be two-way between Pratt Street and Baltimore Street. Like removing vehicles from Times Square The realignment represents a major change to traffic patterns for one of the busiest downtown intersections. Planners say eliminating the Light Street-to-Calvert Street curve will be comparable in some ways to New York City’s plan several years ago to remove vehicular traffic from Times Square. A city planner told members of the Baltimore Tourism Association in May that preparation work on the realignment of Light Street could begin as soon as November. City officials later said that date is not firm. MCB officials have said they’re aiming to begin sitework on the first phase of their development, which includes the Light Street-to-Calvert Street sweep and the demolition of the Harborplace pavilions, in the fourth quarter of 2026. Numerous South Baltimore residents have been asking whether the City Council will hold a public hearing about the closing of lanes on Light Street. City officials say a public hearing may not be necessary because the Planning Commission and council already have held public meetings and approved the larger Downtown Rise master plan, which includes the Light Street realignment. Mayor Scott announced at the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore’s annual meeting last fall that the city was launching a downtown traffic study that would include the area around Harborplace, but his office has never provided details about the exact scope of the study or who would lead it. Others say the planning department and transportation department would be the clients for the study and that Perry, as the DOT director, wanted to play a major role in overseeing it. ‘Critical work’ Perry joined the city’s Department of Transportation in January of 2025. As director, she has been responsible for the planning, designing and building of transportation infrastructure around the city, as well as maintaining 2,000 miles of roadway, seven miles of interstate highways, 298 bridges and culverts, 456 miles of alleys, 72,000 streetlights, 1,300 signalized intersections and 250,000 traffic and informational signs.   Besides working on plans to alter traffic patterns at the Inner Harbor, Perry oversaw the launch of Repave Baltimore, a complete reimagining of DOT’s road resurfacing program, developed a strategic plan for the department, and most recently helped secure unanimous support among the Board of Estimates to bring the repair and maintenance of the city’s underground conduit system back in house. “I want to thank outgoing Director Perry for her service to the City of Baltimore and her leadership of DOT,” Scott said in his announcement about her departure. “I am confident that the entire department will continue the critical work of maintaining and strengthening our transportation infrastructure day in and day out, and I want to thank Interim Director Attila for stepping into this role as we search for our next DOT Director.”  ...read more read less