Residents challenge Johns Hopkins AI institute approval in city court

Hampden and Remington residents say they still do not know enough about Johns Hopkins University’s Data Science and AI Institute to judge what it will mean for their streets, their tree canopy and their homes, and they took that fight into Baltimore City Circuit Court as the project’s approval process came under attack.

The case centers on the Homewood Campus plan for two new academic buildings, a project Hopkins says is meant for classrooms, laboratories, faculty offices and collaborative workspaces, not a data center. The university says the institute will generate nearly $2 billion in economic activity and nearly 11,000 jobs in the Baltimore region during construction through 2029, but neighbors have pressed for more information on traffic, construction disruption, environmental effects and community benefit before the work advances further.

Residents organized through Sacred Parks and Waterways and BMoreAgainstDSAI contend the Baltimore City Board of Estimates concealed the substance of its public meeting, published a misleading agenda and failed to release critical documents before approving Hopkins-related right-of-way and stormwater items on Dec. 18, 2025. Their attorneys say the city violated the Open Meetings Act and procedural due process, and they want the court to decide whether the approvals should be rescinded.

The project has already changed the edge of the neighborhood. City and university materials say construction will require a temporary closure of Wyman Park Drive for years, and a Johns Hopkins parcel tied to early utilities relocation covers about 0.42 acres bounded by Wyman Park Drive, San Martin Drive, Remington Avenue, W. 31st Street and Wyman Park. A Board of Estimates item described the stormwater work as an amendment to a 2015 memorandum of understanding to upgrade stormwater management facilities along Wyman Park Drive and maintain them for another 25 years.

Neighbors say the costs have been visible for months. Reporting has cited the removal of more than 90 trees across university and public land, including 20 oaks on Remington Avenue and 18 elms along Wyman Park Drive. In January 2026, Hopkins cut down nine trees on Remington Avenue despite protests and a cease-and-desist letter from opponents. Hopkins says it will plant more than 300 new trees, including 57 on city property along Remington Avenue, Wyman Park Drive and 31st Street.

Odette Ramos, the City Council member whose district includes the area, has argued that residents were being ignored and called the lack of transparency “astounding.” The university has filed a motion to dismiss, arguing the Board of Estimates process was ordinary and that the courts lack jurisdiction, setting up a broader test of how far Baltimore will go to police quasi-judicial approvals when a major institution reshapes a residential border.