In a meeting at City Hall this morning, Mayor Josh Cohen, alongside Jon Arason, director of the department of planning and zoning, announced the names of Annapolis' new City Dock Advisory Committee (CDAC).

The CDAC will spearhead a yearlong effort aimed at re-envisioning and redeveloping the downtown City Dock area.

Cohen said the purpose of the committee is to "take a fresh look" at the city's signature public space.

"Every Annapolitan has their own idea of what they want City Dock to be. I think the one thing we can all agree on is that right now we're not making the best use of this prime real estate for Annapolis," Cohen said.

The committee will first establish "guiding principles" for the use of this area and then work to develop a design plan based on those principles. The committee will encourage input from the public through various public events and at the end of the process, it will present a report to City Council.

"For downtown I've asked planning and zoning to take the lead in shepherding a very broad-based public process to re-envision downtown, to think first of all, big picture about what role should downtown play in our public life in Annapolis, what sort of mix of uses need to be served, what are the guiding principles that we should follow as a city for any decisions that we make about downtown ... and then from these big picture ideas to focus down and flesh out designs and plans that will help all of us in the city move forward," Cohen said.

The committee will be comprised of 25 members and serving as chair will be Kurt L. Schmoke, former Mayor of Baltimore, who now resides just a few miles outside of the Annapolis city limits.

"I'm so pleased to be invited to participate in this process," Schmoke said.

Schmoke, who also served as the State's Attorney for five years and currently serves as dean of the Howard University School of Law, called the area "quite a gem" and added that it is known to Annapolitans and people throughout the state and country.

Apart from Schmoke, whom Cohen said he approached about serving as chair, members serving on the committee were selected by the planning and zoning department. Cohen said the department chose from among 100 applicants.

Arason said in selecting members to serve on the committee, the goal was to get a broad representation of the entire city.

Arason said the members selected include residents, business people, stake holders and members of the sailing community.

Both Cohen and Arason emphasized the importance of the public's involvement in this yearlong process.

"Our hope is to get as much public input as possible into City Dock," Arason said.

The committee will kick off its efforts with a meeting in early November, which will be open to the public.

Cohen said this effort is important as the downtown businesses continue to compete with development outside the city limits.

Catharine Incaprera, owner of Madison Boutique on Main Street is one of the selected committee members.

Incaprera said as a business owner and resident she's "passionate about downtown and the market place" and hopes the results will draw more people and more tourists to the city.

"I'm really excited to be part of the team. They've got a really great group of people. I mean it's an eclectic group which is really going to be helpful.  So it's... like the public's gonna be speaking through the committee, which is really good," Incaprera said.

A full list of the other members of the committee can be found on the city's website.