The Baltimore City Council on Monday gave final passage to a measure that would amend the city’s charter to prevent the sale of its underground conduit system, sending it to the mayor’s desk for approval or veto.

If approved by voters, the charter amendment would prohibit the privatization of Baltimore’s underground conduit system for cables, wires and similar facilities.

Passage by the council comes a couple years after the conduit became one area of focus for current Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young as he set out to explore municipal broadband while serving as the legislative body’s president. Young introduced a series of resolutions in 2018 that included a hearing on the conduit system. A year later, the charter amendment was one of a pair of measures introduced in 2019 focused on the conduit system, which Young positioned with an eye toward broadband. A second bill proposed at that time, which updated laws and penalties governing the conduit system, passed in June 2019.

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