The Baltimore City government and the firm picked to redevelop Harborplace can both join the state in upcoming arguments before the Maryland Supreme Court in a case that will decide whether the referendum on city ballots this fall will matter, a judge ruled Friday in Annapolis.

The decision clears the way for both the city and the potential developer, MCB Real Estate, to make their cases to the state’s highest court alongside the Maryland State Board of Elections.

The elections board voted earlier this week to appeal Monday’s ruling by Anne Arundel County Judge Cathleen Vitale that the ballot question needed to approve the development project is unconstitutional.

Vitale ruled that the proposal — which would amend the city’s charter to build residential development where there are currently public parks along the Inner Harbor — was not “proper charter material” and the question was indiscernible to average voters. The question remains on printed ballots that were starting to be sent to voters Friday, but the results would not be certified under the ruling.

In a hearing Friday about whether the city and the developer could join in the appeal to ensure the vote is certified, Vitale agreed the city had a legitimate interest.

And though she said she “struggled” with allowing MCB Real Estate to formally join the case, she agreed it also has an interest and accepted the company’s lawyers’ reasoning that it will present slightly different arguments than the city to the Maryland Supreme Court.

Timothy Maloney, who is representing the company, said in the hearing that MCB Real Estate agrees with the city that the proposal to amend the charter is valid. But he said it will go further than the city’s lawyers in its arguments if the Supreme Court disagrees, arguing at that point that the entire section of the charter, which outlines uses for the Inner Harbor park, would be invalid.

“The city won’t be taking that position,” said Maloney, who also stressed multiple times that the company “welcomes the judgment of the voters” in its plans on whether to proceed with its project.

Those plans, led by developer P. David Bramble, include the building of four mixed-use buildings and a conjoining 32-story tower with 900 apartments and office space, as well as a large new park space. Commercial uses are already permitted in the area but Question F, as it appears on the ballot, would allow for the new residential and parking development.

Maloney said the judge’s decision to invalidate the question both impacts MCB and “undermines public confidence in the election” by confusing voters.

“For the first time that I can see in Maryland’s history under the court’s ruling, we’re going to have a dead referendum on the ballot,” Maloney said. “We have had dead candidates on the ballot, but we’ve never had a dead referendum on the ballot.”

Thiru Vignarajah, the former Baltimore mayoral candidate, is representing a group of about 20 city residents who successfully petitioned to invalidate the charter amendment question.

He argued Friday against the city’s and MCB’s push to intervene in the case, presenting emails that he said indicated city lawyers had a chance to intervene and missed it — and that the developer could have filed briefs during Maryland Supreme Court arguments without being a party in the case.

Vitale said she found some of Vignarajah’s arguments “disingenuous” while ruling in favor of the motion to intervene.

Vignarajah said in an interview after the hearing that he expected the city to be able to join the case at the next level.

“We look forward to hearing the mayor and City Council try to explain why they wrote a question that was so incoherent that a judge could not make sense of it,” he said.

The case is expected to move quickly, but it was unclear Friday when it may be heard by the Maryland Supreme Court.

In the meantime, Maryland State Board of Elections Administrator Jared DeMarinis said in a statement Friday that the board had filed a motion to stay the court’s decision to not certify the results of the referendum, a move to “prevent potential disenfranchisement or undervoting while the appeal is ongoing.” He said he encouraged “all city voters to vote the entire ballot.”