Busy Week

By Kathy Hudson
Posted: January 10, 2010

Roland Park has had an ambitious week. Thursday was the monthly Civic League meeting. It centered on rotating closings of fire stations. In attendance were Baltimore City Fire Chief James Clack and several other fire department officials, including those from the Roland Park fire station, where one of two pieces of equipment has been out of service 50 days or nights since July.

Also in attendance were four members of the Baltimore City Council: President Stephanie Rawlings Blake and council members Sharon Green Middleton, Jack Young and Mary Pat Clarke.

Clack said that with projected budget shortfalls, Truck 25 at the Roland Park fire station would likely move to the Hampden station. With response time critical for the many area schools and 100-year old wood houses, let’s hope that the Civic League, the fire department and city leaders can figure out an alternative.

On Friday evening at Roland Park Elementary/Middle School, the Civic League began its second community forum on developing a Roland Park area master plan. An introductory brainstorming session to create a vision for the master plan was held in November and drew more than 140 people on a busy Saturday morning.

About 100 came out on a cold evening this Friday to the first of a two-part weekend session. This session began with a photographic review of why it’s important to have a master plan, and a review of the proposed vision statement, as well as visions and principles for topics of area concern including green/open space, commercial/retail space, transportation, livability, housing and infrastructure.

On Saturday, just under 100 people returned to participate in all-day working sessions. City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, representatives of several north Baltimore neighborhoods that border Roland Park, a few schools, a few students and business owners, and many residents rolled up their sleeves to develop concrete ways to implement the visions for each area of concern.

Now the hard work begins. It is easy to brainstorm but much harder to research and develop specific proposals.  It would be great to see more residents, business owners and students involved in this process.

Without a concrete master plan, a beautiful, livable area will be more likely to succumb to problems of economic issues of the city, a century old infrastructure, aging homes and increased competition for open space.

With a well-delineated plan, the historic area will be poised to continue its tradition of foresighted community planning.

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