Baltimore City Councilwoman Sharon Green Middleton provided the political fireworks at Roland Park’s Fourth of July Family Parade, announcing her opposition to a controversial land sale.

“We need to save our green space” the 6th District councilwoman told 400 paradegoers.

Middleton admitted in an interview later that she had been on the fence until last week about whether to support or oppose plans by the Baltimore Country Club to sell 17 acres of its green space off Falls Road to the Keswick Multi-Care Center in Hampden.
Keswick wants to develop the property, site of the club’s no longer used tennis courts, as a retirement community with an underground garage for 400 cars.

Two thirds of the club’s members must approve the sale. Voting is going on now and ends July 15.
The selling price of $12.5 million is contingent upon city approval of a zoning amendment that could make or break the project.

Middleton said she decided to oppose the land deal after attending a special meeting of the Roland Park Civic League late last month. An overflow audience at St. David's Episcopal Church voiced its opposition to the development plans.

But Middleton was noncommittal at the meeting even as state Sen. Lisa Gladden and  Del. Sandy Rosenberg opposed the plans.

In the past week, many in the neighborhood questioned which side Middleton was on.
On the Fourth, Middleton put the questions to rest.

“You sent a strong message. I am your representative to support your community,” she told paradegoers, drawing big applause.

Middleton told the Messenger afterwards that she’d been on the fence at first due to a lack of knowledge about the land sale, not because she had mixed feelings.
After the meeting, she researched the proposed sale, and met with league president Phil Spevak and other community leaders before making her decision.

The issue lent the feel of a political rally to the ninth annual parade, which is usually free of politics. Each year Rosenberg reads from the Declaration of Independence and other officials make general welcoming remarks, before Roland Park fire engine No. 44 leads the parade down Roland Avenue.

But this year, signs saying “Keswick NO!” and “Save the Park in Roland Park” lined the parade route, and a sign opposing the sale was affixed prominently to the speakers’ podium. Petitions against the planned sale were on at a table at the end of the parade route.

The parade had a feistier feel.

“It’s very different,” said Chris McSherry, a Roland Park resident who chairs the league’s traffic committee. “People are fired up this year.”

Roland Park resident and Baltimore Country Club member Nancy Strahan, who walks in the parade with her family every year, wore “2008” glasses with the zeroes over her eyes.

Strahan said she voted against the sale of the green space, because, “I’m a BCC member who doesn’t want to see the green go.”

Spevak urged the crowd to sign petitions and to join the league.

“The community was really heard this week. It was spectacular,” he said.

Then Spevak turned the microphone over to Middleton, telling the crowd, “This might be the highlight of the day.”
 
 

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