Greetings from Paradise!

x

Sabang, Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines

(Photo: D.P. Munro)

Dear Roland Park:

Wish you were here. Glad I'm not there...

— Doug M.

Webmaster

4 Feb. 2010

_____

Get Involved with the Master Plan

For those interested in commenting on the master plan issue subcommittees' work, RolandPark.org has created a series of on-line forums, one for each of the eight subcommittees. This same page lists all the committees and their leadership, and provides an e-mail link to each, should you wish to volunteer for one of more. Additionally, the master-plan main page has links to various items of master-plan reading material.

To e-mail the charrette committees to volunteer (or for any other reason), go to http://rolandpark.org/MasterPlanMetaBlog. Go to the table in the righthand column.

To access the eight charrette forums, go also to http://rolandpark.org/MasterPlanMetaBlog. The list of forums is down the left side. Here you will also find the committees' summary reports.

To catch up on master-plan reading material and to be kept abreast of the latest developments and dates, go here: http://rolandpark.org/MasterPlan.

— Doug Munro

January 14, 2010

_____

Second Master Plan Charrette Well Attended

An impressive hundred or so dedicated community members attended the second charrette of the Roland Park area master plan series on Friday, January 8 and Saturday, January 9.... (For a full report, click here.)

— Annie Lovell

January 17, 2010

_____

Master Plan Media Hit of the Day

For a full master plan media-hit list, go here.

"Roland Park's master plan discussions have already yielded one idea of note: a traffic circle at Roland Avenue and Cold Spring Lane," says the Baltimore Messenger's Larry Perl, Jan. 13. (Click here.) Perl continues, however, that master plan Transportation Committee chair Matthew Fitzsimmons concedes that traffic circles are "foreign to many Americans" (1/19/10).

What, first with defending the Roland Park fire station before municipal leaders on Jan. 7, and then with undertaking a two-day planning charrette bonanza Jan. 8-9, Roland Park had a busy time last week, reports Kathy Hudson in the Jan. 10 Baltimore Messenger. "With a well-delineated plan," says Hudson, "the [RP] historic area will be poised to continue its tradition of foresighted community planning." Hudson's piece is here (1/12/10).

The Roland Park area master plan made it to no. 2 on the Dec. 22 Baltimore Messenger list of top 10 stories of 2009. "In November," says Larry Perl, "the community undertook its most far-reaching project yet — to draft a master plan for Roland Park in conjunction with Baltimore City's comprehensive rezoning efforts." Read Perl's story here (12/29/09).

Kathy Hudson in the Dec. 2 Baltimore Messenger points out that the Roland Park area master plan charrette competed remarkably effectively against other family-favorite events that Saturday: the St. David's church holiday bazaar and the Friends School Hollyfest. Here article is here (12/3).

Says Baltimore Messenger Editor Larry Perl, Nov. 24, the first RP area master plan community forum raised "more questions than it answer[ed], but that was the point." While a number of topics were discussed, says Perl, green space and historic preservation appeared particularly high on the agenda. It's here (11/24).
"Saturday’s first charette about the Roland Park area master plan was a great way to go into Thanksgiving week," says Kathy Hudson in the Nov. 23 Baltimore Messenger. It demonstrated "a strong sense of community, where public debate is welcomed." Read Hudson here (11/24).

The Baltimore Messenger's Larry Perl reports, Nov. 11, that the Roland Park master plan is gearing up and that it will be completed with the backing of the city government. "Hoping to gain more control over traffic and development, the neighborhood hopes to create its own city-backed master plan," says Perl. Read the whole story here (11/15).

_____

Roland Park General Media Hit of the Day

For full "Roland Park in the media" list, click here.

Kathy Hudson in the Jan. 13 Baltimore Messenger opines on the incongruence of a sharply increased property-tax assessment and the threatened removal of Roland Park's fire truck no. 25 to the Hampden fire station. Click here (1/19/09).

"I will do better," said city Fire Chief Jim Clack, apologizing for not having had his department inform RP area Councilwoman Sharon Middleton about the ongoing rotating closure of the Roland Park fire station. Defending the policy, however, Clack said that rotating closures are a strategy to stave off the permanent closure of various stations in the city. With a departmental budget shortfall soon to climb to $13 million, Clack has no other option, he says. Clack was speaking to the Roland Park Civic League's Jan. 7 meeting. Read Larry Perl's Jan. 8 Baltimore Messenger report on the meeting here (1/12/10).

The city is "playing with fire in Roland Park," says Larry Perl in the Baltimore Messenger, Jan. 6. To residents' concern and anger, the city has temporarily rotated out of service one of Roland Park's two fire-fighting vehicles, engine 44 and truck 25, no fewer than 50 times in the past six months. "The practice doesn't sit well with the Civic League," says the article. The full story is here (1/7/10).

"Does it count for nothing," asks Kathy Hudson, "that Roland Park and surrounding communities helped secure over $240,000 to repair and make safer the Roland Park fire station?" Hudson goes on in the Jan. 3 Baltimore Messenger to report on a 15-minute response to a Roland Park fire on Christmas Day, and the eventual showing up of a non-local fire engine driven by a crew that understandably did not know the neighborhood. Hudson is here (1/3/10).

"The Civic League is fact-finding" about the issue of firehouse closure, notes the Baltimore Messenger's Larry Perl, Jan. 3. This comes on the heels of December 2009's surprise revelation that the Roland Park firehouse is frequently closed by the city, despite the neighborhood's having raised between $40,000 and $50,000 for its renovation last year. The Perl story is here (1/3/10).

_____

RP Roads & Maintenance Corp. Needs Plat Reps for 2010

The Roland Park Roads and Maintenance Corp. — Roland Park's covenant enforcement and maintenance group — is looking for plat reps for all plats for the period starting January 1, 2010. Architects, landscape architects and designers, lawyers and residents who have done major renovations and can read an architectural plan are all desirable additions to the board. For more information contact Ann Lundy at annlundy@verizon.net or Kathleen Truelove at ktruelo@jhmi.edu.

_____

Please send information of interest or upcoming events to be posted. Also, please visit the e-communication page and register to receive important community announcements.

_____

Web site created by DesignConcept.

Web site maintained by the staff of InterGroup Services, Inc.

This web site is optimized for Apple, Inc.'s Safari browser.

xxx

Last Days of the Marianist Building

For Dorret Oosterhoff's photo essay on the demise of the Marianist Building, click here. (To be taken to the general story, click the photo above.)

x

mx

Roland Water Tower Preservation Group Formed

New group hopes to preserve, rehabilitate currently dilapidated neighborhood icon. (Click picture for web page.)

mx

Proposed Paving of Median Strip at Gilman

Proposal would reduce or eliminate 440 or 250 feet of green-space median for left-turn lane on Roland Avenue (click photo). _____ Should the median be paved? Sep. 2009 RP survey results are here.

mx

mx

RolandPark.org Preservation Portal

RolandPark.org has created a new portal for all local area matters concerning preservation and development. The portal will also serve as an access point to archived material on preservation. It may be found at http://rolandpark.org/PreservationDevelopment.

_____

Sustainability/Green Space Portal

As if the preservation portal were not enough, RolandPark.org has also created a new portal for sustainability and green-space stories. As with the preservation portal, it will also serve as a library for archived material. Why not visit the new portal at http://rolandpark.org/SustainGreen.html?

Looking for the Roland Park Sustainability Initiative pledge form? Download it here.