Roland Ave-Public Comments due July 12th (extension)
Update June 21, 2018-The Roland Park Civic League has successfully advocated for our community and DOT has agreed to extend the feedback deadline for Roland Avenue Safety modifications to July 12, 2018. Please send your comments to DOT ASAP. DOT-Public Comment-Form-BLANK
June 20, 2018 Agenda-Project Approval-Roland Avenue
The Baltimore City Department of Transportation (BCDoT) presented five options for correction of the current roadway design on Roland Avenue at their Thursday, June 14th Open House. Note-their deadline for individual public comment is now July 12th, extended from June 28th. A decision is expected by July 19th.
To begin implementing our project approval process, the Civic League will host a community meeting, Wednesday, June 20th at 7PM in the North Baltimore Mennonite Church, 4615 Roland Avenue (at Oakdale). Please share this news with neighbors; contact your Plat Rep. to discuss your concerns or questions (if needed, consult map for Plat boundaries).
2018 Annual 4th of July Parade
Come help us celebrate in our beloved Annual Roland Park 4th of July Parade now in its 21st year, from 10AM-12Noon on Wednesday, July 4. The parade will start in front of the library with a reading of the Declaration of Independence by Delegate Sandy Rosenberg and some words from our elected officials. Then we will parade down Roland Avenue behind the local fire truck to the intersection at Upland Road. There will be ice pops for everyone, and if history is a guide, the fire trucks might even hook up a hose to the hydrant to spray us all. The Roland Park Presbyterian Church will open its doors to offer us bathrooms, water and air conditioning for those who need to cool down. Please join us in your brightest and boldest red, white and blue regalia and be sure to decorate your bikes, strollers and pets!
This year, we also plan to have commemorative T-shirt’s for sale the week before and during the parade. 100% of the proceeds will go to funding the philanthropic giving of the Civic League!!
Afterwards, please send your favorite snapshots from the event to rpcommunication@rolandpark.org so we can commemorate the event here on our website.
Let’s go Roland Park!
Clarification-DoT Meeting Format June 14-Roland Avenue
June 13, 2018
Dear Neighbors,
As promised in my communication from earlier today, after speaking with Director Pourciau, I have some updates and clarifications on the meeting format tomorrow evening on Roland Avenue Safety at RPEMS from 6-7:30PM.
After signing in, you will be provided with meeting instructions. It will be an open house format with six stations to circulate through. Two stations will have all the information on the proposed modifications including one option that DoT believes strikes a balance between costs and meeting safety concerns, three stations with detailed scenarios to supply data on the pros and cons of the different proposals, and one station providing definitions of bicycle infrastructure. They plan to have 2 to 3 DoT personnel at each station to answer your questions. The Director also plans to circulate with some of her other staff fielding questions and providing answers. At 6:45PM there will be time for remarks on the proposed options. The meeting will conclude promptly at 7:30PM.
Since this is a public meeting, the DoT does give the standard option of sending in mail, email, and comment cards as feedback. Please also keep in mind that the Roland Park Civic League has a robust and open and transparent Policy Approval policy where we will plan to meet over the next few weeks and ultimately vote on how we would like the DoT to proceed, and communicate that directly to the Director and Councilwoman Middleton. I am confident that if we tune out the external rhetoric and have an evidenced-based, data-driven discourse we can find consensus as a community and gain the support of Councilwoman Middleton in delivering our message to the DoT. We are not actually that far off from gaining consensus; a safer Roland Avenue for all users has always been our primary objective. And it remains so.
See you tomorrow night!
Bob
Robert Connors
President, Roland Park Civic League
Important Update-June 14 DoT Meeting on Roland Avenue
June 13, 2018
Dear fellow Roland Park residents,
Thursday evening June 14th there is an important meeting for our community with DOT regarding the safety and design of Roland Avenue. I encourage all concerned residents to attend, listen intently, and ask questions.
DOT has provided a brief format and agenda which includes a time for open discussion while circulating through stations to see the options up close and review the pros and cons with a DOT official. This agenda format was only provided to us late Wednesday afternoon, and we have several questions about it that we plan to address with the Director of the DOT today, and will forward updates as soon as we get them.
In preparation for this meeting, I would encourage everyone to go to our website and review the extensive work done by the Civic League and its numerous volunteer residents who have spent the last 2 years compiling and reviewing data and national best practices. This has obviously been an emotional time for our community, but a solution cannot come from opinion alone. So, it’s time to harness that passion and energy into asking the difficult questions that will certainly come up tomorrow night. I think the best way to ask those questions is to be prepared with data that supports that energy and passion so we can maintain a civil discourse. Shouting down speakers and interrupting presentations does not allow for residents to hear the information being presented and ask their questions. It also runs the very real risk that this public meeting will be shut down abruptly before we have had a chance to hear the information we need to move forward.
Tomorrow night’s meeting will not be the end of this discussion. I have been assured by Director Pourciau and Councilwoman Middleton that The Roland Park Civic League and its entire membership will be given an opportunity to consider the proposals by using our new Project Approval process after tomorrow night’s meeting. Roland Park has always met its challenges together. In any consensus building, it is understood that not everyone gets everything they want. But we can be assured that if we work together as neighbors we can find a solution that we can be proud of. We have done it numerous times before, because we take our role as stewards of this beautifully designed neighborhood very seriously. Let’s meet this latest challenge as we have in the past, with civility and common purpose, and create a safer Roland Avenue for generations to come.
See you tomorrow evening,
Bob
Robert Connors
President, Roland Park Civic League
Roland Park Community Position on the Cycle Track
ROLAND PARK COMMUNITY POSITION ON THE CYCLE TRACK
“Restore curbside parking with wider, safer bike lanes immediately and completely on Roland Avenue, while continuing to partner with the City to achieve a “complete street” design that is safer for everyone.”
(Handout distributed by RPCL at April 12th BCDoT Public Meeting)
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