September 5, 2008
Talk it over
Our view: Roland Park residents, care provider must work together
Roland Park residents are distressed by the prospect that
their neighbor, the Baltimore
Country Club, may sell 17 prime
acres of open space in the community
to a company that wants
to build an assisted-living facility on the
property. If the sale goes through, the
property would have to be rezoned and
the battle would shift as city officials try
to balance the benefits of preserving the
city's green spaces against the long-term
need for more housing tailored to the
elderly as the population ages.
Those goals need not be contradictory if
community residents and the Keswick
Multi-Care Center, which has offered
$12.5 million for the property, are willing
to work together. But so far, it appears
neither side has found an effective way
of talking to the other, and as a result,
both have missed opportunities to avoid
a confrontation that now seems based as
much on emotion as on the issues.
Residents say development would change
the neighborhood's character and deprive
them of open space they've enjoyed for decades. They say BCC should have kept them
informed and given them a chance to buy
the land. BCC says it tried to do both, but
that's seriously in question.
Given that BCC members will vote on
the sale in less than two weeks, it's a
waste of time focusing on who's to blame
for past mistakes. Both sides would do
better to seek common ground now than
entrust their fates to a zoning battle --
politicians are already siding with residents
-- or the uncertain hope of state
buyout money. Many residents recall
sledding on the hill above Falls Road.
Can't Keswick reserve a place for that tradition among the seven acres it says it will preserve? The dispute doesn't need to be a zero-sum game. Open space and housing for the elderly both benefit the city. What's needed is to turn down the volume so the two sides can hear each other. Then they might be able to find their way out of their respective corners.
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