City council members and residents have expressed concern with the Maryland Department of Transportation's consideration of closing the stop at the city's historic station and, at the request of Laurel Park's owners, creating a commuter train stop closer to the racetrack.
According to Laurel City Council President Ed Ricks, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad built the station at 22 Main St. that has been serving Laurel for 184 years. MARC later opened the station for use when the Camden Line was established.
"My objective is plain and simple and that is to prevent the trains from stopping to serve citizens of Laurel," Ricks said. "I'm looking at the economic end and historical end of it and the way that we place that train as a focal point of Main Street. For them to come along and try to change this, we're going to put as much pressure on the state as they put on the state."
Ricks will hold a press conference at the Laurel station at 11 a.m. Wednesday, alongside other state and local officials to announce a grass roots effort to save the station.
The owners of Laurel Park asked the transportation department to move the MARC station to a location in Howard County by its facility about six weeks ago, according to the state agency. There's currently a flag MARC station at Laurel Park with limited service.
A work group met June 19 to study the transportation needs in the area around the Laurel station and consider the potential move. But Laurel city officials say closing the existing MARC station would hurt local businesses.
"It would take a part of our economic development plan and put a big hole in it," Ricks said.
The closure would also limit transportation options for people moving into new apartments by the current station, such as C Street Flats, said Jack Brock, director of the city's Department of Community Planning and Business Services.
Sal Sinatra, vice president and general manager of the Maryland Jockey Club, suggested moving Preakness from Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course to Laurel Park last month. Sinatra said he had no timetable for making a decision.
Erin Henson, a spokeswoman for the Department of Transportation, said creation of the study group was not motivated by Sinatra's actions.
The study group is reviewing major developments in the area to understand needs of the growing region, Henson said.
"We want to make sure the existing station or new station will meet the demand of increased residents and businesses," she said.
Residents like Laurel Councilman Michael Leszcz, who uses the commuter train, said he's opposed to the developers' discussions.
"For 35 years, [the city] had been working on Main Street, most recently with a large influx of money to regenerate Main Street with the train station as the focus," Leszcz said. "You've had families riding that train for the last century."
According to Leszcz, roughly 1,000 people ride the train every day, starting at 5:40 a.m., and approximately 861 cars are parked in the commuter lot.
"This has always been a highly used train station, so when some Canadian developer is lobbying to move it to what they want to develop up on the parking lot there, I have a problem with that," he said.
Instead, Leszcz suggests the state rebuild the Patuxent River pedestrian bridge that once led to the racetrack before it was destroyed by Hurricane Agnes in the 1972.
"What people would do is get off the train in Laurel, they would walk down to the river, across the bridge and onto the fairgrounds," Leszcz said. "That's how they got to the track. They didn't have a stop at the track."
Leszcz said he will continue to work against the developers to save the Laurel train stop.
"The council members in Laurel will do everything they can to keep that train station there," he said. "It may end up hurting the Canadians, but the gloves are off. They took the gloves off."
Ricks said the city will also fight to keep the station on Main Street.
"This has been a major player in our economic development and urban renewal of the city," Ricks said. "We're hearing from people all the way up from Columbia that come down here and use the station. I'm representing my family and the families who have gone before me in making sure we don't lose that history."
Baltimore Sun Media Group reporter Cindy Huang contributed to this story.