Roland Park leaders have reached an accord with Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke for an expansion of the neighborhood's gray stone library and a redesign of the surrounding streetscape in the heart of the North Baltimore community.

"We agreed to be a partner in this specific project," Schmoke said Saturday through spokesman Clinton R. Coleman. "Our commitment was for over a two-year period. The specific financial details have not been worked out yet."

The agreement with the city was the result of an effort that started in October, when more than 200 residents met and agreed they wanted to find a way to keep the library from closing.

"There was a tremendous groundswell of feeling in the community," said Susan M. Newhouse, who chairs the library committee of the Roland Park Civic League, the area's community association.

"If we didn't do something, we would lose it," Newhouse said, referring to a need to expand the library to meet new minimum size requirements for buildings in the Enoch Pratt Free Library system.

Expanding and improving the library, which will include purchasing computers, furniture and books, is estimated by civic league officials to cost about $1 million. The group has committed to raise as much as $250,000, and members are counting on the city to pay the rest.

Community leaders would like to begin work soon and have the expansion completed by the end of the year, but no timetable has been set, Newhouse said.

Under the plan, the Roland Park library building, which opened in 1924, would double in size to about 8,000 square feet, with an addition constructed on the north side of the structure, Newhouse said.

The collaboration with the city to preserve the old library contrasts sharply with the bitter protest and legal battle waged by Charles Village residents over a proposal to close their neighborhood library in 1997. The city closed that 100-year-old library.

Since the fall, support for a "town center" revitalization project has gained momentum because the block -- the 5100 block of Roland Ave. -- is the main gathering place in Roland Park.

Under the civic league's plan -- with the library as the centerpiece -- the sidewalks and street would be spruced up, curbing replaced and trees planted on the grass median.

Pub Date: 3/29/99