Philanthropist Robert E. Meyerhoff built seven galleries in a house with windows overlooking grazing horses on his northern Baltimore County farm to display a postmodern art collection that experts call one of the world's finest.

Now he wants to give the public a chance to see the works by artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and Jasper Johns by opening a museum in the rural setting.

"We don't want it in storage," Meyerhoff said of the collection, after a Baltimore County Council meeting yesterday during which lawmakers discussed a measure that would allow the museum to operate in an area designated for agriculture.

But some residents told council members that they aren't sure they want the extra traffic the museum would bring or the precedent of permitting the land to be used for something other than farming. The home - on the 250-acre Fitzhugh Farm, north of Loch Raven Reservoir on Blenheim Road - would be open to the public after Meyerhoff's death, according to Robert A. Hoffman, one of his attorneys.

Meyerhoff, 84, and his wife, Jane, who died in 2004, collected about 125 pieces of post-World War II art. The couple had already announced their intention to give the collection to the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

The collection is valued at "well over" $300 million, Hoffman said.

"I think it's wonderful those works will still be available in Maryland for the people of this region to enjoy," said Doreen Bolger, director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, who has urged county lawmakers to pass the legislation allowing the Meyerhoff estate to be designated as a museum.

"The collection is unparalleled in its representation of the second half of the 20th century," Bolger said. "Any museum in America would be thrilled to have that collection because it is so important, and any museum would be thrilled to have it in their neighborhood."

The National Gallery of Art only has enough space to show several dozen of the paintings at any one time, said Molly Donovan, associate curator at the gallery, who described the collection as the "finest collection of this type in the world."

The Fitzhugh Farm museum would be operated by the National Gallery.

"This is a gift to the nation from the Meyerhoffs," said Molly Donovan, associate curator at the gallery.

"The role of the National Gallery of Art will be to care for the art and produce the programming," said Deborah Ziska, chief press officer for the National Gallery. "The Meyerhoff's house has state-of-the-art galleries and facilities to display and store the works of art. It's outstanding and quite beautiful."

The council is scheduled to vote on the measure during Monday's session. Six of the seven council members have signed on as co-sponsors of the measure, with all but Councilman T. Bryan McIntire in support of the museum designation.

"I represent the people," McIntire said after yesterday's work session at which several residents from community associations spoke against the measure.

Given the importance of the art, "I can see why it would be tempting," said Teresa Moore, executive director of the Valleys Planning Council, a preservation group opposed to the museum designation.

But "the rural conservation zone was designed purposely to protect agricultural areas," Moore said. "If you start chipping away at that, it can be a problem."

In response to community concerns, Kevin Kamenetz, a Pikesville-Ruxton Democrat and council president, introduced amendments yesterday to limit the hours and use of the farm as a museum, suggesting, for example, that the hours be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., that the facility only be open to the public six days a week and that the number of parking spaces be capped at 65.

The proposed legislation also would limit the number of patrons allowed at any time to 125.

"We're making an accommodation for an extremely unique circumstance," said Kamenetz, adding that the collection is being made available without any taxpayer expense.

Meyerhoff attended yesterday's council work session but did not address the lawmakers.

Several of the council members went to Fitzhugh Farm in December to view the collection. "The works are quite impressive," Kamenetz said.

"How often can you see definitive works by five American painters that defined a particular period in American art history? It's an amazing collection," said Costas Grimaldis, owner of C. Grimaldis Gallery in Baltimore.

The National Gallery intends to permanently display about 45 pieces from the Meyerhoff collection in the Washington museum, and will rotate the works from the collection at the farm, Donovan said.

"To house the collection, the Meyerhoffs designed and constructed onto their home a series of gallery spaces where the works are displayed," Earl A. Powell III, director of the National Gallery of Art wrote in a letter to council members.

It is in those gallery spaces "that the collection truly comes alive," Powell wrote. "Set against views from the gallery windows overlooking horses grazing in the pastures and the surrounding countryside, the viewer understands that the collection, while important, was just one part of the Meyerhoffs' multi-faced lives."

Meyerhoff, a former homebuilder and developer, lives at the sprawling estate, which is home to a thoroughbred horse farm.

Horses graze in the pastures, lined by a hedge, but the main house is not visible from the two-lane road off Jarrettsville Pike. Several light-yellow buildings dot the property.

The couple built the series of galleries to house their art collection. A 1996 article in The Sun described it as "a private Museum of Modern Art."

The couple even named their horses after artists and art terminology. Broad Brush, one of the family's most successful thoroughbreds, earned $2.6 million in three years of racing.

In 1987, the Meyerhoffs announced that they would eventually donate their entire collection to the National Gallery of Art.

"It never charges, not for special exhibitions, not for anything," Jane Meyerhoff said of the Washington museum in the 1996 Sun article. "It is closed only two days a year. It has a 'no deaccessions' policy, which means that the institution never sells its art."

The National Gallery of Art featured the couple's entire collection in 1996.

In his letter to county lawmakers, Powell wrote: "By passing this legislation, the council will ensure that this artistic treasure remains in Baltimore County at its rightful home on Fitzhugh Farm."

laura.barnhardt@baltsun.com glenn.mcnatt@baltsun.com

Sun reporters Arin Gencer and Jennifer McMenamin contributed to this article.