Residents Fuming As Housing Threatens Park

A master-planned community in Baltimore is up in arms over plans to replace the community's iconic country club parkspace with a senior housing center.

1 minute read

August 21, 2008, 5:00 AM PDT

By Nate Berg


"The red, white and blue bunting that drapes the porches here has given way recently to bed sheets hung on front fences and scrawled with protest slogans. And local teenagers have begun trading their pastel Polos for white T-shirts that read, 'Keep the Park in Roland Park.'"

"The unrest stems from plans to build an expansive new home for the elderly in the middle of this neighborhood's 30-acre country club."

"Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., son of the mastermind behind Central Park in New York City, the neighborhood was created and later preserved to interrupt this city's concrete sprawl with an oasis of big sky and lush fields."

"Residents say the proposed development is a betrayal of that vision, and the project has sparked a family feud of sorts, pitting those who stayed in the neighborhood against those who run the country club but have moved to grander suburbs."

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