Baltimore Development News

[PeterSmith]

Originally Posted by 30 Floors Up

Club’s Plan to Sell Land Shatters a Baltimore Neighborhood’s Serenity
New York Times
By IAN URBINA
Published: August 19, 2008

...

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.

...

Are there any suburbs grander than Roland Park?

As much as it pains me to see Roland Parkers invest so much effort into such a relatively menial issue, I do agree that the senior center is a bad idea in that location, if only because there are a million better locations for it. Why tear up more green space?

[mkroopn]

Originally Posted by PeterSmith

Are there any suburbs grander than Roland Park?

As much as it pains me to see Roland Parkers invest so much effort into such a relatively menial issue, I do agree that the senior center is a bad idea in that location, if only because there are a million better locations for it. Why tear up more green space?

Why did this story make the New York Times?

[PeterSmith]

Ha! I didn't even notice it was the NYT.

Money talks though. This issue is important to rich Roland Parkers so it must be important to everyone, right? I just got back from the Beijing Olympics and it's all anyone can talk about over there. They're shouting in the streets. "Keep the Park in Rorand Park!"

[30 Floors Up]

Originally Posted by mkroopn

Why did this story make the New York Times?

THREE REASONS:

1. Blue Bloods
2. Wealth
3. The Olmstead Connection

Originally Posted by PeterSmith

Are there any suburbs grander than Roland Park?

SOME GRANDER SUBURBS:

1. Gibson Island
2. Greenspring Valley
3. Worthington Valley
4. Marriottsville
5. Caves Valley
6. Annapolis Waterfront

A funny read: http://www.urbandictionary.com/defin...Baltimore+Prep

5. Polo is the only thing to wear (Abercrombie and American Eagle are trashy and fake by real Baltimore standards)
6. Lacrosse is life and the MIAA is the best in the country with lax games drawing hundreds of people and the MIAA championship drawing 1000s
7. Kids could drink from their first days in high school and we are good at driving drunk LOL

[MarkR01]

There's richer suburbs, of course, but grander? By grander, I think they mean "historical", "aristocratic" almost, new buildings lower the grandness of an area

[Huck]

Originally Posted by MarkR01

There's richer suburbs, of course, but grander? By grander, I think they mean "historical", "aristocratic" almost, new buildings lower the grandness of an area

Having taught at a school in Marriottsville for 8 years, I can't tell you it ain't grand. Nice kids, good people, McMansions, nice, but not grand.

[PeterSmith]

Hey Masons, how come you're not on the Brazilian Forumers banner????

[vivo]

Originally Posted by Huck

Having taught at a school in Marriottsville for 8 years, I can't tell you it ain't grand. Nice kids, good people, McMansions, nice, but not grand.

yeah I was going to say Marriottsville. lol.

let's see grander than Roland Park , guesses:

Stevenson
some places north of hunt valley (besides areas of phoenix?) , although not sure if any of these are big enough to qualify
- any places in hoco?
- Davidsonville? (if u can count that)

btw what are the demos of rp(income,pop)

[vivo]

lol some more gems from the bmore prep entry in urban dictionary:

- As students and graduates of the Baltimore Prep schools we are the richest, best looking, and most athletic kids than any other people in the country. I have some news for you, we are better than you, and we know it, and we act it. So get used to it. The truth hurts. If you do not conform to what we like, we will let you know it and proceed to make fun of you. Get used to it and accept it, that is just the way it is.

[scando]

Originally Posted by 30 Floors Up

Club’s Plan to Sell Land Shatters a Baltimore Neighborhood’s Serenity
New York Times
By IAN URBINA
Published: August 19, 2008

BALTIMORE — One of the oldest planned communities in the country, Roland Park is a bucolic place of sloping greenery, towering oaks and cedar-shingled homes tucked ever so genteelly into the north side of this city.

But things have not been going quite as planned here lately, and 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. .....

For God's sake, just how much disturbance do you get from a bunch of rich, old people? Does the ground shake when they stir the martinis? Do they drive noisy choppers? Disruptive badmitton? Full contact croquet? Ugghh.

[House3780]

Its not about disturbances. Its about preserving the landscape and keeping the area as green as possible and most definitely its about being against density. You've never once heard anyone mention a complaints about the people moving in. Just about all the protestors signs that you will see say Keep Roland Park Green.

I usually harp on people fighting about their views, but I would actually take the neighborhoods side on this one. This development seems out of character for roland park and North Baltimore. Seems too big.

Maybe I got a double standard, but I do look at North Baltimore differently than the rest of the city. Usually I'll say, you live in the city so expect changing views, high rises, and density. But North Baltimore has a suburban character which I wouldnt mind being preserved. Keep in mind also that North Baltimore was a suburb at first till the city annexed it up.

[Hood]

Plus the development will be owned by a non profit and therfore will be exempt from re taxes. Right now the club pays taxes. It acutally hurts the city tax base to give them the zoning change. They should force the sr. housing to enter into a ground lease arrangement with the club so the club still has to pay re taxes.

[DrzBrooklynChulo90]

Any idea whats going on with Westport.I had a source tell me that there has been demolition going on in the area for Trump and knowing him, I wouldn't be surprised if he has a 50+ story skyscraper planned for that area.Does anybody know anything about this?

[30 Floors Up]

By Marriottsville, I meant the area west of Columbia and south of I-70 n Howard County where mansion after mansion has been constructed over the past 40 years. It is now one of the wealthiest areas in Maryland when measured by per capita income and by house prices. Marriottsville is the name I know it by, but it may be called something else. Clarksville?

[StevenW]

Originally Posted by DrzBrooklynChulo90

Any idea whats going on with Westport.I had a source tell me that there has been demolition going on in the area for Trump and knowing him, I wouldn't be surprised if he has a 50+ story skyscraper planned for that area.Does anybody know anything about this?

Trump? Really? That would be great.

[rockin'.baltimorean]

Originally Posted by PeterSmith

Hey Masons, how come you're not on the Brazilian Forumers banner????

i dunno' why. is there something i was supposed to register for? your guest is as good as mine...

[rockin'.baltimorean]

Originally Posted by DrzBrooklynChulo90

Any idea whats going on with Westport.I had a source tell me that there has been demolition going on in the area for Trump and knowing him, I wouldn't be surprised if he has a 50+ story skyscraper planned for that area.Does anybody know anything about this?

i wish whoever told you this could join SSC as soon as possible and fill us all in on it.........

[BaltoSteve]

UMMS hospital pulls plug on $357M patient tower downtown
Baltimore Business Journal - by Sue Schultz Staff
Center Controversy
The proposed UM ambulatory care center is being scrapped.
View Larger

The University of Maryland Medical Center has scuttled plans to build a $357 million hospital tower on its downtown campus, two years after construction on the project began.

The proposed eight-story ambulatory care center, which stalled last year, was part of a controversial tug of war between the University of Maryland Medical System, which owns the hospital, and the University of Maryland School of Medicine, which would staff the new facility with its doctors.

Tensions boiled over at a UMMS board meeting Aug. 20 and led to the resignations of John Erickson, chairman of the UMMS board, and nine other members of the 27-member board.

The rift between UMMS and the medical school killed the deal, board members said after the tumultuous meeting.

UMMS officials withdrew plans to build the medical facility Aug. 18, according to Pam Barclay, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Health Care Commission, the state agency that regulates hospital construction projects. The state approved the project in September 2006. It was scheduled to open in 2011.

The project, located at the corner of Lombard and Greene streets on downtown's west side, was hailed as a massive 500,000-square-foot facility that would pull together outpatient services and diagnostic testing centers spread throughout 13 buildings on the hospital's sprawling medical campus. The project, which is supposed to be another piece of the continued redevelopment of downtown's west side, is currently only a 500-car parking garage.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore sold the land in 2006 to UMMS to develop the project. The property, at 500 W. Lombard St., used to be the location of administrative offices for UMB.

Barclay said state regulators have asked UMMS officials to account for how much they have spent on the project. The state planned to contribute about $62.5 million to the project, according to the state's budget for the fiscal year that began July 1.

UMMS officials put the project on hold last year, blaming rising construction costs and a reduction to increases in rates that the state's hospitals can charge patients and insurers.

But board members said opposition to the project by Dr. Albert Reece, dean of the medical school, and members of the state's Board of Regents, and the departure of Erickson and UMMS CEO Edmond Notebaert on Aug. 1 led to its demise. Erickson and Notebaert were key backers of the project.

"I doubt the project will be able to be revived," Erickson, CEO of Catonsville-based Erickson Retirement Communities, said after walking out of his final UMMS board meeting Aug. 20.

House Speaker Michael E. Busch, an Anne Arundel County Democrat and interim chairman of the UMMS board, said doctors feared the proposed ambulatory care center could jeopardize the reimbursements they receive in private practice from patients and insurers.

Instead of building the ambulatory care center, Busch said the site may serve another purpose for UMB or UMMS. But he said the board hasn't reviewed any other plans for the site.

The ambulatory care center was the subject of a lawsuit filed in July 2007. Arnold Jolivet, head of the Maryland Minority Contractors Association, sued UMMS for discrimination in awarding contracts for the construction of the project. The discrimination claim was later dropped, but Jolivet is still seeking documents detailing the bidding process on the project.

A judge said in March that UMMS is subject to state freedom of information laws but has not made a final ruling.

[waj0527]

so for now we have a hole in the middle of our downtown???

Great.

[Infoman]

Well it still can be used for another tower, that could rise faster on the brite side right, plus who want's a 8 level building when we can go for at least 12. (just trying to be postive)