Renovations to Robert E. Lee Park
Thank you to neighbor Scott Thompson for providing the following update on the planned renovations of Robert E. Lee park:
I attended a meeting last night organized by Baltimore County Parks and Rec on the plans for the park. As you may already know, the park belongs to Baltimore City, but has been leased to the County for 100+ years. The county is beginning a $6 million renovation of the park (about half of the money comes from the State). There are four main projects in the current phase. First, the old bridge has been demolished and construction of a replacement will begin in March 2010. Second, a walkway will be extended into the park directly from the Falls Road light rail station. Third, the road into the park from Falls Rd. and the parking areas on the south side of the reservoir, beyond the old pump building, will be repaired. No parking will be allowed along the road after the repairs are finished. Finally, within the park itself, the paths will be resurfaced, erosion along the shores will be repaired, and a one acre fenced dog park dog with water access will be made at the far end of the park. There will almost certainly be registration and a fee required for use of the dog park. In addition, there will be crossing guards placed at the point by the light rail bridge where the trail crosses the tracks. There are no plans (or money) at present for any further renovation of the park. The County is in the process of setting up a community panel to help plan for the park’s administration. Much interest was expressed by attendees in getting the Park’s trails connected to the Mt. Washington village end of the new Jones Falls bike trail and ultimately with a southern extension of the North Central Rail Trail, which is apparently being planned. The park will be closed until the repairs are completed (ca. March 2011), although access to the North end of the park from Falls Road will remain open.
I was very excited to read Scott’s report of the meeting and of the renovation plans. Mount Washington residents will certainly benefit from any upgrades made to this park. While it is just outside of our neighborhood, I know that many neighbors enjoy the proximity to this large green space. In particular, I am glad to hear that there are plans for a nearby dog park. I used to enjoy taking dogs to Robert E. Lee, but as I am not comfortable letting my dog off-leash in an open park, I would welcome a safe and fenced place for her to run and swim! As a big fan of the NCR trail as well, I hope that there will one day be an extension of the NRC trail southward to connect with this park.
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Renovation is badly needed and welcomed for this nice park; however, where will visitors park their vehicles? Many visitors have no choice but to park their cars along the side of Falls Road, but this is extremely dangerous and should be prohibited. Are there plans for building a parking lot? Environmentally unfriendly as that is? Or will vistors be encouraged (allowed) to park in the Falls Road Light Rail station and walk on the connecting path into the park?
Word is that dogs will no longer be allowed on the trails in the northern part of the park, thanks to this piddley one-acre, members-only dog park. On any given day, it is easy to find at least five people hiking the trails with their dogs off leash. (At three miles round-trip, the main trail is great exercise both for humans and (especially) animals who have a tendency to run two or three times the distance that their humans do.) I have been walking my dogs there for upwards of six years and have never seen any issues with our canine friends, other than the occasional plastic bag of dog poop. Now, the County is going to have to spend money on policing the trails to hand out citations to people who are really causing no trouble to anyone. While it’s nice that they fixed the bridge, this is clearly just another example of local politicians trying to fix things that are not broken.