Upgrades to Robert E. Lee Park

from the Baltimore Sun:

Meeting tonight on Upgrades to Robert E. Lee Park in Baltimore County

The Baltimore County Dept of Recreation and Parks will hold a public meeting at 7 pm Tuesday to discuss improvements to Robert E. Lee Park, a 415-acre property along Lake Roland that the county leases from the city. Topics include replacement of a pedestrian access bridge, which is under way,as well as development of a dog park and picnic areas. The county received $3 million in state funding and has budgeted an additional $3 to address upgrades to the park. The meeting will be held in the cafeteria of Dumbarton Middle School, 300 Dumbarton Road in the Rodgers Forge area. Information: 410-887-3871.

I plan to address bicycle acccess to the park via the Greenspring Branch ROW, Woodbrook Lane, and the Jones Falls Trail, all potential routes for the East Coast Greenway to get from Mt Washington up into the County. The voices of additional cyclists would be welcome.

Greg Hinchliffe

by B' Spokes

Like most people I live a hectic life and who has the time for much exercise? Thanks to xtracycle now I do. By using my bike for daily activities I can get things done and get an hour plus work out in 15 minutes extra of my time, not a bad deal and beats taking the extra time going to the gym. In case you are still having trouble being motivated; the National Center of Disease Control says that inactivity is the #2 killer in the United States just behind smoking. ( http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/bb_nutrition/ ) Get out there and start living life! I can carry home a full shopping cart of groceries, car pool two kids or just get lost in the great outdoors camping for a week. Well I got go, another outing this weekend.
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I was not able to attend this meeting, but we will endeavor to work with the Dept. of Recreation and Parks to ensure better accommodation of bicycling at Robt. E. Lee park and the possible connections with recreational trails. It would be great if Greg could provide a precis of what happened at the meeting. Richard Layman Baltimore County Office of Planning West County Pedestrian and Bicycling Master Planning project
From Greg:

The Lake Roland/RELee Park meeting went well. B County Rec&Parks outlined their plans for the first phase of park improvements, which consist of erosion control, replacement of the bridge from Lakeside Drive to the peninsula (already demolished), creation of a dog park (complete with doggy swimming beach at the north end of the peninsula, and . . .

drum roll . . .

a bikable, ADA-compliant trail (part paved, part "boardwalk") from the Falls Road light rail station to the north end of the new bridge over the Falls. They were quite frank that they were dealing with limited funding (although they have about $6 million for phase one). Both the county personnel and the attending crowd were in support of biking in and through the park, although there was a request for limiting access made by the rare-plants enthusiasts.

I delivered (with considerable ad-libbing) the following comments:

Remarks for public meeting regarding Robert E. Lee Park
November 17, 2009
Baltimore County Recreation and Parks

My name is Greg Hinchliffe. I am a resident of Baltimore City . I am a bicycle and trails advocate and serve as the chairman of the Maryland Committee of East Coast Greenway, a proposed off-road trail from Canada to Key West . Information is available at www.greenway.org. I also work with Ms Sylvia Ramsey at MDOT on the Strategic Trails Implementation Project, now known as Maryland Trails, a Greener Way to Go. This project aims to use Maryland trails for transportation as well as for recreation, by identifying and eliminating “missing links” in our trail network. Information is at www.mdot.state.md.us/Planning/Trails.

I was excited to hear of the arrangement between Baltimore City and the Baltimore County regarding Robert E. Lee Park and look forward to the planned improvements. I would like to address the issue of access to the park, particularly by cyclists, pedestrians and the disabled. Presently, the only way to get to the park is to drive to it via either Lakeside Drive or Hollins Avenue . Neither of these roads are particularly hospitable to those on foot, on a bicycle, or in a wheel chair. That’s the bad news. The good news is that there are three potential routes for human-powered access to the park, which can and should be developed.

The first is the roadbed of Woodbrook Lane , extended, which (along with the paved section of Woodbrook Lane ) would connect the park with Charles Street and the Stevenson/Bellona neighborhoods. The route is already graded (mostly) and publicly owned as part of the watershed property. It is currently in use by hikers, dog walkers, and off-road cyclists. A little attention to the surface and some minor grading would make it a trail which could accommodate road-cycles and wheelchairs.

The second opportunity for improved people-powered access to the park is the former Greenspring Branch of the Northern Central Railroad, which connects the park to the outer Falls Road Corridor. Once again this is in use already by hikers, dog-walkers, and mountain bikers, although I am not sure all of the corridor is in public ownership. Perhaps an easement could be arranged if necessary. Once again, attention to the surface and some minor grading would provide pedestrian/bicycle/wheelchair access to Robert E. Lee Park.

The third avenue of potential access to the park is from the southwest from the city. Although the original plan for Baltimore City ’s Jones Falls Trail had the trail extend all the way to Robert E. Lee Park, recent versions of the plan call for the trail to end at Mount Washington village. I strongly urge that you work with Baltimore City to ensure that the trail connects to the park as originally planned, which would connect the park to the retail/restaurant/transit facilities of the village and to the rest of the Jones Falls Trail.



The development of these three avenues of bicycle/pedestrian/wheelchair access would make the park more available to residents of the city and county alike, while reducing motor vehicle traffic through the surrounding neighborhoods. Additionally, to address my trail interests, it would make Robert E. Lee Park part of a regional transportation and recreation network, rather than an isolated and hidden asset. Opening people-powered access to the park would allow it to be a hiking or biking destination from Rodgers Forge, Towson , or Greenspring and allows the possibility of it being on the route of the East Coast Greenway. Through-access also permits nearby residents to bike-commute using either the Jones Falls Trail or the MTA light rail line, taking cars off the road. Robert E. Lee Park is a gem and deserves to widely enjoyed by the citizens of the county and city alike. I strongly urge you to develop this access to this beautiful park.

Thank you for your attention.


Greg Hinchliffe