'Green Ravine,' Prospect Hill Among Marks' Rezoning Plans

County Councilman David Marks released more downzoning proposals for Towson properties on Monday morning.

The 6.2-acre Prospect Hill Cemetery and 2.5 acres of county-owned green space in Southland Hills will be downzoned to open space and one residential unit per acre, respectively.

"These decisions will protect a historic cemetery that serves as largest piece of open space in Downtown Towson, as well as an important green space in the Southland Hills community," Marks said in an email.

The County Council will vote on final rezoning decisions later this month. 

The Southland Hills parcel includes the Southland Hills Park and the so-called "green ravine" next to the site of what the Towson Swim Club. Marks first submitted this area as a early in the county's quadrennial rezoning process. Currently zoned at 5.5 residential units per acre, the original swim club plans leveling the ravine to use as green space.

The cemetery had been raised as an issue by former planning board member Robert Latshaw, who proposed rezoning several other York Road and downtown Towson properties as BM-CT, a town-center designation that would allow high-rises and other large scale forms of development. The cemetery is currently zoned for retail use.

The cemetery had requested the downzoning to open space, Marks said in an email. According to a letter he received from Carolyn Parker Knott, the cemetery's board president, the zoning change would help maintain the six-acre cemetery for generations to come.

"In addition, we hope that our participation in this district will encourage other heritage cemeteries to do likewise," Knott wrote.