Marks Plans Downzoning for City-Owned Golf Course

Citing a distrust of Baltimore City officials, County Councilman David Marks announced another planned downzoning of city-owned property in his district.

On Tuesday, Marks announced his support for downzoning 44 acres west of Loch Raven Boulevard and just north of the Baltimore City line. All space covered by Marks' request are currently zoned to allow 16 residential units per acre. 

Most of that space—37 acres—belongs to Baltimore City as part of Mount Pleasant Golf Course. It will be downzoned to the open space zoning allowed under a bill sponsored by Marks and Councilman Tom Quirk earlier this year.

The remaining seven acres, located west of the course, are privately owned—Marks will seek to downzone it to one residential unit per acre.

"The zoning has to reflect the current use," Marks said. "There is no reason why that property should be zoned as aprtments and townhouses."

In June, two other city-owned properties in Towson would be slated for downzoning. Marks, frustrated with the city over how it handled at Loch Raven Reservoir, wants controls in place should the city ever want to sell to a developer. The 37 acres, Marks said, could support up to 700 homes and overwhelm area infrastructure.

"I've tried working and talking to the city on a number of other issues ... and they really haven't been willing to talk, so I think that's really relevant to what we're trying to do, because if the land is ever developed, they will have to talk to us," he said Tuesday.

Marks said the city and property owners were notified when the zoning issues were submitted last fall. But Marks said the city never contacted him about it.

A city spokesman did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment Tuesday morning.

The County Council has the final say on zoning decisions in the county's quadrennial Comprehensive Zoning Map Process. Votes on all zoning issues are planned for late August.

North Baltimore Patch editor Adam Bednar contributed to this report.