No cost estimates
It may renovate the newer buildings and use them for classrooms. There's no price tag yet, and the school would likely seek state and federal assistance for environmental work.
"This is the only plan out there, but it is a great one," Zirkin said. "All of a sudden, Owings Mills could become a college town. The university could create a heart here for this community and take what has been a major problem and turn it into a community resource."
Glenda G. LeGendre, a spokeswoman for Stevenson, said the university is "very interested" in using about 150 acres of the property, including setting aside some of the land as open space.
In a letter to state officials, James J. Angelone, president of the Greater Greenspring Association, wrote that the university's proposal "is by far the best solution proposed for this site."
Rosewood once housed more than 3,000 people, most of them severely retarded and completely dependent on others for their care. The long wards and echoing hallways were often their home for life, but the conditions and care were frequently judged to be substandard.
'Badly neglected'
Over the course of decades, residents drowned in bathtubs when left unattended or froze to death after wandering out into the snow.
"It is a great thing for Maryland that this institution is closed," said Nancy Pineles, an attorney with the Maryland Disability Law Center, a watchdog group that promotes the civil rights of people with disabilities.
"It was a badly neglected facility that didn't serve any purpose any more."
In 2007, the law center called for state officials to shut down what it called "this flawed, outmoded institution," and noted findings by the state Office of Health Care Quality that conditions at Rosewood posed "immediate jeopardy to the health and safety of residents."
The 180-page survey noted abuses that included treating a deaf patient "with restraints to control his behavior" rather than a staff member skilled in American Sign Language, and found "sustained isolation of individuals with intellectual disabilities in rooms with no personal effects [that] shocks the conscience."
In December 2000, a resident died while being restrained, face-down on a floor, by Rosewood staff members "because he didn't want to go to the gym," said Pineles. She said the care quality office conducted a "limited investigation" but found no deficiencies and required no plan of correction.
