Master Plan

The Downtown Partnership of Baltimore has selected a group led by Mahan Rykiel Associates, a Baltimore-based landscape architecture and urban design firm, to develop a "Downtown Open Space Master Plan" for the city. The partnership sought proposals this year for a plan that incorporates "the preservation and enhancement" of existing parks and open spaces and recommends ways to create new public spaces in downtown Baltimore. The budget for the design work is $60,000 to $70,000. The study area is bounded by Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard to the west, President Street and Jones Falls Expressway to the east, Centre Street on the north and Pratt and Conway Streets on the south.

An affiliate of the National Aquarium plans to start an environmental cleanup of nearly 13 acres along the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River this fall and open a public park late next year, but has put on hold more elaborate plans to build an animal care facility. The aquarium's Center for Aquatic Life and Conservation Inc. said today it is seeking a contractor to clean up its contaminated waterfront property in South Baltimore, along Baltimore's lesser-known harbor. The two-phase project will create a park with walking trails, some of which will connect to the Gwynns Falls trail, a 100-foot fishing pier and some wooded areas, said Tim Pula, the aquarium's senior director of capital planning.

It has sometimes been referred to as a biotech center or "biopark," as if it's only for scientists. Its largest building is filled with laboratory space. But it's more accurate to describe the 88-acre redevelopment area north of the Johns Hopkins Hospital as a full-fledged, mixed-use neighborhood. Besides laboratory space for life sciences companies and others that want to be near Hopkins, this East Baltimore community, informally called the New Eastside, has been designed to contain townhouses, condominiums, rental apartments, stores, a school, churches, professional services, parking and open space - everything found in older urban neighborhoods.

When the Howard County Council begins taking public testimony Monday night on a bill that would create a new way to redevelop Columbia village centers, a somewhat-reluctant Columbia Association board of directors will be ready. After a nearly five-hour, two-part meeting that lasted until 11:45 p.m. Tuesday, the board adopted a slightly altered version of its December position. Still, some expressed concern that the county is rushing things, or that adopting a new redevelopment zoning process would give developers an advantage, while others said the problem is immediate and needs attention now. Columbia resident Joel Broida noted that Kimco, which owns the half-vacant Wilde Lake Village Center and four others, has given up its plan to demolish it in favor of 500 apartments and a retail center.

Land-use plans that officials consider crucial to the future of two Baltimore County communities are likely to be delayed or scaled back until the county Office of Planning completes its mandatory comprehensive master plan. The queue for various community plans, including Middle River and Rosewood in Owings Mills, is growing so long that one Planning Board member suggested last week that the office accept no more requests until the 2010 completion of the master plan. The board delayed action on that recommendation.

Legionnaires' bug at hospital Employees and patients at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson are being warned not to use the water at the hospital after routine tests showed the presence of the bacteria that causes Legionnaires' disease in the hot water supply. Hospital officials said the type of Legionella pneumophila found in the hospital's water is the kind that is less likely to make people sick and that there have been no cases of hospital-acquired Legionella at St. Joseph. Officials said they hope to have the situation remedied by this afternoon.

Baltimore County Council members authorized the creation of a master plan to guide development of a state hospital property in Owings Mills last night, saying they want the document in place before the Rosewood Center is made available for development. The state announced in December 2007 its plans to close the hospital for the severely disabled. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has been relocating the remaining nearly 150 patients to community placements and will shutter the facility July 1. After its review, the state will likely declare as surplus the nearly 225-acre property near Reisterstown Road and begin accepting proposals from the public and private sectors for its use. Rosewood, which opened in 1888, housed nearly 3,700 people at its peak.

When Towson University officials unveil plans for a new campus arena at a community meeting tomorrow, they are likely to find many residents dismayed by the prospect of a 5,000-seat auditorium in their backyards. Officials, planners and architects for the $45 million Towson Center expansion project, which is included in the 10-year master plan for the campus, will present drawings and discuss a timetable - construction is scheduled for later this year - during the session. The proposal includes a new arena and renovations that would make the current arena's gymnasium into practice courts, mostly for basketball and volleyball teams.

Developers of the Uplands, planned as one of the biggest new-home developments in Baltimore in decades, showed a city panel yesterday their vision of the economically diverse neighborhood they want to build that would blend suburban and urban elements. Work could start by the end of next year to transform 100 acres of boarded-up apartments near Edmondson Avenue in Southwest Baltimore into a mix of 1,100 apartments, condominiums and single-family attached and detached homes that would be for sale and rent, developers said.

Almost everyone in Columbia agrees that settling on a master plan to guide an energizing makeover of the city's 40-year-old town center is an urgent priority. But some residents are concerned that the wrong plan could do serious harm. The Howard County government should proceed cautiously on this matter. The proposed redevelopment may be the biggest project since Columbia's birth, and its impact will be felt for decades to come. General Growth Properties, which owns the Columbia Mall and much of the land around it, has submitted a proposal to the county to build 1 million square feet of retail space, 4.9 million square feet of office space and 5,500 townhouses and apartments, as well as hotel rooms and cultural amenities.