Baltimore City Council
File #: 15-0207R    Version: 0 Name: Informational Hearing - Park and Open Space Policies
Type: City Council Resolution Status: Adopted
File created: 3/9/2015 In control: Recreation and Parks Committee
On agenda: Final action: 7/20/2015
Enactment #:
Title: Informational Hearing - Park and Open Space Policies FOR the purpose of inviting all interested government officials, institutional leaders, and citizens to appear before it to discuss the status of all activities and planning underway in the city that might contribute to either maintaining the current open space estate or improving and expanding upon it, and to raise issues and questions about a governance paradigm for public open space that will ensure that Baltimore has a great and expansive system of public open spaces for the 21st century, one that is of no less vision and grandeur than that which the city had at the beginning of the last century.
Sponsors: Carl Stokes, Eric T. Costello, Mary Pat Clarke, Brandon M. Scott, James B. Kraft, Bill Henry, President Young, Helen L. Holton, Sharon Green Middleton, Warren Branch, Rochelle Spector, Edward Reisinger, Nick Mosby, William "Pete" Welch, Robert Curran
Indexes: Informational Hearing, Open Space, Parks, Policy
Attachments: 1. 15-0207R~1st Reader, 2. Rec and Parks 15-0207R, 3. Planning 15-0207R, 4. Finance 15-0207R, 5. cb15-0207R~2nd Reader
* WARNING: THIS IS AN UNOFFICIAL, INTRODUCTORY COPY OF THE BILL.
THE OFFICIAL COPY CONSIDERED BY THE CITY COUNCIL IS THE FIRST READER COPY.
      INTRODUCTORY*
 
      CITY OF BALTIMORE
      COUNCIL BILL           R
      (Resolution)
                                                                                                                                                           
Introduced by: Councilmember Stokes
                                                                                                                                                           
 
 
      A RESOLUTION ENTITLED
 
A COUNCIL RESOLUTION concerning
title
Informational Hearing - Park and Open Space Policies
FOR the purpose of inviting all interested government officials, institutional leaders, and citizens to appear before it to discuss the status of all activities and planning underway in the city that might contribute to either maintaining the current open space estate or improving and expanding upon it, and to raise issues and questions about a governance paradigm for public open space that will ensure that Baltimore has a great and expansive system of public open spaces for the 21st century, one that is of no less vision and grandeur than that which the city had at the beginning of the last century.
body
 
Recitals
  
   All of the current park estate, approximately 6000 acres, is proposed for designation as open space inside the new Transform Baltimore code, awaiting formal approval by the Baltimore City Council.  Several questions of policy, procedure and regulatory practice accompany this designation, including how public open spaces will be created, managed, maintained, secured � both for its assets and patrons � and prevented from being undermined by conversion to incompatible uses or neglect.
 
  Realizing a goal of creating and maintaining a great system of common and open spaces for Baltimore will be require a complete, thorough, and accurate assessment of the status of open spaces in the city as a foundation for a citywide open space plan and for the governance of a system of open spaces.  An update of this sort is well overdue since the most recent version of such a plan was completed and adopted in 1968.
 
  This task is especially daunting because the city is a fully developed jurisdiction, and schemes and plans for public open spaces must be realized as a part of the city�s redevelopment processes.
 
   Any new comprehensive open space plan must have universal interest and participation from the citizenry because these spaces are great democratic enclaves, large and small, which should be inviting and accessible to all, and fairly and equitably distributed throughout the city.  It must restore the public lands of the Olmsted legacy, and create a whole new tranche of public spaces to serve Baltimore�s citizens.
 
 
 
   NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE, That the Council invites all interested government officials, institutional leaders, and citizens to appear before it to discuss the status of all activities and planning underway in the city that might contribute to either maintaining the current open space estate or improving and expanding upon it, and to raise issues and questions about a governance paradigm for public open space that will ensure that Baltimore has a great and expansive system of public open spaces for the 21st century, one that is of no less vision and grandeur than that which the city had at the beginning of the last century.
 
  AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution be sent to the Mayor, the Director of Recreation & Parks, the Director of Planning, the Director of Finance , the President & CEO of the Parks & People Foundation, and the Mayor�s Legislative Liaison to the City Council.
 
 
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