Traffic experts hired to improve pedestrian access in Towson said they support Baltimore County administrators? plans to convert an abandoned gas station at a congested intersection into a park ? but only for the short term.
After blasting owner Shell Oil Co. for refusing to clean the contaminated site, County Executive Jim Smith in August announced plans to condemn the station and build a public park “in perpetuity.” Dubious residents at the time questioned if the narrow parcel just off the busy Towson traffic circle was appropriate for a park and transportation consultants echoed the same concerns during a study last week.
“It?s fine for the short term to use that parcel as a park,” said Stuart Sirota, founding principal of TND Planning Group, who was hired to lead Towson?s “walkability charette” last week. “But that property would be better utilized as a building with ground-floor shops. It would be part of the downtown energy.”
Sirota acknowledged a park is a better alternative to the existing empty lot, but said the consultants? final report will likely recommend combining the parcel with other adjacent lots for development.
Smith hopes to approach the County Council next month with a contract for the property, spokesman Don Mohler said, and officials are already working on the park?s design. Whether or not Sirota?s plans jive with Smith?s is unclear.
“We are looking forward to seeing all of the recommendations of the consultant,” Mohler said in an e-mail. “We do appreciate the desire to put feet on the street in Towson.”
The county maintains Shell Oil contaminated soil beneath the lot?s surface and has tried to buy the site from Shell for more than two years, officials said. At one point, the county offered $500,000, but a judge determines fair market value in government seizures.
Towson?s Chamber of Commerce also offered to purchase the property to build a new welcome center, said chamber President Todd Huff, who agrees the site is unfit for a park.
“I wish to see some sort of development occur on that piece of property,” Huff said. “Development is not a park.”
