Snarky Towson residents are using a Web site to commiserate over the expansion of a Baltimore County private school ? an expansion that includes a massive white tent that houses tennis courts ? that is becoming what they call a neighborhood terror.
Residents say the “uncontrolled growth” of the Baltimore Lutheran School off Concordia Drive in Towson is affecting their property values and their safety. The site contains photos of unkempt trailers and sheds, complaints about school-related traffic and jokes targeting school headmaster Randy Gast.
And resident Ross Memphis is distributing signs demanding the school take down the 54-foot high, 27,000-square-foot “circus tent.”
“This monstrosity came up out of nowhere,” said Memphis, who added that he has chased cars and students changing their clothes off his lawn. “It?s been nuts, just nuts. They?ve basically been terrorizing us.”
The school?s most recent additions include the tennis canopy ? the same tent used by the now-closed Bohager?s night club ? and a state-of-the-art synthetic turf field. Plans for an 800-seat worship and fine arts center are under way.
Neighbors blame Gast, the school?s former athletic director, for what they call mismanaged growth. They also say the county didn?t notify them of the school?s request to build a structure at least 4 feet higher than normally allowed and to rent its sports fields to outside organizations, generating traffic from all over the county.
Gast did not respond to several attempts by The Examiner to reach him for this article. But Don Rascoe, deputy director of the county?s permits and development management department, said the county approved a request for a tennis “canopy” in June 2004.
Nonresidential structures in residential zones use a different calculation for maximum height ? in this case, Rascoe said, 45 degrees from the property line. The school?s request was posted on the county?s Web site, he said, and no one showed up for a development review hearing prior to the permit approval.
He also said the school is also allowed to rent its fields to other organizations. “Schools have summer camps, lacrosse camps and craft camps,” he said. “It?s not a Wal-Mart where they are going to be selling bed linens.”
Web site coordinator Craig Kenney said its popularity and content grew exponentially since its birth three weeks ago and shows what the Internet can do to bring a matter to the public?s attention.
