Residents riled about JHU plan to remove parking spaces from part of Wyman Park Drive
Changes are part of the San Martin Drive makeover and a child care center to be housed in 10 to 14 temporary modular structures
Above: Segment of Wyman Park Drive that would be narrowed and lose parking spaces as part of Hopkins’ plans to make a new entrance and build a temporary child care center.
Nearby neighbors generally like Johns Hopkins University’s $15 million project to make curvy, park-like San Martin Drive more pedestrian friendly and to add two campus entrance gates.
But one aspect of the project has them up in arms. Street parking – more than 30 spaces – would be eliminated on the segment of Wyman Park Drive between San Martin and Remington Avenue.
The university wants this portion of the street to be inside the new entrance gate there.
“As a public street, this roadway and its parking are really vital assets to the community. Our members are confused. How could Hopkins rightfully do this with a public street,” asked Gabriel Goodenough, executive director of the Wyman Park South Community Association.
Goodenough, speaking with The Brew about the issue, said that local residents were never involved in the design process.
“We, like everyone else, heard news of this construction plan via email in January,” he said, noting that residents are hoping to get more information and to encourage Hopkins and city officials to come up with a different design.
Meeting Tonight
How Hopkins is planning to narrow Wyman Park Drive to make a new entrance gate at its intersection with Remington Avenue. (Johns Hopkins University)
The Baltimore Department of Transportation is holding a public meeting on the project tonight at 6:30 p.m. in the Greenmount School, 501 30th Street.
Goodenough said the community wants to “meet collaboratively” with DOT and Hopkins to come up with a workable solution that takes the community’s needs into account and preserves parking.
“We really are happy they’re beautifying the area, but there has to be a way this can be done without hurting the community,” Goodenough said. “They need to involve us.”
Trailer-Type Modular Buildings
Last month, Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke and area residents met with Hopkins officials at the site, a parking lot at the corner of Remington and Wyman Park Drive, where the school is building a $2 million temporary child care center for employees and graduate students.
The “Early Learning Center” would consist of 10-12 temporary, trailer-type modular buildings that would remain on the lot until a planned permanent childcare center can be constructed on the site of the old Carnegie Institution for Science building at the corner of University Parkway and San Martin Drive, according to JHU.
Because of uncertainty about whether U.S. Lacrosse will move out of the adjacent building, the university is not moving ahead with that plan immediately. One reason is that Hopkins is also considering including rental housing as part of a permanent University Parkway child care facility.
Rendering of planned Phase 1 changes as part of the San Martin Drive project. (Johns Hopkins University)
Residents said they were told by university representatives at the January meeting that the street needed to be narrowed in order to make changes that will increase green space and earn the university stormwater credits. The representatives also said the change would improve the appearance of the new entrance.
The Brew sought comment from Alan R. Fish, the university’s vice president for facilities and real estate, but he has not yet returned our call and email.
Done Deal?
Following the January meeting, emails have been flying between DOT and residents, as well as Councilwoman Clarke, over their concern that city officials have already green-lighted the street narrowing.
Saying that the community vigorously object to the removal of the parking, Clarke and neighborhood leaders asked DOT senior advisor Frank Murphy, via email, if DOT already approved it.
Murphy answered this way, in a reply to Remington Neighborhood Alliance president Joan Floyd, who asked whether the stormwater approval process was moving forward to make the changes that Hopkins requested:
“DPW [Department of Public Works] wasn’t sure if they had received anything from us. If there is something, as I indicated previously, anything short of the Developers Agreement is not final approval,” he wrote.
Asked today to confirm the city’s position, DOT spokeswoman Adrienne Barnes said that no final decision has been made.
“We are meeting with the community to go over our plans,” Barnes said. “Nothing has been definitively decided.”