Specter of the Rotunda hangs over plan for senior home expansion
Some residents cast a skeptical eye on the proposed addition to a North Baltimore retirement community
Above: Dr. Christopher Kearney, chairman of Roland Park Place, addresses an attentive audience at the Roland Park Civic League.
The size and scale of the Rotunda apartment-office complex rising over Hampden became the touchstone for some property owners to express concerns over a proposed eight-story addition to a nearby retirement home.
Residents attending the Roland Park Civic League meeting on Wednesday carefully questioned architect Glen Tipton over the plan by Roland Park Place to add a four-level parking garage topped by 60 new residential units to the Kittery Lane side of its complex at 830 West 40th Street.
“I remember three, four years ago when the picture we saw was something like this – wonderful parks, trees, benches, squares. Ideal. But now what we see is a monster which has nothing to do with the residential area,” one resident told Tipton, referring to the Rotunda, whose 379 luxury apartments and 270,000 square feet of office and retail space have caused alarm in many quarters.
“I think it’s a disaster,” agreed Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke of the Rotunda’s expansion, which is expected to be completed next year.
In white: what the expanded Roland Park Place facility would look like. Houses on West University Parkway are to the right. Houses along Roland Avenue are shown above the structure. (Hord Coplan Macht)
After hearing more complaints about the project, located just south of the retirement community, Tipton said, “For the record, this architect and my firm had nothing to do with the project. I feel your pain.”
New Jersey-based Hekemian & Co., developers of the Rotunda, ignored input from the community, Clarke told an audience of about 60 people.
“We lost every fight we launched at endless meetings with the immediate neighbors about the scale of that development and parking,” she said.
Noting that six-story apartments are being constructed right up to the Rotunda’s property line along Elm Avenue and 38th Street, Clarke called the complex “overpowering” and complained that she could not exact concessions from the developer because there were no tax subsidies involved.
“There was no place to appeal because they needed nothing [from the city]. We did everything but weep,” Clarke said.
Traffic and Noise
Dr. Christopher Kearney, chairman of the Roland Park Place board, stressed that the retirement home’s expansion is being designed to be an asset to the community – something neighbors would “approve, even celebrate.”
He gave few specifics, such as the cost of the project or whether the non-profit corporation that operates the facility would seek tax breaks from the city, saying the development was in its early stages.
He said the home’s president, Teresa D. Synder, was unable to attend the meeting.
Sara Johnson, who lives immediately north of the property on University Parkway, said, “This is going to have a devastating effect on our quality of life as it is being built and when it’s here.”
She cited noise, traffic and the scale of the new building on nearby houses, many of which are considerably below grade from the retirement property.
The existing retirement community on West 40th Street. (Photo by Fern Shen)
Others questioned how management arrived at the height and density of the new building and parking garage.
Tipton said Greenbriar Development, a Texas-based senior living consultant, determined that Roland Park Place must re-purpose and expand in order to attract retirees in the future.
Constructing new units atop the existing building is unfeasible, he added.
Two residents of the retirement community defended the expansion as essential and described their love of the surrounding community.
Needed: An Amended PUD
The retirement home was opened in 1984 on the former grounds of the Roland Park County School. It bills itself as Baltimoreʼs only accredited, not-for-profit continuing care community.
Chris McSherry, president of the Civic League, appointed a 10-member committee to meet with the owner, residents and Tipton to hammer out a design “which ends up as something we can all live with.”
Councilwoman Clarke said she will use the committee’s recommendations to guide an amendment to the property’s Planned Unit Development (PUD.
The amendment must be approved by the City Council before construction – which could take 32 months over two phases to complete, according to Tipton – can begin.
Harkening back to the “overpowering” nature of the Rotunda’s expansion, Clarke vowed to keep the retirement home in scale with the neighborhood.