Roosevelt Park Master Plan (pdf) - Hampden Community Council

MASTER PLAN
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Overview
Mahan Rykiel Associates was retained by Baltimore City Department of
Recreation and Parks to prepare a long-range master plan for Roosevelt
Park, an 18.7 acre park located in the Hampden neighborhood of North
Baltimore. Roosevelt Park is a cornerstone for Hampden and an important
component of the Jones Falls valley open space system.
The purpose of the master plan is to provide a tool for the City and The
Friends of Roosevelt Park (FRP) to guide park improvements over the next
fifteen years or longer, based on a visioning process conducted by FRP.
Because the master plan is far-reaching, this report identifies individual
projects that could be implemented incrementally.
While the master plan should be the foundation upon which any
improvements are planned, it is not intended that this document be
inflexible. As goals and surrounding influences change over the years,
changes to the master plan may also be necessary to accommodate these
changes. It is important, however, to respect the inherent principles and
concepts of the master plan.
B. Process
Review of FRP Background Materials: FRP conducted a visioning
process for the park during 2000-2001. This process garnered a significant
amount of input from hundreds of stakeholders who participated in 5
meetings over a nine-month period. The master plan project team
reviewed the vision and used the results of this process as the basis for the
master planning process.
Community Meeting #1: Following review of the vision, the project team
conducted a public meeting, open to park stakeholders, in January 2003.
The primary intent of this meeting was to review the vision from two years
earlier, reconfirm its goals and to build upon it with additional stakeholder
input.
Community Meeting #2: The project team presented a park analysis and
three master plan alternatives in April 2003. The analysis and alternatives
were based on the vision, additional stakeholder input from January and the
team’s professional assessment of the existing park. Following
presentation of the alternatives, the stakeholders divided into 4 groups
based on their particular interest (ball fields, general park aesthetics, the
swimming pool and the skate park) to discuss the alternatives and preferred
MAHAN RYKIEL ASSOCIATES. 2/18/04 1