Tuesday, September 6, 2000

Proposed home field triggers protest from residents, activists

by Chris Hamilton
Managing Editor

Loyola's plans for the purchase and development of 50 acres of land in the Woodberry area have received recent criticism from some residents and local environmentalists. Lately, the protests have escalated, as opponents are displaying banners in northern Baltimore City, signing petitions and even going door-to-door to area residents to inform them of Loyola's proposed development in the Woodberry wooded area.

The current Loyola proposal calls for the construction of a 6,000 seat home game field, a practice field and a parking lot of approximately 475 spaces in what is now the wooded area of Woodberry. The College would primarily use the fields for all men's and women's varsity athletics.

"The reaction from nearly everybody confronted with this question [of Loyola's expansion into Woodberry] is [that] people are appalled at the idea of an institution coming in to build a stadium," says Myles Hoenig, President of the Waverly Improvement Association and a Baltimore City resident. "People want green space."

The Woodberry forest area is located southwest of Loyola, and is currently owned by Baltimore City. The entire area, of which the city will sell portions to Loyola and others, is bordered to the north by Cold Spring Lane, to the south by Druid Hill Park, to the west by Greenspring Avenue, and to the east by the Jones Falls and I-83. Much of the area, including much of the land that Loyola is slated to purchase, once functioned as the location for the city dump.

Jan Danforth, Woodberry resident and Co-founder of the Urban Forest Initiative, has been very vocal in her protest of the planned sale of Woodberry, and suspects that Woodberry's past will continue to haunt Loyola.

"One of the things of course that's going to come up is the fact that Woodberry used to be the site of the city dump, 1930s to the 60s, which is approximately the entire area that Loyola wants to build on."

Though some view Loyola's interest in Woodberry as hostile and intrusive, according to administration, Loyola's plans have been altered to better accommodate the residents and the environment.

In response to concerns over Loyola's initial plan for Woodberry expansion, which included more fields and more parking (about 1200 spaces), Special Assistant to the President, Terrence M. Sawyer said that Loyola drastically retailored their plans. "We went back to the drawing board and felt that the only way we could not...have a significant impact on the high quality forests in the area would be to get rid of some of the programmatic features, meaning fields," Sawyer said. "We removed some of the parking off the site down to roughly 475 spaces which is a significant decrease. Now, we did this in order to preserve the high-quality forest in the area."

Sawyer noted that Loyola's current plan for the development of Woodberry would affect less than one acre of high-quality forest. The remainder of the land, Sawyer claims, is low-quality forest, which provides little habitation for animals or aesthetic beauty.

As for construction on the old dumpsite, Sawyer expressed minimal concerns. "Any structures will be built on piles, so there will be nothing actually resting on the landfill, only because...the land itself is not as settled as regular bedrock. So everything will be supported on piles, so there's no pressure on the landfill."

As plans for the purchase of the property near the final stages, Danforth, Hoenig and others remain committed to the fight to keep Woodberry out of the hands of Loyola. "I don't think people realize, "Danforth says, "[that] this [urban forest] is a huge opportunity that is very rare, and incredibly great things could come from this. It is not just no Loyola, and no development, and no this and no that. This is...people coming to realize that they are responsible for this. They're responsible for the trashing. They're responsible for the reforestation. They're responsible for the health of their environment, and it's something to take care of and something to enjoy."