 "Photo: Master plan update")
 "Photo: Master plan update")
Towson University officials and area residents met once again Monday, June 15, to discuss changes made to the University's master plan at an open forum in the Chesapeake Rooms.
All institutions in the University System of Maryland are required to review and update their master plan every five years. Towson's review process began last fall and this second review marked the end of the second phase.
About 40 residents attended the Monday night forum, which followed up an earlier meeting in March where planners presented the original plan and solicited feedback. The Powerpoint presentation from the meeting will be available on Towson's website.
Changes to the plan include a decision to renovate – not demolish – the Residence Tower, convert Ward and West Halls into student affairs facilities and focus more on reducing campus-generated congestion and housing issues. The University also provided detailed enrollment figures and projections.
Many of the projects in the works are residence halls and student support facilities to support the growing student population, including the West Village project, a Greek village and an expansion of the University Union.
After the hour-long presentation, the floor was opened to questions.
“It was very important that we went to whatever lengths we had to to make it open and make it inclusive to anyone that wanted to have a say. Whether we all agree to disagree on certain things, that's a different story, but we wanted to make sure they had a chance to have their say,” Jack Nye, director of planning for facilities management, said.
Like the March meeting, it came with its fair share of concerned citizens. Many residents came to voice their frustrations with the behavior of Towson students and policies.
Karl Pfrommer, a spokesman for Towson Area Citizens on Patrol and a Rodgers Forge resident for 45 years, was the first up to the microphone. He said he will be moving to Timonium later this year. He said he blames rowdy students in rental properties and the Board of Regents' designation of Towson as a growth institution. He said he thinks Towson officials are handling the issues “as best they can.”
“My grief is not with the gentlemen here. They are doing a good job and Towson University is a wonderful school. The decisions are being made in Annapolis by the Board of Regents. They're political appointees and they're isolated,” he said.
Ed Kilcullen, president of the Greater Towson Council of Community Associations, confronted Nye about the University's growth projections. He said the University has been growing faster than originally projected, and that the Towson campus may reach 25,000 students long before anticipated in 2018.
“The numbers are still very much a blur and the projections that they made in 2003 they are well ahead of and that's just concerning. It raises questions about what the actual numbers are going to be in 2013, 2016, 2018,” he said.
Liam Davis, a junior metropolitan studies major, was the only student who spoke up at the meeting. Davis, a Fellowship Forest resident, said being both a resident with students renting properties nearby and a Towson student himself gives him a view of both sides of the issue. He said the residents and University need to find a way to compromise and that the residents should embrace the University's growth.
“You don't want your neighborhood to change for the worse, but I don't think that's what Towson University is doing,” he said. “And I've seen a lot of positive things from Towson since I've been going there. I think if they do it the right way, they can make Towson as a community even better than what it is. You look at a lot of the good areas in Baltimore City... and they're surrounded by colleges.”
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