Baltimore’s parks system is one of the most extensive in the country, but the last time the city commissioned a comprehensive plan to guide maintenance and use of its parkland was in 1904.

Last night, the City Council unanimously passed a resolution that calls for the establishment of an Open Space and Parks Task Force to lay the groundwork for the creation of a new master plan for the parks system, which consists of nearly 6,000 acres throughout the city and more than 300,000 trees.

The task force is an outgrowth of a hearing on the status of the parks system held last April by the Council’s Recreation and Parks Committee. The resolution creating the task force was introduced by Councilman Carl Stokes, chairman of the committee.

Stokes said yesterday that the goal of the task force is to evaluate Baltimore’s parks system, compare it to others around the country and come up with recommendations for improvement.

Parks for the 21st Century

From those recommendations, he said, the city will seek a consultant who can draft a comprehensive plan to guide operation of the parks system in the 21st century.

Areas of study will range from the physical state of the public grounds to how well they are used to the number of private organizations that have emerged to help operate and program individual parks, including the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy and the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore.

There also has been discussion about the need for a major new open space in the city that can accommodate large-scale events and festivals.

“What I hope comes out of it is a blueprint for a new open space plan for the city,” Stokes said. “The last plan we had was when the Olmsted Brothers put one together in the 1900s. Now some of that plan has fallen away because we haven’t maintained the vision. This task force will give us a new vision.”

Baltimore physician Neal Friedlander and Mary Anne Akers, dean of Morgan State University’s School of Architecture & Planning, will head the task force.

Ernest Burkeen, director of the Department of Recreation and Parks, and Thomas Stosur, director of Planning, will serve on the task force along with parks advocates and others.

$1 Million Price Tag

Chris Delaporte, a former city parks director and former executive director of the Maryland Stadium Authority, has been working behind the scenes to get the task force set up.

Parks and People, a non-profit based in Druid Hill Park, will provide staff assistance to the task force. Stokes said drafting a new plan is expected to cost $1 million and he is hopeful that some funds will come from the federal government’s programs for open space.

Meetings of the task force will begin this fall and are expected to continue into 2016. Stokes said the co-chairs are still accepting names of people who would like to serve on it.