NeighborSpace has received a grant of $35,000 from the Chesapeake Bay Trust's Outreach and Restoration Grant Program to begin construction of Flannery Lane Park in Gwynn Oak. The grant follows a community charrette and subsequent survey of surrounding residents, who expressed almost unanimous support for a park that was both beautiful and functional in terms of providing a multi-purpose community space, treating stormwater runoff, and providing habitat for pollinators.
This small 0.13-acre site exists in an area where 52% of residents lack access to a park within a 10-minute walk of home and in a watershed where a 2018 Report by Blue Water Baltimore and the U.S. Geological Survey indicated that the increasing effects of climate change demand that more green infrastructure be installed. The design, developed by local landscape architect, Ray Heil, and shown below, calls for de-paving the site, installing two new rain gardens, and adding a range of new native plantings. It also proposes a gravel pathway, lawn area, and plinths for sculpture.
Unfunded as yet are the lawn, the gravel pathway, and the plinths to support the artwork of neighboring sculptors, David Friedheim and Trisha Kyner. Following a meeting with the artists and members of the Gwynn Oak Community Association in early January, we decided to work together on a fundraising plan to raise the additional $15,000 that will be necessary to fully implement the design.
NeighborSpace wishes to thank the Gwynn Oak Community Association for its ongoing support of the project and extend its condolences to the community upon the loss of Community Association President, Carroll Watkins, who died from Covid-19 in December. We are also deeply grateful to Ray Heil for his steadfast expertise and to Tony Baysmore, who got the project going as a member of the staff of the late County Executive Kamenetz and has continued to shepherd it along. With the aid of our contractor, Blue Water Baltimore, we hope to begin construction of the project in April.