North Point Police Precinct to Move Regardless of Government Center Outcome

While the Baltimore County Council prepares to begin its deliberations of the proposed contracts of sale for three county-owned parcels of land, including Dundalk's North Point Government Center, some Dundalk residents are still hoping the sale will not happen.

Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz on Oct. 25 announced the selection of Vanguard Commercial Development LLC as the buyer of the government center property.

The company proposes building a new retail center on 15 acres of the property, while allowing nearly 13 acres to remain as open space for the surrounding community.

As part of the agreement, Vanguard would build a 21,000 square-foot replacement recreation center and upgrade the existing outdoor athletic fields.

Some local residents want the proposed sale of the center and its surrounding 28-acre campus canceled altogether, while others want the losing bid to get another look. Still others like the plan and implore their neighbors to work with the county and developer to get the best possible project for the community.

They also question the need for new retail space, given all the retail vacancies, numbered by some to be as many as 160 spaces, in Greater Dundalk.

In the midst of this debate, Baltimore County officials have another message for Dundalk residents: The North Point Police Precinct will move from the government center to the now-closed Eastwood Elementary School building, regardless of what happens with the proposed sale of the land at the corner of Merritt Boulevard and Wise Avenue.

"That precinct needs to be replaced with a first-rate modern facility," county spokeswoman Ellen Kobler said in an email to Dundalk Patch.

Even if the County Council does not approve the contract of sale, the county will not continue to put money into fixing and maintaining the nearly 60-year-old building originally built as a junior high school, according to Kobler.

When he announced the selected successful bidders for the three properties, Baltimore County executive Kevin Kamenetz said all of the structures being sold were 50 to 60 years old, and needed more maintenance than officials can justify.

He said the North Point Government Center would need at least $5 million in maintenance over the next 10 years.

Given that knowledge, "it would not make fiscal sense to put any more money into that building," Kobler said in the email. "The county would need to take a serious look at closing and/or demolishing the building."

Eastfield-Stanbrook resident Karen Cruz said she perceives that comment to be a "threat," that residents need to support the executive's plans to sell the building and work with the developer or take the chance of ending up without any rec center at all at some point down the road.

In an interview with Patch, Cruz said she wanted to be clear that she was speaking as an individual and not as the president of her community's civic association.

But, she said, many pieces of the plan, as explained or justified by Kamenetz and others, "just do not make sense."

She asked why it wasn't acceptable to put $5 million in maintenance money over 10 years into North Point, a 50-plus-year-old building, but it is OK to invest $5 million all at once to renovate the 50-year-old Eastwood building—on the outer most fringes of the Dundalk community—to house the police station.

"And then how much will it cost to maintain that building over the next 10 years," she asked. "And how can they call the Eastwood building a first-rate, modern facility when it's just as old as the government center?"

Kobler said the County Council has only an "up or down vote" on the proposed contracts of sale; should they vote down the contracts, members cannot mandate the bids go back to the selection committee for further deliberation.

Any decision to re-evaluate the bids would be an "executive function," she said in the email.

Cruz said she believes the community is between the proverbial rock and a hard place when it comes to fighting for what it believes is right for the community.

"I take that as a threat," she said in a phone interview, referring to Kobler's statement that the county would stop putting money in the center and consider demolishing it. "And I don't like that one bit."