TOWSON, Md. — A former Catholic church site in Towson is set to become a new public park after Baltimore County entered into a contract with the Archdiocese to purchase the 10-acre property.
St. Pius Catholic School closed in 2021, and the church shut its doors in 2024. Since then, the community has been pushing for the county to take over the site and build a park.
District 6 Councilman Mike Ertel said the community response to the idea was overwhelming.
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"We had a meeting and I had about 100 people show up to this meeting and everybody wanted to, people were asking, 'can I write a check, basically how do we make this happen?' everybody saw the vision," Ertel said.
Ertel called the acquisition a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Because Towson is already heavily developed, finding space for new parks is a challenge.
"One of the things we're really excited about in the county is that we have traditionally, in the center part of the county, especially in Towson, have a dearth of recreation fields. We just don't have enough places for our kids to play and even adults to play sports. So this is something that's really gonna add capacity," Ertel said.
The exact plan for the park has not been finalized. The community will have the opportunity to provide input on what they want at the site.
"I know the direct communities that abut this will all be very involved in it, and hopefully we'll be able to deliver a final product that everybody is very excited about and is a real gem for the community," Ertel said.
The county hopes to settle on the purchase within the next month and a half, after which it will begin engaging the community about the park's design.
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