Hump Day!

A few times a year the subject of traffic calming comes up among neighbors. In 2013-14, I spearheaded a project that ultimately resulted in 6 speed humps being placed on Glen Keith Blvd (east of Loch Raven Blvd) and Edgewood Road. It was a group project and it relied heavily on support generated from the community Facebook page. Here's a little insight into how we got it done.

Don't do anything until you've read the Baltimore County Department of Public Works' Traffic Calming PDF (CLICK HERE). You have to actually read it. No, seriously, read it. The PDF explains the point system by which the street in question is rated for the possibility of traffic calming measures. Page 5 of the PDF actually has a handy-dandy, step-by-step guide already there. You may not even need to read the rest of this blog post, because you've already been educated. By the way, nowhere in the DPW's guide is there any statement that you have to go through your homeowner's association to request an evaluation. ...So you've read the PDF and now you're back. Great job!

Step One is to request a speed study, in writing.
Email the DPW directly, and copy your County Council representative and any other pertinent people, such as your homeowner's association (you should at least let them know what you're doing so that they can support you). In your email, be sure to give the exact street(s) in question, and the reasons why you feel a speed study is necessary.

Now it's time to hurry up and wait. Phase I goes on behind the scenes while the DPW decides if your street meets the criteria for Phase II. Basically, your street will fail Phase I if it is a feeder road, less than 1000' long, dead-end or cul-de-sac, or outside the urban rural demarcation boundary. Phase I can take several months. I submitted my formal request in August, and I didn't make it out of Phase I until January. If you fail at Phase I, fear not, friend; you can still get passive traffic calming or initiate a special project with your county council representative. Phase II commences with the speed study. The DPW will probably give you a call when the technician is going to come out to lay the wires down on the road. While you are waiting on the speed study, you should try to qualify your neighbors' sentiment about active traffic calming measures like speed humps. These are the people who will have to sign for the petition anyway, so you need their buy-in. It will also help if you can recruit neighbors now who will help you gather petition signatures later. It's a big job (especially if you live on a road with lots of houses) and you should have help.

Step Two is understanding how the Speed Study is scored.
THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS REALLY IMPORTANT. You have got to know how the DPW tallies points before the study begins, or you're going to fail.

The DPW measures the average speed of all the cars over the 48 hour test and the total number of cars that pass during the highest single hour during the 48 hour test (Page 5):

The DPW scores the measurements from the speed study according to this table, on Page 8 of the PDF:

You have got to get a minimum score of 20 points to proceed out of Phase II.

Oh here's a few more important little nuggets of info for you from Page 9:

Friend, you need to have a Peak Hour Volume (PHV) of more than 100 in order to get active traffic control measures. This means that you have to get more than 100 cars to go over those wires during any single hour within the 48 hour test. Let's beat this dead horse a little more, you're going to have to get 1.6 cars per minute over those wires during at least one hour of the test. This is where social media comes in handy. Let your neighbors know that the wires are down and that they should be sure to use that road as often as possible during the 48 hour time period. You may even want to schedule an hour where people are specifically asked to use the road. Average speed of vehicles is measured also, but you should always follow the rules of the road, and do not do anything illegal or unsafe to "get your score up".

It's very easy to fail the speed study and very hard to pass. The DPW does this on purpose, you see. Installing too many traffic calming devices was a problem in the county in the past and it's very expensive to do. The County doesn't want to do it unless there is a real need and the community wants it.

AFTER the speed study is done, the DPW will tell you if your street qualifies for active traffic calming measures. If you qualify, congratulations! I bet you are simultaneously angry that people drive like maniacs and triumphant that you were validated by the speed study. Shake your fist with glee instead of anger at the next speeder: "YOUR TIME IS COMING, YOU YOUNG WHIPPERSNAPPER!" It is only after you qualify for Phase III that you should start collecting signatures, but the DPW guys will tell you all about it. They will draw up a scheme for the humps, they will give you the petition form that you need to get 75% of the homeowners on the affected street to sign. You'll have to get 100% of the homeowners who will have humps right in front of their house to agree by signing right on the paper plan that the DPW will give you. Here's what mine looked like:

There were several people who collected signatures for the Glen Keith and Edgewood Rd project (we needed 130 signatures!!!). It's hard work and not for the faint of heart. We stayed organized by using a Google Sheets file with a list of addresses that we could update in real time. This saved us from knocking on the same door twice. Lots of evenings were spent going door to door. It took about a year, from requesting the study to getting the humps down.

One final thought: People complain about the county refusing to work with them on speed humps. Usually it's these people that don't want to do the leg work. If I had known how much work it would be, would I still do it? I don't know. But I'm so glad that it's done and I don't have to say "Someone ought to do something about the speeding on my street."

- Karen Williams

LRV past, present, future

I’m hoping that you all saw the flyer in your door about the County Council meeting this coming Monday. It really IS important that as many as can attend. The County needs to see that we continue to fight for our neighborhood. There have been so many times we have all banded together to get things done that benefit all of us. We got the Loch Raven Elementary building and all surrounding land on the landmark list, we got speed bumps on the East side of Glen Keith and Edgewood Roads, we stopped the plan to reactivate Loch Raven Elementary. Now we've got the attention of the USPS, and hope to reunite the neighborhood under one zip code.

All of this really warms my heart because I can remember the time when there was such a big divide between East & West of LRV. There were times when folks showed fiction based animosity, became complacent and rumors were rampant. The one that makes me chuckle is that the east side houses are smaller. Well, they’re not. Maybe people think that the homes in Loch Raven Heights between LRV and IHM are part of LRV.

LRV was built in three stages as land was acquired. The first was the LRES, the apartments and surrounding houses. If you’ve ever wondered why Glen Keith ends and Edgewood begins at the sharp curve by the playground, it is because right there is where the first phase of LRV ended and the second phase began. Another interesting tidbit is as you continue past the second sharp curve on Edgewood, you will see a little alleyway on your right. Look carefully at the end of groups on either side of the alley and you will see the house numbers jump. This is because the little alley is not actually an alley, it is a street named "School House Lane". LRV was supposed to wrap up one side of School House Lane and down the other. School House Lane was supposed to join Hillendale Road and be the shortcut to LRES. But by settlement time on the land, the original owners had passed away and the children decided that they did not want to sell. So that was that.

If you want to discover which homes were built in which phase, just look. The first phase homes have wood shingle on the gables on the ends of group and small bathroom windows. The second phase homes have wood shingle on the gable ends but standard sized bathroom windows and the third phase homes have brick on the end of group gables and standard sized bathroom windows. Easy Peezy.

So even if we have different homes depending on where we live in LRV, we all live in Loch Raven Village. It seems sometimes that the County keeps tossing challenges our way but the fact that we continue to band together to protect our little slice of heaven shows exactly what kind of community we have here. LRV has always been a strong community and will continue to be one because we have a great group of residents. As they say down South...
"Well Done All Ya’ll!"

By the way... don't you think Loch Raven VIllage should be listed as an Historic Community? After all it was the first post WWII planned community in Baltimore County and we've been around since 1946.

And isn’t LRV beautiful now. The trees are blooming, there’s those bright green buds on trees and bushes that say "AHHH Spring..." Flowers are peeping up and soon we will have a riot of Azaleas and Dogwood and Lily of the Valley and Tulips. The Bradford Pear trees are lovely too except for the smell. PU! Guess the insects like it though. Here’s some more of what's to see in LRV...

- Bitten Norman

Help choose the next principal of Pleasant Plains Elementary

To parents of preschoolers in LRV (and anyone else who is considering Pleasant Plains Elementary School for next school year and beyond):

PPES parents received a letter this week, announcing the July 1, 2015 departure of the current principal, Ms. Maureen Partilla. She has been at PPES for the last 11 years.

The letter, from Dr. Monique Wheatley-Phillip, Assistant Superintendent, Zone 2, stated that BCPS has to acquire input from school staff and community members as part of their process for selecting a new principal.

There will be a meeting for all PPES parents and community members on Thursday, April 23, 2015 at 6:30 PM in the PPES library. Dr. Wheatley-Phillip is inviting everyone to come and give their input, and states, "I am committed to hearing from all stakeholders and learning the characteristics and leadership skills that you would like to see in the next principal of Pleasant Plains Elementary." The letter also states that the information gathered will be "used to develop a principle profile and a list of questions to use during the applicant screening and selection process."

The current staff members at PPES will be giving their input at a separate meeting.
Just wanted to make you aware, in case you want to attend the parent/community meeting, which is less than a week from today. If you can't attend the meeting, you can email your comments to Dr. Wheatley-Phillip at mwheatleyphillip@bcps.org.

-Monica Williams

Update on Loch Raven Village Zip Code Reunification Efforts

I've been asked to talk about the requested Zip Code change for the east side of Loch Raven Village. When the neighborhood was built, all of Loch Raven Village was Towson (21204). Later, Towson was split into 21204 and 21286. It was decided that Loch Raven Boulevard would be the dividing line between 21286 and 21234. This threw the east side of Loch Raven Village into 21234. Some original residents still remember being 21204; one resident even said she was born on Clyde Bank and her birth certificate says "Towson". Another neighbor says her front yard is in 21234 and her back yard is in 21286.That gave us a chuckle. In mapping the boundary line along Loch Raven Blvd, we noticed that the line wavers back and forth and turns the corner onto Taylor Avenue. The East Side of LRV is surrounded on three sides by 21286!!

Some years ago we attempted to have the Zip Code change but were denied. Recently we came across a report to Congress regarding Zip Code changes and we used that as a guide for this current attempt. We began a signature campaign by distributing flyers with return petition tear-offs. A resident created an online petition drive. My husband created a chart for each street to make sure there were no duplicate signatures. We also had two signing drives in front of the Old Loch Raven Elementary School. The USPS requires a simple majority of 51% of affected residents to agree to a change, but we had 63%.

We put together our request in a sectioned notebook (thank you Edie for that suggestion!). Our request letter, support letters from U.S. Representative Dutch Ruppersburger, State Senator Kathy Klausmeyer, State Delegate John Cluster, County Councilman David Marks and Associates of Loch Raven Village President Jason Garber. We also included maps as well as copies of the original petition signatures. We sent this packet of information to the Area Vice President of Operations for our national USPS region. We are in the Capitol Metro region which includes Baltimore, Washington DC, Richmond and Greensboro. The request was then forwarded onto our Baltimore Post Office. The person there is a very nice woman who is familiar with our neighborhood. In talking to her we found out that she never received the full notebook so we were able to recreate it and hand delivered it to the Baltimore USPS. Right now USPS is doing a feasibility and budget study. When a Zip Code change is requested, one of the USPS procedures is to survey all those affected by the change; however, since we submitted our petition signatures, they may not need to do a survey. Should they decline to change the zip code, then we have the right to a formal appeal to the Postmaster General in Washington DC. So far it all looks good.

Having one Zip Code is so important to LRV because for too many years there has been a divide between the East and West. We were built by and for returning WWII veterans in hopes that this would be a strong and pleasant community for everyone. As a community we have been called so many names that it is confusing to potential buyers. We even have two different voting districts now. As a family we moved here three days before Christmas with a kindergartner and 14 month old with tonsillitis to make a better life for them. I also brought along three at home day care children. We rented for 11 years waiting for a fixer upper and we finally got one four rows up on the same side of the street. One daycare family actually moved into the Loch Raven Apartments so her daughter could come to us and Loch Raven Elementary School! We LOVE this neighborhood and our neighbors and can’t think of a better place to live. It is so encouraging to see all the young families moving in. Each new family breathes more life into Loch Raven Village. One year after our daughter was transferred to Arizona she asked if we could send her a photo of our street. She said she told her friends in Arizona that we had the prettiest street in the spring and she said they OOO’d and AHH’d when they saw the photo.

PS. When we bought our house my sister who had a farm in Northern Baltimore County said "Why would you live there!? It’s the city and there is no wild life like up here. All you’ll see is other houses and people’s back yards. ICK!! Well, for years now I’ve been photographing all the things you can see so here’s a couple of LRV views...

- Bitten Norman

Community Yard Sale Day in LRV, Knettishall, and surrounding neighborhoods: May 16

The neighborhoods of Loch Raven Village, Knettishall, Hillendale Park, Ridgeleigh, Ridgely Manor, Loch Hill, Glendale/Glenmont and Hillendale are participating in a Community Yard Sale Day on Saturday, May 16, starting at 8 am. Neighbors all over are planning to set up sales in their front yards. Please plan to participate by either selling or buying. It's a great opportunity to meet your neighbors, acquire new friends, make the most of your spring cleaning and get some great deals! Advertising for this event is sponsored by the Loch Raven Community Council. For questions, contact Karen at karenw.lrv@gmail.com.

"A village green is a common open area within a village or other settlement. Traditionally, a village green was often common grassland at the centre of an agricultural or other rural settlement.... The village green also provided, and may still provide, an open-air meeting place for the local people, which may be used for public celebrations such as May Day festivities." (Wikipedia)

We hope to bring a virtual open-air meeting space to the Loch Raven Village community. We believe that a blog can be another source of information for residents and neighbors in surrounding communities. We don't intend to compete with the Village Crier or Towson Times, but to supplement these communication channels in an unofficial way.

So what is important to you? What kind of hyper-local news do you want to read?
Restaurant reviews?
family-friendly activities?
School updates?
Gardening tips?
Villagers helping villagers?

We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.