Eastern Regional Park | Honeygo Run Regional Park
Meadowood Regional Park | Northwest Regional Park
Reisterstown Regional Park | Southeast Regional Rec. Center
Baltimore County's population continues to grow, and along with the influx of new residents has come a growth in recreational demand. Recreation programs in many communities are booming, and in some cases children and adults have been turned away as a result of programs being full. The creation of additional teams or leagues to allow for more participants is often difficult as a result of a lack of available facilities. Many ball diamonds and athletic fields operated by the Department of Recreation and Parks are already straining under the burden of heavy use, and are in need of time to allow their grass surfaces to recover and grow back.
Hoping to address excess recreational demands, many recreation and parks councils have been vocal about the need for additional parks and recreational facilities for the communities they serve. Unfortunately, many of those communities are densely developed and lack available land that would be suitable for the construction of new parks and facilities. Faced with these challenges, Baltimore County needed a creative solution to meet the public's recreational needs.
With little suitable land available to provide neighborhood and community parks in many of the communities in need, Baltimore County decided upon a new approach to meeting the recreational demands of the recreation councils and general public. In 1995, the Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks commenced upon an aggressive program of acquiring large, highly developable parcels of land to serve as "regional parks." The sites selected to serve as regional parks were generally adjacent to or very near the densely-populated areas which they were intended to serve. Between 1995 and 2002, five new sites were acquired, with the existing Honeygo Run Stream Valley Park selected to serve as the sixth. Funding was then secured for site development, while a series of public meetings were held to gain input on the types of facilities that local residents wished to have constructed at the parks.
The results of this effort began to be realized in late 2002, as several of the regional parks and facilities opened for public use. Each regional site provides recreational facilities that are intended to serve multiple communities and large portions of the population. Most of the regional parks feature a wide variety of amenities that will appeal to many recreational tastes, while one of the sites has been developed with Baltimore County's first indoor soccer facility.
Eastern Regional Park: This park, which adjoins Chase Elementary School Recreation Center on Eastern Avenue in the Bengies-Chase community, features both indoor and outdoor recreational facilities. The Eastern Regional Recreation Center is situated on park grounds, and the diverse outdoor facilities include lighted and unlit ball diamonds and athletic fields, picnic pavilions, a playground, a paved path network, and nature trails with overlooks of Saltpeter Creek.
Honeygo Run Regional Park: Located on Honeygo Boulevard just east of Ebenezer Road, this park serves the rapidly growing Perry Hall-White Marsh area. Honeygo features a wide range of recreational facilities including lighted and unlit ball diamonds and athletic fields, a 13,000-square foot recreation center, picnic pavilions, a playground, a roller hockey court, and extensive network of paths and trails (including nature trails that traverse the wooded areas adjacent to Honeygo Run.
Meadowood Regional Park: Meadowood is situated at the corner of Falls and Greenspring Valley Roads, at the entry way into the Greenspring Valley. Facilities available at the park included lighted and unlit athletic fields, picnic pavilions, a playground, a comfort station, and a paved path network. Revegetated buffer areas within the park help to protect both Deep Run and the Jones Falls.
Northwest Regional Park: Situated near the intersection of Lyons Mill and Deer Park Roads at the western edge of the Owings Mills Growth Area, this park features ball diamonds, athletic fields, picnic pavilions, paths and trails, a playground, a comfort station, and extensive wooded areas.
Reisterstown Regional Park: This park, located just off of I-795 near Reisterstown, offers 4 lighted ball diamonds, 3 lighted athletic fields, one unlit athletic field, a playground, a picnic pavilion and a comfort station.
Southeast Regional Recreation Center: The centerpiece of this facility is the first indoor soccer field constructed and operated by the Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks. The center is situated on North Point Boulevard in southeast Baltimore County.
Part of the beauty of Baltimore County's regional parks initiative is the preservation of valuable natural spaces and environmentally sensitive areas. Nearly all of the regional parks preserve vulnerable stream buffers and woodlands, and several feature tree-planting and forestation projects. A number of the parks offer nature trails that allow park visitors to experience and enjoy the natural environment first-hand. The natural and preserved areas within the parks help to support Baltimore County's important environmental initiatives. More than 2/3 of Baltimore County's land remains rural, and preservation of the rural character of our land - the farms, woods, and waterways- remains one of the cornerstones of planned growth and development.
More information on the County's land preservation and growth management programs and policies is available in Baltimore County Master Plan 2010 PDF. Baltimore County ranks in the top ten of all jurisdictions in America for preserving farmland, and leads the state in overall land preservation. You can learn more about land preservation online or you can download a two-page, color factsheet PDF.
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Revised March 9, 2005
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