Proposed Development Reignites Water Tower Concerns

A developer wants to build new homes on Timber Grove Road in Reisterstown, but community activists have one important question.

Isn't there already a water shortage in the area?

Under a developer's proposal, 15 single-family homes would be built on a four-acre parcel at 304 Timber Grove Road in Reisterstown, said Darryl Putty, a Baltimore County project manager.

A community input meeting for the development, which is being called Timber Grove Estates, is being held at Monday at 7 p.m.

The lot isn't far from a site once considered for a 2 million-gallon water tank, which is , the county's Department of Public Works has said.

The project was , but Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz has said in Reisterstown's Fifth Water Pressure Zone.

A zoning meeting was held in Towson between Christmas and New Year's to discuss the developer's plans. Among the attendees was Ayanna Chen, one leader of a community group that opposed construction of a water tower at the corner of Bond Avenue and Timber Grove Road.

Chen said the issue of inadequate water storage in the area was not addressed at the meeting until she brought it up.

But Mike Mazurek, the county's water design chief, has said the area is already in need of additional water storage and better chlorination.

“The ultimate demand for this area has been reached as far as on paper,” Mazurek said in an October meeting.

Clarification about what the addition of 15 homes would mean for the need to construct a water tower in the area is just one answer that will be sought Monday, said Willis Chen, who is Ayanna Chen's husband.

Chen said he wasn't sure who or how many members of the group would attend the meeting Monday, but acknowledged the group was following the issue closely.

Jonathan Schwartz, Baltimore County Councilwoman Vicki Almond's top aide, said he would be attending the meeting, though he expected the conversation to focus more closely on what the proposed development would look like, rather than how it affected the need for a water tower.

Reisterstown Patch Editor Marc Shapiro contributed to this story.