Marks: County Council Acts to Preserve Gunview Road Extension from Development

Editor's Note: County Councilman David Marks submitted the following opinion editorial as a letter to the editor.

For three decades, Baltimore County engineers sought to extend Gunview Road from the Seven Courts area east to Belair Road. This controversial project would have sliced through Gunpowder Falls State Park and impacted dozens of homes in northern Perry Hall.

As someone who has worked in the transportation industry for 15 years, I generally support most road projects. The construction of Honeygo Boulevard, for example, has greatly improved mobility in Perry Hall.  

Still, I opposed the Gunview Road extension. I agreed with the Perry Hall Improvement Association that the project’s environmental costs were too high. I also thought the extension would increase traffic in the Seven Courts area as Harford County drivers used the road to travel to northern Baltimore County.

Community leaders successfully got the extension removed from the new Baltimore County Master Plan. That eliminates any funding for this project. It was a huge win, but now we need to plan what happens now that the extension is dead. I do not want, for example, developers building on any land that was originally may have been set aside for the project.

The Perry Hall Community Plan recommends preserving the right-of-way for a future trail. The Gunpowder View Trail would stretch from the Seven Courts area east through Gunpowder Falls State Park. At Belair Road, the trail would parallel the road’s abandoned right-of-way, ending at Gunpowder Falls State Park.

On February 22, the County Council passed a resolution I sponsored that officially creates the Gunpowder View Trail along what would have been the Gunview Road extension. The resolution specifically states that the exact route will be determined after consultation with nearby homeowners; in fact, before acting on the resolution, I reached out to leaders of the homeowners associations in the area. I believe the trail can be constructed with minimal cost to the county.

The development of a trail along the Gunview Road route will not only promote physical fitness. It will make it even less likely this road will ever be built.

County Councilman David Marks