Sorry, my message was truncated in the Balto Sun story I sent the other day.  What I meant to say was:

 

What amazes me about this story is how minimal an amount of private money ($200K with a intent to raise a total of $500K) may "commit" the county to spending $20M -- more than half of the land (19 outdoor courts) which will be unusable the majority of the year.  Seems like an inefficient use of land, especially when considering the maximum # of users per tennis court is 4 -- and even that's for less than 6 months out of the year. 

 

I can rationalize developing a large INDOOR tennis complex -- it can be used year round -- but how can you justify putting 19 outdoor courts in one spot??  If you want to make tennis accessible, you spread it out to different locations (like the park system currently does) or you create INDOOR tennis spaces to bring more accessibility year round.

 

A 50-meter pool seems like a good use for the extensive grounds of the Troy Hill Park complex ... at least the number of users per square foot in swimming greatly exceeds the number of users per square foot in tennis.  Land is a hot commodity ... why we'd want to put 19 OUTDOOR tennis courts  in one place is beyond me.  Do we really need the largest tennis facility in the mid-Atlantic region?

 

The Tennis Patrons' $200K-$500K investment is a terrific investment on their part ... for a drop in the bucket (1% to 2.5% of the project cost) you can "buy" the county and they'll do whatever you want.  What a bargain!  I guess that's all WE would need to raise/commit to get a 50-M pool on the project plan.

 

Diane 

---

This story was sent to you by: Diane

What amazes me about this story is how minimal an amount of private money ($200K with a intent to raise a total of $500K) may "commit" the county to spending $20M -- half of which will be used on OUTD

--------------------
Serving up park funds
--------------------

Offer to pay for building a tennis center may hasten Troy Hill recreation complex

By Larry Carson | larry.carson@baltsun.com

January 4 2009

A private group's plans to finance construction of a regional tennis center in Elkridge could help advance county plans to develop the long-planned Troy Hill Regional Park into a community jewel on a historic site.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/howard/bal-ho.troy04jan04,0,3712751.story

Visit baltimoresun.com at http://www.baltimoresun.com