Hillside Park's Next Big Project Is in the Streams
October 22, 2026
October 22, 2026
What is going to be built on the sloping 20 acres along Falls Road, across from Poly and Western high schools? More than a year after Hillside Park opened to the public, the biggest project with an actual schedule won't produce a path, a bench or a playground. It will happen in the streambeds, and the project team is aiming to start that work after July 1, 2027. The park's overall design is still waiting on a landscape architect. Until one of those moves forward, the park you walk this fall is the park you will be walking all winter and spring.
That combination, a funded stream project with a calendar and a park design that hasn't started, explains most of what a regular visitor sees on the hill right now.
The Roland Park Community Foundation closed its $9 million purchase of the tract from the Baltimore Country Club in July 2025, according to Baltimore Fishbowl. The club kept its clubhouse at 4712 Club Road and about 12 acres at the top of the hill. The money came from 876 donors in 42 Baltimore City communities, 30 other Maryland neighborhoods and 28 states. Community leaders called it the first new park of its size in Baltimore since Patterson Park in 1860.
Hillside Park also works differently from a city park. A private nonprofit owns and maintains the land, so its upkeep doesn't come out of the city budget, and a separate entity, Hillside Park Inc., manages it. That arrangement is why the park's timeline depends on grants, permits and fundraising rather than a city capital budget.
What the new owners got along with the land was a stream system in poor shape. The Fall 2026 Roland Park News says deteriorating pipes are affecting the streams, and that the restoration will also help protect exposed sewer infrastructure in the stream corridor. The same newsletter calls the restoration an investment in the health of the Jones Falls watershed and the Chesapeake Bay.
The restoration is a partnership among Hillside Park, Parks & People, Environmental Quality Resources (EQR) and the ecological design firm Biohabitats. Support letters from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and Western High School helped win the federal grant. NOAA's July 2026 project list shows Parks & People receiving $1.3 million in the first year and up to $2.1 million over three years for degraded urban stream restoration and related youth and environmental programs.
The plan includes more than earth and water. According to the Roland Park News, construction planning covers stream diversions, invasive species removal, grading, in-stream grade control structures and native plantings along the banks. The team also wants the park to serve as an outdoor classroom, with students monitoring water quality, wildlife and stream temperature. The newsletter notes that 15 neighborhoods sit within a mile of the park.
The permit file turned up a piece of North Baltimore history. While assessing the site, the team found several wells once owned by the Roland Park Water Company, which supplied water to residents of North Baltimore.
The timeline depends on three agencies and on fish. Before any work begins, the project needs approvals from Baltimore City, the Maryland Department of the Environment and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Roland Park News says Biohabitats filed with all three on July 14. The park's own announcement dates Hillside Park Inc.'s Joint Permit Application to MDE to July 24, 2026. Either way, the applications went in last July and they are long. Each runs hundreds of pages, down to soil test results and a log of every tree in the stream area.
Here is how the calendar works out, based on the dates the project team has published:
| Milestone | What the project team says | What it means on the ground |
|---|---|---|
| Permit applications filed | July 2026 | Review is underway now |
| Agency review | Typically four to nine months, often with requests for revisions | Decisions could arrive anywhere from late 2026 into spring 2027 |
| Permit target | All permits secured by June 2027 | Stream construction isn't expected this winter |
| Seasonal limit | No major in-stream construction from March 1 to June 15, when aquatic life is most vulnerable | Spring is ruled out for major in-stream work every year |
| Construction window | The goal is to begin after July 1 and finish before the following March | Target start is after July 1, 2027 |
| Construction length | About six months, per EQR | Work could run into winter 2027–28 |
According to the newsletter, the team wants to avoid stopping and restarting construction because that is difficult and expensive, so it aims to fit the whole job into one July-to-March stretch. George Battersby, Biohabitats' project manager for Hillside Park, describes permitting as a collaborative back-and-forth in which reviewers' comments improve the final design. The newsletter also says there is no extra money. The design was refined to stay within the grant's budget from the start.
Some of the change has already happened, and the ground shows it. The Fall 2026 Roland Park News reports that more than 50 fallen, dead and dying trees have been removed, which Hillside Park committee chair Mary Page Michel says has made the space safer. The stacks of trunks and wood chips you see were left on purpose. Some of the largest trunks stay as wildlife habitat. Others will be turned into furniture by Camp Small, Baltimore's urban wood program, or used to line trails and property lines.
The same issue describes the cost to the hillside's animals. Foxes and groundhogs that lived there for years were displaced, hopefully only for a while, by the heavy equipment used for the environmental remediation done before the sale. Some have moved under porches on nearby private properties. That is why rewilding is built into the next step. The landscape architect who designs the park will be required to put rewilding first, so the land develops in ways that support biodiversity.
The newsletter flags one more change for anyone who brings a dog. With the old fences gone, dogs off leash can run straight onto Hillside and Falls roads, which puts them and drivers at risk. It also reports that loose dogs are harassing the wildlife that remains.
The park's posted hours are dawn to dusk. Because there are no fences and no single gate, it helps to know where the openings are. The park's visitor page lists these entrances:
The posted rules are short. Dogs must be leashed. Bikes, smoking, alcohol, loud music and weapons are not allowed. There are no restrooms, so carry out your trash.
There is no designed trail system yet, and the park's own site tells visitors to make their own paths. Volunteers have filled in some of the gap. The Summer 2026 Roland Park News reports that Boy Scouts Troop 35, based at the Church of the Redeemer, held two weekend work events in the park this spring, one in March and one in May. One group built a path through the woods along Hillside Road out of wood chips and tree limbs left from the tree removal, and the Scouts also made three simple benches from dead trees. Another group cleared invasives and debris left by years of overgrowth in the North Meadow. The property also sits between two of Roland Park's Olmsted-era footpaths, the Sunset and Litchfield paths, so you can walk in without using a street at all.
On April 26, the park held its first BioBlitz with the National Aquarium and the Greater Baltimore Wilderness Coalition. Visitors logged everything they saw on the iNaturalist app. The stated goal is to track wildlife over the years and see whether the stream restoration and native plantings make a difference, and the newsletter invites anyone to use the app in the park at any time. When snow comes, the open slopes have a sledding history. Baltimore Fishbowl reported that about 40 children sledded on one of the meadow areas in a recent winter.
Everything people picture for Hillside Park still depends on a design process that hasn't produced a design. When the purchase closed, the Foundation said it would choose a landscape architect through a request for proposals and run a public input phase. The starting point would be a 2008 draft plan by Stuart Ortel's Stone Hill Design Associates, which was drawn up to show what was possible and to help raise money. As of the Fall 2026 Roland Park News, that architect is still described as someone who "will be hired."
The park describes the features under discussion as possibilities, among them accessible paths, benches, picnic tables, a pavilion, a community garden, an outdoor stage and a playground. Each depends on public input, budget and fundraising. The Foundation also plans to raise an endowment so the property can be maintained permanently.
Michel described what the project stands for when the sale closed, in a statement reported by Baltimore Fishbowl:
"Hillside Park is about access, equity and honoring nature."
If you want to follow the stream work as it moves through review, the full permit application is posted on the news page at hillsideparkmd.org, and the project team takes questions at [email protected].
Hillside Park is one of the clearest examples of how much the land around your street can change over a couple of years. The Baldwin & Griffin Group follows those changes block by block across North Baltimore. If you'd like to talk about what the park's next phases could mean for your corner of Roland Park, get in touch.
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