Building Fun for Today and Community for Tomorrow

A Modern Recreation & Parks System for One Baltimore County

For generations, Baltimore County’s Recreation & Parks system has been the quiet heartbeat of community life where children discover themselves, seniors stay connected and neighbors find common ground across lines of age, culture and tradition. But a system built on the volunteerism of the 1970s cannot meet the demands of a 21st-century county.

Facilities are aging. Volunteers are exhausted. Families lack basics like public pools that most major jurisdictions provide as a matter of public health, equity and pride.

Recreation & Parks should be a source of unity and opportunity. Today, it is burdened by structures that no longer fit the scale or diversity of our communities. It is time for a modern system that honors the past while building a stronger, more connected future.

We know that youth engagement is key to empowering children and keeping them safe, including after school, but there is a sense that we don’t have enough recreation facilities to do so.  The fact is that the County has lots of facilities, but we’re not organizing them and making them available in a way that best serves children and communities.

A New Structure for a New Era: Bringing Rec Councils Into Recreation & Parks

Baltimore County’s rec councils are filled with good people doing heroic work. But heroism is not a governance model. Volunteers are stretched thin, systems vary wildly from one council to the next, and too much depends on who happens to step up—not on what families need.

Across the country, jurisdictions have modernized by integrating volunteer-run councils into county recreation departments while keeping community voice at the center. Fairfax County’s Recreation Authority, Montgomery County’s Recreation Department and several Florida municipalities offer successful models: unified oversight, consistent standards, professional support while maintaining the deep neighborhood identity that makes community recreation meaningful.

We should do the same.

Restructure Recs and Parks:

• Restructure the Councils: We start by restructuring the duties of nature and rec councils. The Department of Recs and Parks will take on administrative burdens such as registration systems, financial oversight and scheduling tools so volunteers can focus on what matters most: coaching, mentoring, programming and building community.
• Ensure Revenue Neutrality: Critically, all current fee structures remain in place to ensure revenue neutrality during the transition while protecting the affordability of beloved programs.
• Modernization with Purpose: This is not consolidation for consolidation’s sake. The approach will strengthen volunteers, not displace them; ensure fairness, not bureaucracy; and build a sustainable system capable of serving a growing, diverse county.

Supporting Volunteers, Strengthening Community Voice

The truth is there is much about Baltimore County’s Rec Councils that work. Volunteers are the lifeblood of the County’s rec system. Restructuring the Park and Rec organization is about improving what can be done better while leaning into what already works.

• Stand up ParkStat: Implement a unified public data dashboard that measures attendance, fees, activity and maintenance data into a modern dashboard so that everyone can understand the reality of operations.
• Clear Policies, Fair Processes: Instead of 42 different sets of bylaws – some robust, some nonexistent – we create a standardized framework with room for local flexibility.
• Transparent & Trusted Finances: A centralized organization creates opportunities for treasurer training, annual standardized financial summaries, rotating audits conducted by the County and restoring trust through consistency.
• Modern Tools: Scheduling, registration, and field allocation systems that reduce volunteer workload and increase transparency for families.
• Community Engaged Modernization: Through structure feedback systems and data driven decision making, we will work together with councils, volunteers and communities to find how to improve the councils and their offerings.

Smarter Partnerships with BCPS

Kids shouldn’t lose practice time because school fields fall through the cracks of agency silos. And families should not be asked to fundraise for facilities they do not control. We will:

• Access Priorities: Rec & Parks must establish clear standards to guarantee access for after-school programs and community programs before other uses for facilities.
• School Fields Reform: Transfer all school athletic field maintenance to Recreation & Parks, ending the patchwork middle-school/elementary divide.
• MOU with BCPS: Institute a shared-use agreement that prioritizes after-school community programming. A child’s opportunity shouldn’t depend on the quirks of a maintenance schedule.

Making the Most of Our Facilities

We finally have a full inventory of every park and recreation site in the county — now it’s time to turn that data into action. In concert with our efforts to streamline permitting and project implementation with the Dream and Deliver Framework, we will:

• Annual Facility Reviews: Evaluate each site for quality, accessibility, and usefulness, then develop community-by-community plans for upgrades and new investments especially multi-use facilities.
• Community Surveys: Regularly ask residents what programs, sports, and amenities they want most, ensuring that our investments reflect real community demand.
• Modernized Information Systems: Feedback only works when residents have accurate information. Too often, parents find the county’s Rec & Parks listings outdated — with some programs no longer offered and others missing entirely. We’ll modernize the website and data systems so families can easily access clear, up-to-date details on every program available countywide.

Bringing Recreation into the 21st Century

Baltimore County deserves a system that embraces technology and national best practices.

• Easy Reporting: Create an online portal where residents can report issues and track repairs.
• Smarter Promotion: Use Rec & Parks’ social media platforms—Instagram, TikTok, Facebook—to showcase every sport and program across the county, from the most popular to the lesser-known, like youth wrestling and hockey. Every child should know what opportunities exist in their community.
• National Standards: Maintain CAPRA accreditation, tying funding and grants to best-in-class standards.
• Continuous Improvement: Establish an internal task force to make sure processes don’t just keep up—but lead.
• Support Drone Recreation: Create a public GIS map that clearly identifies where drones and radio-controlled aircraft can be flown in compliance with FAA rules and local restrictions. We will also establish a simple, real-time permitting process through Recreation and Parks, supported by an interactive dashboard to ensure fair and transparent access.

Pool Access for Every Family

Baltimore County is one of the only major jurisdictions in Maryland without public pools. The last ones were closed in the 1960s rather than be integrated—a historic injustice never corrected. Today, families must rely on pools at private clubs, which is unfair and exclusionary. Instead, we need a system that is affordable and accessible to everyone with a commitment to ensure everyone can learn, play and compete.

The BaltCo Swims Pass

We will launch a countywide swim pass that expands access to pools across Baltimore County, with pricing on a sliding scale so that every family can participate with easy and flexible plans. This is similar structure that other communities use around the country which provides equitable and affordable access to pools and swimming programs for residents of every age while remaining budget neutral.

With this program we will:

• Reclaim Public Access: Renegotiate the public-private partnership with the YMCA of Central Maryland to ensure their pools are accessible through the Swim Pass and aligned with public use.
• Partner for Access: Coordinate with trusted community institutions like the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore and local swim clubs to subsidize memberships and expand available pool locations.
• Build for the Future: Invest in new public pools, prioritizing sites at or near high schools to create shared community assets and expand student swim programs.

This is a practical, proven model that delivers equitable access, strengthens community partnerships and reinvests directly in our recreational infrastructure and young people.

Through modernization, smart systems and targeted investment, we will expand and improve recreation across Baltimore County so everyone who lives and works here can play, connect and belong.