Perry Hall Residents Willing to Pay to Keep Students Out of Neighborhood

Residents of a neighborhood near Perry Hall High School say they have so many problems with student commuters that they are now willing to pay to keep them out.

The Baltimore County Council Monday unanimously approved a resolution that expands an existing residential permit parking area to 10 more homes along Perryvale Road and Jacinth Way.

Elected officials, police and residents in the area said the neighborhood has become a gathering place for teens.

Councilman David Marks said neighbors have become concerned with the influx of student commuters who park in the neighborhood.

“The idea is to try and encourage the students to park on the [high school] campus and out of the neighborhood," Marks said.

Beginning this week, residents can now pay an initial fee of $32 for the first year for a residential parking permit and $12 thereafter to renew it.

Marks and other officials hope the expanded residential permit only parking area will reduce the numbers of students who park in the area when school re-opens in the fall.

A review by the county Department of Public Works found that 21 of the 28 available spaces in the area are used when school is in session. Of those, 15 were found to be owned by non-residents.

The survey found that the 188-space lot at the school had between 47 and 76 open spaces on the same days as the study.

“[T]hese vehicles could easily be accommodated on the school parking lot if they were not parked within the residential community,” according to the study.

Perry Hall High School charges students $40 a year to park on campus, according to the study. County officials said this could be one factor pushing commuters into the adjacent neighborhood. 

Capt. Michael Balog, commander of the White Marsh Precinct, said other students may simply be parking there in order to smoke cigarettes off school grounds and hang out with their friends.

“They act like teenagers when they’re together and some times they do stupid things that annoy the residents of the neighborhood,” Balog said, adding that school resource officers and administrators have provided numerous warnings to students asking them not to congregate in the neighborhood.

The effort has stopped short of what he called “cigarette enforcements,” which Balog said some residents want.

“If we see unruly behavior we stop it but I am not clogging up the juvenile justice system with cigarette violations,” Balog said.

One woman who testified last week before the County Council asked not to be identified because of fear of retaliation. 

“They figure out who it is,” the woman said, adding that teens race up and down the road and frequently hang out on the corner of Perryvale and Jacinth.

“There’s a lot of drug smoking and trash at that corner,” the woman said. “They’re taking over the area with their gang mentality. They own the streets.”

Balog said the fear of retaliation by some residents is not completely unjustified.

Last year, a Perryvale Road homeowner was slapped by an 18-year-old student. The homeowner, who had previously complained about graffiti on her fence, was following the advice of police and school officials by taking photos of students gathered outside her home when the student approached her and slapped her.

George Roberts, principal at Perry Hall High School, could not be reached for comment. A secretary at the school said Roberts and other school administrators were out of the school for several days. 

Roberts did, however, write a letter supporting the permitted parking.

“We have some unanimity of support for this,” Marks said.