Baltimore County is planning to spend $6 million to buy the shuttered St. Pius X Catholic Church property in Towson, with officials aiming to tear down the long-closed elementary school and replace it with new ball fields and green space. The school building has sat empty since June 2021, and regular worship at the church ended in 2024, leaving a prominent York Road parcel in limbo for years as neighbors pushed for it to become public parkland instead of private redevelopment.
The county wants to transform the site into a park connected to neighboring Forge Park, according to WYPR, which reports the old elementary school would be demolished while the church building would remain standing for now. County officials expect new ball fields to rise on the property, and the station notes the state will cover more than half of the acquisition cost — $3.5 million — toward the $6 million price tag.
Per the same account, the county hopes to close the deal by January, though the WMAR-2 News reporting on the plans notes no exact timeline has been announced for the broader project. The Baltimore County Council is scheduled to vote on the proposed purchase Monday, as reported by a report that also notes the proposed purchase follows more than two years of discussions on preserving the St. Pius X property for public recreation.
A Community Group Years in the Waiting
For the Towson Recreation Council, the prospective deal represents the possible end of a long-running squeeze on field space. Stephen Giordani, speaking for the group per WMAR-2 News, said the council faces growing demand for recreational programs while having limited facility access, and that St. Pius X could help meet the community's need for additional field space and recreational facilities.
Giordani added that Towson looks forward to updates as plans progress, according to the same report. The crunch is not new: the Towson Rec Council has struggled for 20 years with a lack of playing fields, according to the Rodgers Forge Community Association, which described the property as 5.5 acres at 6342 York Road ahead of its sale by the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
Other accounts give conflicting figures for the site's size and address. WYPR describes a 10-acre property on York Road near the city-county line adjoining Forge Park, while The Baltimore Banner reports the county is seeking to acquire almost 13 acres of land behind St. Pius X Church at 6428 York Road. A commercial listing on klnb.propertycapsule.com separately describes a 10.022-plus-acre institutional campus at 6428–6432 York Road. The discrepancies remain unresolved across the available reporting.
Why Towson Needs the Space
The Banner's reporting ties the push to a broader strain on recreational facilities as Towson has grown. The county seat's population has swelled by more than 20% since 1990, and the number of young people playing sports has more than doubled, per the Banner's coverage. The outlet also notes that the former school includes a gym the Towson Recreation Council hopes could be preserved for basketball and the possible expansion of other indoor sports.
That squeeze has produced some unusual scheduling: field shortages have caused some of Isabella's soccer matches to start at 9:30 p.m. on weekdays, according to the Banner. A separate Banner report on the county's new Sparrows Point Park notes that sports teams have almost doubled in number since the 1980s and that more girls are now playing lacrosse and field hockey, both adding to the pressure on existing fields.
A Deed With Strings Attached
Should the purchase close, WYPR reports the proposed deed will restrict how the county can use the property, barring specified abortion-related activities, certain birth-control sales or promotion, adult entertainment and pornography, certain alcohol uses, gas stations, massage parlors or prostitution-related uses, and marijuana-related activities. No primary deed or purchase agreement has been made public to verify the full scope of those terms.
The county has recent experience building out big recreational sites: it opened Sparrows Point Park, a $25 million, 22-acre recreation area that includes playing fields, an indoor gym, a playground, a 16,000-square-foot community center, walking paths and accessible waterfront facilities, according to the Banner. The county contributed more than $12 million in general fund money to that project, the outlet reported — a comparison that gives some sense of scale for what a fully built-out St. Pius X park might eventually require, even though no final site plan for the Towson property has been released.
