Editor's Note: County Councilman-Elect David Marks submitted the following opinion editorial as a letter to the editor on Wednesday, Dec. 1. Another letter, written by Marks to the Towson community, can be found on Towson Patch here.  

It is a great honor to represent Perry Hall on the Baltimore County Council. For much of the past decade, I served as President of the Perry Hall Improvement Association. My approach as County Councilman will be very similar: I will try to be very visible and inclusive, and push the envelope to get things done.

My immediate priority is to get the Perry Hall Community Plan adopted into law.  Residents have worked on this plan for 15 months. The Community Plan includes a lot of good suggestions for moving Perry Hall forward. It simply needs to be approved by the County Council.

The "wish list" in the Perry Hall Community Plan is very long—and expensive.  Unfortunately, Baltimore County will have limited resources over the next four years. That is why I will ask the administration to try to finish projects that are already underway.

At the top of this list is Asbury Park, one of two parks proposed at Honeygo Boulevard across from Camp Chapel United Methodist Church. The county received state support to develop this park in 2007, and additional money will come from the planned unit development at Nottingham Ridge. Once Asbury Park is finished, money can hopefully be appropriated for the Perry Hall Mansion and three other unfinished parks.

Another urgent priority is to acquire land for a new high school, ideally in the White Marsh area. The money isn't there to finish the school, but we should at least preserve the land from development.

Finally, I want to do whatever I can to revitalize some of our aging commercial areas.

I want to thank the people of Perry Hall for their support. I will do my very best to uphold the confidence you have placed in me.

David Marks

County Councilman-Elect, Fifth District