Neighbors Worry About Expansion of Towson U.

The growth of Towson University is a concern to the neighborhoods around the institution, according to a recent article in The Towson Times. Loni Ingraham, a reporter for the paper, says that residents in the area can't quite figure out how the university will absorb the 25,000 students it plans to enroll by 2018 — especially since the university will have only 8,075 on-campus beds and 8,750 parking spaces.

A spokeswoman for the university said that only 18,000 of those students would be attending the university full time. But representatives of surrounding neighborhoods are concerned that more houses will be purchased by absentee landlords and rented to students. (Disclosure: This reporter is a resident of one of the surrounding neighborhoods.)

A resident of nearby neighborhood told Ms. Ingraham that he had little faith in the university's enrollment projections, given that growth over the past five years was five percent a year, when the university had predicted one percent in 2003. —Scott Carlson