The board of the Rolling Road Golf Club has proposed moving the course from its 90-acre property on Hilltop Road to state-owned parkland in Oella.

The proposal is still in its early stages, and local lawmakers and golf club representatives say the brewing backlash is premature. Any move would not only need to be approved by the club’s membership, but be negotiated with state and local officials.

The club’s board wants to sell its land on Rolling Road for potential development as housing, retail or even athletic fields. In partnership with Ribera Development, it would build a new golf course on 206 acres of land on Frederick Road in Patapsco State Park leased from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Ribera would swap other land adjacent to the park in exchange for the Frederick Road land.

Rolling Road Golf Club President Rick Sovero wrote to club members that the move would “re-establish Rolling Road as a premier facility in Maryland.”

The decision must be approved by the golf club’s 370 members and Beltway Realty, which owns the Rolling Road property, Sovero said.

“If they say no, everything’s a moot point,” said Terry Fram, who currently leases the Frederick Road property from the state for equestrian uses.

Nearly all of the property is occupied by her Patapsco Horse Center, which offers boarding. She uses five acres for the nonprofit Maryland Council for Special Equestrians, which specializes in horse therapy for kids and adults with disabilities. The farm also houses Plot Twist Horse Farm, which offers riding lessons and education programs at local schools.

Fram has leased the site since 1988 and holds a lease for the next 22 years, but can “assign” it to someone else with the approval of the state Department of Natural Resources, she said.

DNR, which oversees the state park, “has not committed to sell, lease” or transfer any of its land there, and any forthcoming deal hinges on “buy-in from the community,” spokesman Gregg Bortz wrote in an email.

The proposal for the Oella location was presented to club membership earlier this month in an email that called for discretion “until such time as we have an agreement in place and a tangible announcement to make,” Sovero wrote to the club.

The leaked email ignited opposition.

“We don’t want more development,” said Catonsville resident Joann Kruger, echoing sentiments posted by opponents on social media.

Kruger said the schools and roads already are overcrowded, especially South Rolling Road, which abuts the golf course.

The golf club’s board has been weighing relocation options since the early 2000s, Sovero said.

Established in 1919, the private club’s current location is “limited in size, obviously,” and leaves little room for expansion to attract new members, he said. The new site would allow it to add a driving range, a clubhouse and a swimming pool, Sovero said.

There are no cost estimates for the proposal, nor a timeline on when members will be asked to vote on it, a Ribera Development spokesman said.

The club’s members voted down a previous proposal to relocate to Dogwood Road in Woodlawn in 2004. Eight other properties have been considered since by the club board, but “they were not close enough to Catonsville to keep this a Catonsville club,” which was important to its members, said John Stamato, a partner with Ribera Development.

The parkland is about 5 miles from the club’s current location.

Development on the land is encumbered by restrictions imposed by the U.S. Park Service-administered Land and Water Conservation Fund, which has provided money for the property the golf club is seeking. The conservation fund requires properties it supports “to be open for use by the general public,” Bortz wrote in an email.

That requirement is “strictly enforced” by DNR and the Park Service, Bortz said, but the conservation fund’s definition of what qualifies as public use is broad; it includes walking and driving for pleasure, swimming, fishing, boating, hunting, horseback riding, bicycling, snowmobiling, skiing, “and other outdoor sports and activities,” according to the conservation fund’s manual.

Some horseback riding group activities already functioning on the farm could be considered private uses, Stamato said.

If a land exchange moves forward, Ribera would be required to donate an equivalent acreage of land to the state. Ribera has identified several parcels adjacent to Patapsco Valley State Park for donation and is reviewing them with DNR, Stamato said.

“Generally, I am against the sale of public land, whether it’s parkland or whether it’s state-owned property, for the use of potential development without any kind of public input,” said Del. Pat Young, a Baltimore County Democrat.

Relocating the club would require “all these steps for the community to be involved,” Young said. But the club hasn’t “even gotten that far yet.”

The current club property near Catonsville High School, the Community College of Baltimore County and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County campuses could be redeveloped to include “athletic fields and recreational facilities, much needed land for the expansion of the [UMBC] tech park, housing directed towards UMBC students, retail and a UMBC-themed hotel,” according to a statement from Ribera Development.

A UMBC spokesman said the school is not involved with any plans for the golf course property.

The golf course property is zoned for residential use, limiting development density to 3.5 homes per acre. Opening the door for student housing or a retail center would require that the developer seek approval for a planned unit development from the Baltimore County Council, Councilman Tom Quirk said.

Young and Quirk plan to address the proposal during a Greater Oella Community Association meeting Wednesday evening.

Quirk, a Catonsville Democrat and council chairman, said he met with a Ribera representative and a land-use attorney regarding the proposal, but that “this is a decision that will take a lot of time, community input and thought.”

“I share the same concerns and issues that the community does,” Quirk said.