People in Bowleys Quarters say Milton Rehbein is easy to like.
He's a native of the tight-knit shore community in eastern Baltimore County. And he put in or rebuilt just about everyone's pier or bulkhead.
But his plan to turn the old family marina into upscale condominiums has divided a waterfront hamlet still coming to terms with change in the aftermath of a punishing tropical storm.
How strong are feelings running in Bowleys Quarters? The local community association has endorsed the proposal - and opponents say they will push to impeach the group's president at what is expected to be a stormy meeting tonight.
"It will change the whole complexion of the place," Janet Walpert, a 26-year Bowleys Quarters resident, said of the plan for the marina, which would require the waiving of zoning regulations. "If the law is changed for one, what's to stop the next development? It sets a precedent."
Some local residents say the project proposed for Galloway Creek Marina has sparked more debate than any of the building projects launched in Bowleys Quarters since Tropical Storm Isabel in 2003. Hundreds of houses were severely damaged or destroyed, according to Baltimore County. Many of the cottages and shore shacks that characterized the peninsula were replaced with much larger, taller and more expensive homes.
Supporters of Rehbein's plan say it would be a worthy addition to the area.
"Some people don't want any kind of change," said Charles Marek, a doctor whose family has owned a home on Bay Drive since 1929. "I see it as a way of improving the neighborhood. I don't think there will be as many cars as there are coming and going from a marina."
Still, opponents worry about traffic problems, and signs reading "No condos" are posted in yards. They see no need to change a community plan - written and revised over the decades - that calls for single-family homes along the waterfront.
Settled in 1715 by a shipwrecked English captain, Daniel Bowley, the wooded waterfront peninsula was owned in large part by a duck-hunting club at the turn of the 20th century, according to historians. By the 1920s, shore homes were being built by families from Baltimore as weekend and summer retreats. During World War II, when the area defense industry flourished, more families lived in Bowleys Quarters year-round, according to residents.
Bowleys Quarters, bound on three sides by Galloway Creek, Seneca Creek and the Chesapeake Bay, still has more marinas - about a dozen - than stop lights.
