Deal For Senior Housing At Doughoregan Crumbles

Erickson's decision continues a slowdown in senior housing. According to a recent state population study, 30 percent of new homes built in Howard County in the first years of the decade were for seniors, but that dropped to 16.2 percent starting in 2008.

Angela Beltram, a former member of the County Council and slow-growth advocate who lives in western Ellicott City not far from Doughoregan, said she was disappointed to hear the news, for both personal and public reasons.

Beltram had hoped to move to the proposed senior housing community, and its cancellation renews her fears about what development could eventually occur.

"I know all about Charlestown ... and Oak Crest Village," Beltram said of two other Erickson communities in Baltimore County. They are affordable, attractive and well-run, she said.

"The fear is the extension of public facilities [water and sewer lines] for residential development," she said. "If it was just for Erickson, I had no problem."