Acres Of Land

Ginette Mathiot,91, the best-selling French author of millions of cookbooks sold worldwide, died Sunday in Paris.Her "Je Sais Cuisiner," (I know how to cook) was a bible for generations of French homemakers preparing everything from lobster bisque to crepe suzette.First published in 1932, it sold more than 5 million copies, translated into English, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Serbo-Croatian and Japanese.Bernardo Yorba,77, a descendant of an 18th-century Spanish soldier who was awarded tens of thousands of acres of land in what is now Orange County, died Saturday in Los Angeles.

In Jim Slayton's and Rob Hradsky's living room, a verse has been painted in flowing script over the camel-back sofa. It reads: "Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." For the two men, that simple saying is indicative of their life's work, joy and sacred pledge to the care of their four adopted children and the reason for their move into a 6,500-square-foot Colonial-style home in Woodstock, Md. "We have a commitment to adopting," said Slayton, a nurse in the Howard County Public School System.

1963: Rouse purchase unveiled As Columbia residents gather this week for a series of meetings to chart the future of the city's downtown, consider this: On Oct. 29, 1963, developer and financier James W. Rouse told county officials that his was the "mystery" firm that had purchased more than 14,000 acres of land in central Howard County and he intended to turn in into a "balanced planned community." According to an Oct. 30 article in The Sun, the announcement "ended months of speculation on the identity and purpose of the `mystery' buyer of what had been termed as a `land grab' in some quarters."

Gov. Martin O'Malley has announced approval of conservation easements that will preserve a 70-acre property in the county. The Board of Public Works approved four easements statewide, totaling 460 acres, including Anne Arundel County's South Rural Legacy Area. The Anne Arundel easement, which preserves 24 acres of woodland and 40 acres of cropland near the border of Calvert County, will be held by the county. The South County property is part of a farmland base that produces corn and soybeans.

RICHARD H. GOODWIN, 96 Nature Conservancy president Richard H. Goodwin, a botanist who as national president of the Nature Conservancy in the late 1950s and mid-1960s helped preserve thousands of acres of open space on both coasts, including 1,100 acres around the farm where he lived in East Haddam, Conn., died July 6 in East Lyme, Conn. The death was confirmed by his son, Richard Goodwin Jr. Dr. Goodwin, the Katharine Blunt professor emeritus of botany at Connecticut College in New London, was president of the Nature Conservancy from 1956 to 1958 and again from 1964 to 1966.

Land baron: Besides being a master deal maker and cable news pioneer, Ted Turner is the nation's biggest landowner, according to Worth magazine. In its February issue, Worth reports that Turner owns 1.3 million acres of land in six states: New Mexico, Montana, Nebraska, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. The magazine says Turner's holdings include eight ranches, three plantations and an island.Look again: Accountants Ernst & Young reminds taxpayers about some easily overlooked deductions: Did your house sustain damage from last winter's bad storms?

The state Board of Public Works has released $140,862 to Carroll County, officials said yesterday.The payment, made Wednesday, reimburses the county for the purchase of 18.2 acres of land near Hashawha Environmental Appreciation Center near Westminster."

A three-way land swap between a developer in Western Anne Arundel County and two county offices could mean a new elementary school for the Provinces community.While the deal awaits completion and still must be approved by the Board of Education, officials are reasonably sure the arrangement, proposed after two years of discussions, will work out."The problem has always been getting something for everybody," said Marshall Zinn, vice president of Curtis F. Peterson Co., developers of Russett, a planned 3,500-unit community being built at Route 198 and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway in Maryland City.

RINGGOLD, Texas -- Two days after a fierce brushfire swept through this rural cattle town, cinders still smoldered in the ruins yesterday. The air was heavy with the smell of smoke and everywhere there were mangled metal, ash heaps and ugly swaths of black, charred earth. "It came up on us so fast there was nothing to do but get out of the way and watch the town burn," said Kent Hanson, 49, who lost 300 acres of land in the blaze. Here in Ringgold and elsewhere across Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, frequent high winds and a lingering drought have turned bone-dry communities into giant tinderboxes.

Anne Arundel County has purchased almost 60 acres of land in Shady Side with plans to turn it into a large recreational park within the next several years, county officials announced yesterday.The county bought 57.68 acres on the northeast tip of the Shady Side peninsula from the estate of F. C. Smith, a south county farmer and former owner of the Shady Side Market, for a little more than $1 million, Joe Cannon, director of recreation and parks, said yesterday.The land -- to be named Jack Creek Park -- is bordered by Jack Creek to the north, Chesapeake Bay to the east, Snug Harbor to the south and Idlewilde Road to the west.

Funds for park, recreation projects approved The Maryland Board of Public Works last week approved $5.76 million in Program Open Space funding for eight park and recreation projects in Anne Arundel County. Total funding of $5,768,954 was awarded for these projects: * $692,000 for stadium renovations at Chesapeake High School. * $470,000 to acquire 4.5 acres of land surrounded by the Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary, and $1,827,000 to buy 140 acres of land adjacent to the sanctuary. * $1,264,000 to purchase 66 acres of forested riparian land near the headwaters of the South River.

GRASONVILLE -- The lands that once belonged to Arthur Kudner Jr. spread across Queen Anne's County like a lush carpet. From the main road, the forest appears to have no end, and acres of soybean fields hug the shimmering blue of Prospect Bay. Even on the rural Eastern Shore, this much land - more than 1,500 acres - is hard to find, and harder still to keep pristine. So when the estate went up for sale, nearly every land trust in the state took notice. But none could afford to buy it. Then David Sutherland made a $20 million gamble.

Gov. Martin O'Malley's plan unveiled last week to more clearly delineate and quantify the reasoning behind state land purchases is a sensible approach. Certainly, Program Open Space has proved its worth over the years. By setting aside a portion of real estate transfer taxes for land conservation, the state has been able to buy tens of thousands of acres of land for public use - and to prevent private misuse. But as the recent brouhaha over Open Space purchases on Kent Island has demonstrated, such decisions can easily become controversial.

RICHARD H. GOODWIN, 96 Nature Conservancy president Richard H. Goodwin, a botanist who as national president of the Nature Conservancy in the late 1950s and mid-1960s helped preserve thousands of acres of open space on both coasts, including 1,100 acres around the farm where he lived in East Haddam, Conn., died July 6 in East Lyme, Conn. The death was confirmed by his son, Richard Goodwin Jr. Dr. Goodwin, the Katharine Blunt professor emeritus of botany at Connecticut College in New London, was president of the Nature Conservancy from 1956 to 1958 and again from 1964 to 1966.

Cambridge -- The Ehrlich administration announced yesterday that it plans to spend $10.4 million to preserve about two-thirds of a contested development site near the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. The effort to save 754 acres of Eastern Shore farmland marks a change in direction for the administration, which previously declined to get involved in what it called a mostly local land-use decision. The purchase agreement will still allow developer Duane Zentgraf to build more than 600 homes, marketed to senior citizens, on 326 acres of farmland on the southern fringe of this city.

The Ehrlich administration is paying $6.5 million to buy more than 500 acres on the Eastern Shore so the land can be preserved as open space. But county officials say the property is largely wetlands that could not have been developed in the first place - and local developers say it is worth only a fraction of what the state is paying. According to Worcester County records, about 70 percent of the 572-acre tract along Assawoman Bay at the Delaware line is marsh that could not be developed under state law. The rest of the land, known as the Weidman Farm, is cropland and woodland that is so remote it has no access to county water and sewer service.

The Baltimore County Council approved last night the creation of a new zoning classification designed to limit development of some rural tracts. The council voted unanimously to create the classification, which would allow one lot to be developed on properties of 10 acres or less and three lots to be developed on a 50-acre tract. The bill had limited development at four lots for properties of more than 50 acres, but it was amended yesterday to allow one more lot to be developed for each additional 50 acres of land.

Rezoning plan comments clarified There has been a great deal written about the rezoning of 24 acres of land in the Brooklyn Park Small Area Plan. While most of the information reported by The Sun has been accurate, a recent letter to the editor, (Mr. Eamonn McGeady, Oct. 2) was filled with inaccuracies and misquotes. I cannot allow these mischaracterizations to be published without correcting them. First, the Brooklyn Park Small Area Plan represents years of work on the part of the citizens and community groups in Brooklyn Park.

On the campaign trail, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. boasts that he has preserved more than 60,000 acres of land since taking office almost four years ago. "One in five acres in Maryland today is in permanent easement protection -- that's a big deal," he said last week. What he doesn't say is that his administration has preserved a fraction as much land as former Gov. Parris N. Glendening, who made land conservation a signature policy. Maryland protected 220,000 acres from development under Glendening in the four years before Ehrlich became governor, and more than 80,000 acres during the Democrat's first term, according to state agencies.