Acres Of Land

Maryland's top prosecutor has found no criminal wrongdoing by Harford's county executive and county attorney in a land transaction early this year that involved a developer with political ties to the administration. County Executive James M. Harkins released a letter yesterday written by State Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli analyzing the county's decision to relinquish its claim to 3.12 acres of land and water on the Bush River, allowing Gablers Shore Marina LLC to take title. The county said it had no right to the property because it was acquired in error as part of a conservation package put together in the 1990s.

ORLANDO, Fla. - The hired hands are milling around the barn in the gray light of dawn, getting ready for another day in the saddle, when Jennings Overstreet pulls up. In this rustic corner of Osceola County, Fla., miles from the rush-hour masses swarming to the north, morning is unfolding to an almost-forgotten rhythm amid the smells of sweet hay, leather and damp earth. A dog barks at the stir of activity; the horses snort and shuffle impatiently. Down on Lake Tohopekaliga, in front of the house Overstreet's father built in 1935 for $800, a flock of sandhill cranes feeds noisily.

The Rouse Co. is best known for its retail meccas, including Baltimore's Harborplace and Boston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace, and its planned communities, Columbia and, Summerlin, Nev., outside of Las Vegas. With tens of thousand of acres in each of those communities, plus smaller land holdings elsewhere, Rouse has a less-flashy third business that's helped anchor it in a cyclical industry, Wall Street and real estate experts note. That business? Land sales. Rouse has kept a tight rein on land that it sells to other developers for offices, homes and other projects.

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.

Baltimore County's newest park has an unusual but inspiring message: "Cancer -- There is hope."The 1-acre parcel at Goucher Boulevard and Fairmount Avenue in Towson will be dedicated today, with life-size bronze sculptures, a cascading waterfall, a computerized registry of cancer survivors and a "Positive Mental Attitude Walk."The 10 a.m. ceremony for the Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Survivors Park will feature its largest benefactor, Richard A. Bloch, co-founder of H&R Block and a cancer survivor.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - People from the mountains of Appalachia have many a tale to tell about coal and timber companies that bought up their land, ripped out the minerals or cut down the trees and shipped most of the profits out of state.But some residents are writing a new ending to those stories as their communities find a way to protect their small corners of the world. While few individuals have the money or resources to take on giant, multinational companies, nonprofit community groups are buying parcels of land to form land trusts.

Almost 2,500 acres on 52 sites in Baltimore County could be covered by the state's proposed "brownfields" legislation, which would clear the way for redevelopment on polluted properties.But the list of properties identified as possible sites -- which includes parts of Martin State Airport, Dundalk Marine Terminal and land along Back River -- is still preliminary and may not be made final for more than a year, said Robert L. Hannon, county director of economic development."They have the potential to be hazardous waste sites," Hannon said.

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?

NEWLIN TOWNSHIP, N.C. - About 20 miles west of Chapel Hill (where old oaks and poplars have been cut down for a parking lot) and a few miles south of Interstate 85 (where commuters zoom to Raleigh or Greensboro) is an endangered land of tall corn and lush pastures with cows and longhorn cattle.Quakers came here 200 years ago, when they ran out of land near Philadelphia, and their descendants still farm along roads that bear ancestors' names.That was when the names of places still stood for something, like Snow Camp, a town where General Cornwallis spent the winter, and Silk Hope, where some fellow in the 1700s imported worms, hoping they would make silk from all his mulberry trees.

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.