Apartment Building

The Federal Communications Commission is expected tomorrow to ban future - and nullify existing - exclusivity contracts between cable television providers and apartment building owners. The move is designed to open the doors for competitors, potentially driving down prices. Groups such as Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. lobbied for change, hoping to gain new customers in Maryland and elsewhere while taking on cable television leaders such as Comcast Corp. But traditional cable companies and those representing apartment building managers criticized the move, arguing that the action will hurt renters.

Perched on a hillside above historic Ellicott City's Main Street, Howard County's new 25-unit Tiber-Hudson apartment building was designed as a welcome refuge for vulnerable older people. The earth-tone block, brick and glass building is owned by the county's Housing Commission and is designed for those ages 62 and older with limited incomes and who are struggling with a variety of medical and housing problems. The three-story, $3 million building is intended to allow residents to stay, even as they become more frail.

Baltimore police, housing inspectors and social workers swept through an apartment building in historic Mount Vernon yesterday morning, responding in force to complaints from tenants and area residents about drugs and crime.The raid at 7: 30 a.m., carried out by the city Housing Authority at the Stafford Towers Apartments just north of the Washington Monument, led to the arrests of three people wanted on misdemeanor warrants.Authorities checked each of the 96 federally subsidized apartments, looking for everything from leaky pipes to cases of child abuse.

A critical shortage of qualified Baltimore schoolteachers has prompted the Abell Foundation to team with a local developer who plans to renovate a vacant Charles Village apartment building for young teachers.The Astor Court, at the southwest corner of St. Paul and 25th streets, could become a recruiting tool for school officials looking to attract young people apprehensive about moving to the city.The idea is as old as the country. Settlers once guaranteed housing for young schoolteachers who would move west to the frontier.

With accolades usually reserved for a retail giant or corporate employer, downtown Baltimore will dust off its welcome mat today for its newest resident -- a 144-unit apartment building.The 21-story Gallery Tower Apartment Homes at 111 W. Centre St. will hold its grand opening today. It is the first of nearly a dozen apartment projects that would add about 1,200 apartment units to 3,000 units that already exist -- and usually have a waiting list attached.Nearly 500 apartments will be completed or under construction by the end of this year, and 600 more are planned for 2000, said the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore Inc., a public-private economic development group that is spearheading the housing renaissance.

Two men were killed and six people were left homeless when a two-alarm fire swept through a three-story apartment building in Harford County early yesterday, the state fire marshal's office said.The fire apparently started about 5: 30 a.m. in the third-floor unit occupied by the dead men at 1610 Denise Drive in the Harford Village Apartments in Forest Hill, said the fire marshal's office.Allen Gosnell, a spokesman for the state fire marshal's office, said one man was thought to be in his 20s and the other in his 30s. Their names were being withheld pending notification of relatives.

Fire heavily damaged a three-story apartment building in Westminster yesterday, one day after the adjacent Goodwill store was destroyed by flames.Fire officials said the two incidents were unrelated.Westminster Fire Department Lt. Charles J. Simpson said the six apartments at 79 W. Main St. were empty because of smoke damage from Thursday's fire."It's a big old house built in 1860 that has had several structures added to it," Simpson said. "The front part is a three-story brick building with six apartment units."

A proposed 12-unit apartment building for senior citizens off Main Street in Ellicott City was rejected last night by the Howard County Historic District Commission, which called the facility's design "inappropriate" for the quaint historic town.Although the controversial public facility had the approval of the county Department of Planning and Zoning, Historic District Commission member Richard Williams said the "serene and beautiful spot" the building would stand on should maintain its rustic, small-town appeal.

On a clear day, you can see all the way to Highlandtown, but plans to put a 15-story apartment building near the 27-story HarborView condominium complex on Key Highway have Federal Hill residents worried about the view.An announcement of $75 million in venture capital financing for a 275-unit building on the 42-acre HarborView property is expected next week. While current zoning laws -- passed when the city approved the condominium project in the late 1980s -- allow for up to six skyscrapers on the old Bethlehem Steel shipyard site, residents are hoping developers exercise restraint.

A 19-year-old man shot and killed himself last night shortly after he fired a handgun at police officers responding to a report of an armed man in an Annapolis apartment complex, city police said.Capt. Zora Lykken of the Annapolis Police Department said Terico Wells, who had no fixed address, fired a handgun several times outside an apartment in the first block of Marc's Court in the Bayridge Gardens Apartments shortly after police officers arrived about 5: 30 p.m. The shots missed the officers but hit a police car.Lykken said Wells ran into an apartment hallway when an officer returned fire without hitting him.Moments later, Wells came out, knelt on the ground in front of the apartment building and shot himself in the head.

The developer of Westport's waterfront is selling an acre of the property along Baltimore's Middle Branch of the Patapsco to a company planning to build a luxury apartment building - part of the first phase of new construction in the proposed $1.2 billion mixed-use community. Baltimore-based Turner Development, headed by developer Patrick Turner, has signed a contract with Landex Development LLC for a parcel at the southern end of the development site a block from the Westport light rail station.

Ocwen Loan Servicing gives penalty fee refunds Ocwen Loan Servicing has refunded nearly $675,000 to borrowers in Maryland after charging them prepayment penalties that violated state law, Maryland's Office of the Commissioner of Financial Regulation said Wednesday. After the financial regulation office found some violations, Ocwen checked all its Maryland mortgages and sent refund checks to more than 180 borrowers at the end of last month, the state said. - Jamie Smith Hopkins Senior housing complex in Middle River almost done The first phase of the 196-home, $43 million Renaissance Square development in Middle River is nearing completion, with a senior housing apartment building expected to open to residents in December, developer Enterprise Homes said Wednesday.

Baltimore County Fire Department officials continue to investigate a four-alarm fire that extensively damaged a Cockeysville apartment building late Thursday. No injuries were reported in the blaze, which caused about $900,000 worth of damage and forced the evacuation of 33 families, according to fire officials and the American Red Cross of Central Maryland. The fire, reported at 11:40 p.m. at the Hampton Manor Apartments in the 200 block of St. David Court, went to four alarms in a matter of minutes and brought firefighters from at least a dozen stations, fire officials said.

Harford County sheriff's deputies have arrested a Joppatowne woman and charged her with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a Kentucky man, whom she knew, in her apartment building Wednesday. Harford County sheriff's deputies were called to an apartment building in the 600 block of Harborside Drive about 3:35 p.m. Wednesday. They found a man on the living room couch, dead from several gunshot wounds to the torso, from a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun. Sgt. Dave Betz, spokesman for the sheriff's office, identified the man as Charles W. Shourds, 59. Police found Rebecca Kinsler, 43, at a neighbor's apartment, where she was arrested without incident.

Police say a 28-year-old man was fatally shot in Mount Vernon after two men burst into his apartment building and placed a gun to his mother's head. The shooting occurred Dec. 6 in the 700 block of N. Howard St. Travis Makofski, 28, lived in a first-floor rear apartment with his mother, who was superintendent of the building. About 2:15 a.m., the doorbell rang and the mother went to the front entrance door of the triplex. Two men shoved the door open and one of them placed a gun to her head, police said.

Fire erupts in apartment In Laurel; no one is hurt 3 More than 70 firefighters spent an hour battling a blaze that broke out in a six-story apartment building in Laurel yesterday afternoon, Anne Arundel County fire authorities said. The three-alarm fire began about 2 p.m. in a fifth-floor apartment in a building in the 3500 block of Laurel Fort Meade Road and was apparently caused by a malfunctioning furnace, said Battalion Chief Matthew Tobia, a Fire Department spokesman. The apartment's lone occupant was not home, and no residents or firefighters were injured, he said.

Developers of a proposed $75 million luxury apartment building in midtown Baltimore have secured financing and started construction on the project near the University of Baltimore. The Bozzuto Group, which will develop and manage the Fitzgerald at UB Midtown in a venture with the university and other partners, said yesterday that it obtained a $52 million construction loan from Bank of America and RBS Citizens and $23 million in equity funded by the New York State Teachers' Retirement System.

Fires in two apartment buildings yesterday - one in Northeast Baltimore about noon and the other about 5 p.m. in Baltimore County near Reisterstown Road Plaza - injured at least one resident and displaced many others, authorities said. Also yesterday, two male residents of a house in the Orangeville community were taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center for treatment of carbon monoxide poisoning, the result of a malfunctioning gas furnace and kitchen stove. Their conditions were not available.

Bealefeld confirmed as city police commissioner Baltimore's City Council overwhelmingly confirmed Frederick H. Bealefeld III as the city's police commissioner last night, and a spokesman said Bealefeld likely would be sworn in today. Mayor Sheila Dixon nominated Bealefeld as commissioner early last month and his confirmation by the 15-member council was expected. The council voted unanimously - with one abstention - for confirmation. "Commissioner Bealefeld has given us real, tangible results over the past few months, and I am ready for him to officially lead his police force," Dixon said in a statement.

A man suspected of running down two plainclothes city detectives near the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg YMCA in Waverly yesterday afternoon was arrested several hours later in a Bolton Hill apartment building. Recovered in the apartment after members of the Western District's SWAT team broke down the door was more than $130,000 in cash and a large quantity of cocaine and marijuana, said Deputy Commissioner Anthony Barksdale during a news conference outside the Cecil Apartments building in the 1100 block of Eutaw Place.