Business Zones

A proposal by Baltimore County planners for the creation of a "community business zone" designed to enhance neighborhoods drew opposition at a public hearing Thursday night from the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors and McDonald's fast-food restaurants.The new zoning classification would favor small neighborhood businesses and restaurants while banning service stations, nightclubs, fast-food restaurants and all large retail stores except supermarkets and drugstores."While such uses are appropriate when located apart from residential neighborhoods, they are inappropriate when placed in close proximity to someone's home," planners from the Baltimore County Office of Planning and Zoning wrote in the proposal offered for public comment Thursday.

The Baltimore City Council on Monday approved a new map for the city's enterprise zone that significantly realigns and diminishes its footprint, from 22,000 acres to 14,000 acres. The zone is designed to support investment in and improvement of impoverished sections by offering tax breaks to businesses in the areas. The state reimburses the city for half the lost tax revenue. The new map, created by the Baltimore Development Corp., eliminated residential areas but also cut out some business zones that have seen a change in fortune over the last decade, including Harbor East and Harbor Point.

Community activist John W. Taylor is angling for a large crowd at tomorrow night's Zoning Board hearing on the comprehensive rezoning of western Howard County.Taylor, president of the slow-growth lobby Howard Countians for Responsible Growth, said his group distributed 2,000 fliers during the weekend, urging residents to attend the hearing.The fliers were unlike those his group passed around three days before a public meeting last June, Taylor said. The June fliers were credited with producing an angry crowd that practically hooted the Rural Land Use Study Commission off the stage for suggesting clustered housing alternatives to the current one-house-per-three-acre zoning inrural Howard County.

Maxine and Robert Walker have worked to restore their historic Woodbine farm since they bought it in 1994. Their latest project is to replace the rotting wood on the side of their old yellow barn after rebuilding the stone foundation and replacing the tin roof. To help pay for renovations at Harwood Horse Farm, they want to rent out part of their land for private parties and open an antiques store in an old shed. As they've sought approval from Howard County, though, the Walkers have lost friends, they say. Neighbors along quiet Jennings Chapel Road have fought for five years to stop them, pointing to the threat of traffic, litter and growing commercialization.

Hampstead officials moved last night to restrict the types of business that will be allowed under the town's general business zoning category.In a 3-1 vote, council members agreed to remove truck terminals and warehouses from general business zoning. The council plans to ask the town's Planning and Zoning Commission to amend the town's industrial zoning category to include the two uses.Council members Jacqueline Hyatt, Wayne H. Thomas and Dwight W. Womer agreed that those uses are improper in all of Hampstead's general business zones.

Hampstead's Planning and Zoning Commission voted last night to recommend that town officials revise the ordinance governing general business zoning.Under the revised ordinance, Hampstead's Board of Zoning Appeals would have the final say over whether some property uses, such as truck terminals or golf driving ranges, would be allowed in general business zones.Concerns about the zoning -- which is the town's most liberal type of business zoning -- arose when plans for a tract of Roberts Field Business Center came before the commission.

Zakhar Trutstsi, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, looks on his pawnshop in the Woodmoor Shopping Center as the capitalist dream come true."My partner and I came to this country 13 years ago, drove cabs at Dulles Airport, paid our taxes and saved our money to start this business just like good Americans do," Mr. Trutstsi said.But community leaders along the Liberty Road corridor in northwestern Baltimore County see the pawnshop, the Gold Trading Center, as something quite different.

If the Westminster City Council approves a zoning ordinance after a public hearing on Jan. 22, the signature of Mayor Thomas K. Ferguson will keep ink from flowing in certain sections of the city. By keeping tattoo parlors from setting up on Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, city officials said they are seeking to retain a more traditional downtown Westminster and limit businesses in nearby residential areas to certain categories. "The vision [for downtown] is with primarily merchants in the retail business, shops that offer a unique shopping experience that you might not be able to experience, for example, in a mall or shopping center," Ferguson said.

The Baltimore City Council on Monday approved a new map for the city's enterprise zone that significantly realigns and diminishes its footprint, from 22,000 acres to 14,000 acres. The zone is designed to support investment in and improvement of impoverished sections by offering tax breaks to businesses in the areas. The state reimburses the city for half the lost tax revenue. The new map, created by the Baltimore Development Corp., eliminated residential areas but also cut out some business zones that have seen a change in fortune over the last decade, including Harbor East and Harbor Point.

Hampstead's planning and zoning commission decided last night not to recommend that the Town Council reconsider what businesses to allow under general business zoning.The proposal offered by commission member Dennis Wertz, which lost by a 3-2 vote, would also have asked the council to consider rezoning tracts three, four and five of the Roberts Field Business Center from general business to local business.Local business zoning, designed to provide retail services to a residential community, is more restrictive than general business use.Mr.

If the Westminster City Council approves a zoning ordinance after a public hearing on Jan. 22, the signature of Mayor Thomas K. Ferguson will keep ink from flowing in certain sections of the city. By keeping tattoo parlors from setting up on Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, city officials said they are seeking to retain a more traditional downtown Westminster and limit businesses in nearby residential areas to certain categories. "The vision [for downtown] is with primarily merchants in the retail business, shops that offer a unique shopping experience that you might not be able to experience, for example, in a mall or shopping center," Ferguson said.

After more than 10 years of discussion, drafting and revising, the Carroll County commissioners unanimously approved employment campus zoning yesterday, adopting an ordinance that would designate land for business parks and guard industrial parcels against commercial use. The county commissioners said they have laid the groundwork for the creation of high-tech business parks and well-paying jobs. The zoning will help the county increase its industrial land and keep "the talent and potential we have moving through the county now working here instead," said Commissioner Dean L. Minnich.

Eric Anderson would like to use his cell phone more at work, where his job as director of tech services for a law firm keeps him away from his desk. But on the upper floors of the Sears Tower he usually cannot get a wireless signal. "If my cell phone worked, it would give me another communication option," Anderson said. Wireless signal problems at the downtown Chicago skyscraper underscore a problem also found in subway tunnels, airports and other high-traffic areas. As people become more dependent upon cell phones, loss of signal becomes more frustrating.

County officials, including two lame-duck commissioners, will consider a new zoning designation tonight to create business parks that would attract light industry and provide professional job opportunities. County planners drafted the ordinance with the goal of keeping more of Carroll's working residents closer to home. Nearly 60 percent of the work force in the county leaves every day for jobs elsewhere. But the proposed ordinance is too vague and allows the county too much latitude in land use, say critics.

Hoping to attract light industry and provide professional job opportunities, the county commissioners moved forward yesterday on a plan to create zoning for business parks throughout Carroll. The "employment campuses," as they are described in an ordinance the commissioners reviewed yesterday, could be centers for high-tech businesses, satellite college classes or office parks designed to mesh with their surroundings. Commissioner Robin Bartlett Frazier said the goal is "to have these blend in, not stand out."

Westminster Common Council voted unanimously to rezone downtown businesses at its meeting Monday. The new downtown business zone, developed as part of Westminster's comprehensive plan, is meant to reflect the idea that downtown businesses need different zoning requirements from those in suburban or heavily commercial and industrial areas. The downtown business zone is more restrictive than the business and restricted industrial zones it replaces. Only those types of businesses listed in the ordinance are allowed.

In anticipation of purchasing 21 acres to expand Taneytown Memorial Park, the Taneytown City Council delayed several rezoning votes last night.Tomorrow, the state Board of Public Works is expected to approve a $321,000 grant toward the purchase of the land adjacent to the park. The acquisition would prompt a zoning change from industrial to open space, said City Manager Chip Boyles.Boyles proposed several changes last night that had been recommended by the city's planning and zoning commission.

The expansion of Green Spring Station -- criticized by neighbors who fear increased traffic congestion -- could be pre-empted by legislation before the Baltimore County Council that would to limit the construction of large office buildings near rural areas.Councilman T. Bryan McIntire, a Republican who represents Owings Mills and the northwestern part of the county, said he introduced the bill to protect county farmlands that is adjacent to business zones.He declined to say whether the bill targets the Green Spring projects.

A lawyer representing an adult entertainment store in Elkridge argued yesterday in Howard County Circuit Court that his client's business was actually a theater and permitted under zoning regulations.Yesterday's arguments were the latest in a long legal battle over the future of Adult Video & Books, owned by Nathaniel Lightfoot, on U.S. 1.Lawyer Howard J. Schulman told Judge James B. Dudley that the store was a theater -- a use permitted in manufacturing zones like the one where the store is located -- because it has several viewing booths that show adult movies for a price.

In anticipation of purchasing 21 acres to expand Taneytown Memorial Park, the Taneytown City Council delayed several rezoning votes last night.Tomorrow, the state Board of Public Works is expected to approve a $321,000 grant toward the purchase of the land adjacent to the park. The acquisition would prompt a zoning change from industrial to open space, said City Manager Chip Boyles.Boyles proposed several changes last night that had been recommended by the city's planning and zoning commission.