Community Input

A plan to add as many as six businesses to Loch Raven's Ravenwood Shopping Center is back for approval from Baltimore County officials -- this time without the formal community input that impeded the expansion two months ago.Saul Centers Inc., owner of the Ravenwood center, received an exemption from the county's development review committee that would allow the owner to resubmit plans for the 7-acre site.A review of the plans by county agencies is needed, but no community hearings are required under the exemption.

It is time for the Baltimore public schools to recognize wh their customers are. Students and their parents, along with the larger community where those students will live and work, are the consumers.The school system needs to maintain a dialogue with those customers to come up with a plan for changing school attendance zones that parents and the community can and will support. To accomplish that, the current process needs to stop, and a new one -- including meaningful community input -- must be put in its place.

Harford County residents would have more to say about what developers are building next door to them if proposed legislation is passed by the County Council this fall.The bill, which will be introduced before the County Council next month by Teresa Pierno, a Democrat representing District C, and Susan B. Heselton, a Republican from District A, would require a community input meeting before plans for residential, commercial and industrial subdivisions are submitted to the Department of Planning and Zoning.

Hayden says ads won't deter himBecause of the recent paid radio advertising campaign sponsored by the Fraternal Order of Police-Baltimore County Lodge No. 4, I thought it important to set the record straight on a number of impressions left by these advertisements.Starting in September 1992, an ongoing effort has been made by every department in county government to identify every job, every function and the necessity of each. This inventory is designed to show any duplication of functions within or among departments.

Community Input: Good Idea Or Boondoggle?I would like to comment on the latest political grandstanding by the Theresa Pierno anti-growth coalition. This small group of people is attempting to stifle the economic health of Harford County with Council Bill 93-75.I say "grandstanding," due to the fact that this legislation's sole purpose is to ensure that the public may have a forum to comment on proposed developments. The Department of Planning and Zoning already has in place a vehicle for this.

Rush To JudgmentPredictably, The Sun's stable of liberal columnists have again attacked Rush Limbaugh, this time for his move to that other Baltimore liberal bastion, WBAL radio.Michael Olesker's column accuses Limbaugh of "playing fast and loose with the facts." But . . . one wonders where Olesker got his "facts" to play with.Yes, Limbaugh openly admitted to perhaps twice smoking pot, decades ago, but "savages Clinton" only for his own waffling about using it. Limbaugh also admits to only becoming politically involved in the last decade, so he naturally would have "rarely bother[ed]

County Councilwoman Theresa Pierno, D-District C, will discuss the community input bill, which was recently introduced to the County Council, at a luncheon meeting to be sponsored by the Route 40 Business Association at 11:30 a.m. Nov. 9 at Giovanni's Restaurant, 2101 Pulaski Highway, in Edgewood.The bill seeks to include public comment in the development and review of residential, industrial, and commercial projects in Harford County.The meeting is open to the Harford County business community.

More than 200 people packed Harford County Council chambers Tuesday night supporting and opposing a controversial bill seeking more community input in the development process.While dozens of individuals praised the proposed legislation that would give residents a chance to comment on what is being built in their neighborhood, others -- representing Realtors, builders and business interests -- called the proposal an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.At issue is a bill introduced before the County Council last month by Theresa M. Pierno, D-District C, and Susan B. Heselton, R-District A.The bill would require that a community input meeting be held xTC before plans for residential, commercial and industrial subdivisions are filed with the Department of Planning and Zoning.

This legislation sounds like the right thing to do, letting the community have its say when any development is planned in the neighborhood.The process might help to prevent the irate reactions of residents who awake one morning to find the backhoes and bulldozers at work next door.Many times, the community raises important concerns only after construction has started. Then, it's too late to do something about it, or it's too costly for the developer to make the changes.Public hearings on specific projects are usually held only if there's a change in zoning or an exception requested.

Community Input Legislation NeededDo you recall the company that proposed building a mall at Md. 24 and Interstate 95? Councilwoman Theresa M. Pierno organized the Community Coalition, which militated against the mall and succeeded in stopping it. That company at least was honest and upfront with its intentions.Now take a look at Wal-Mart in the same location. There appears to have been some sort of agreement between Wal-Mart, the property owner, Planning and Zoning and Permits to be secretive until it was too late for community input.

Fearful for their safety and property values, Canton residents are furious over a decision by the Baltimore school system to put a new middle/high school in their neighborhood. Neighbors of Canton Middle School say its students have repeatedly attacked and harassed them, and they thought the trouble would be over when the school closes within the next year. Now, the system is planning to use the building to house one of six new combined middle/high schools run by outside operators. City Councilman James B. Kraft, who represents the area, is so angry about the decision -- which he said was made with no community input -- that he is threatening to hold up the school system's budget when it comes before the council for approval.

A county library and community center are planned for Arbutus at a site rejected by Baltimore County officials several years ago because of residents' opposition. The county-owned parcel at Sulphur Spring and Selford roads near the Huntsmoor neighborhood is being considered again because county officials couldn't find another suitable site for the facilities, Councilman Stephen G. "Sam" Moxley, said yesterday. But because some residents remain opposed to the location, Baltimore County is going through its own development process, which includes a community input meeting and a hearing, where residents will be allowed to discuss concerns.

TODAY PLANNING BOARD -- 6 p.m. work session, County Courts Building, Room 407, 401 Bosley Ave., Towson. COMMUNITY INPUT MEETING -- 7 p.m. Randallstown public library, 8604 Liberty Road, on Run Crossing, a proposal for 114 condominiums. COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD -- 7:30 p.m. meeting, ESS Building, Room 114, on the Greenwood Campus, 6901 Charles St., Towson. Board members will get a report on school staffing and consider a proposed restructuring plan for Woodlawn Middle School. TOMORROW DEVELOPMENT PLAN -- Conference at 9 a.m., County Office Building, Room 123, 111 W. Chesapeake Ave., Towson, on a proposal for 20 single-family dwellings at Sandoval Property, north side of Windsor Mill Road at northeast corner of Mayfield Avenue.

Baltimore City Community College's board of trustees has appointed a 13-member search committee to help the board pick the college's next president, with three forums planned to solicit community input. The board is seeking to replace Sylvester E. McKay, who resigned in May 2004 after a report by the nonprofit Abell Foundation criticized the college's academic performance. Richard M. Turner III has been serving as interim president since McKay's resignation. On the search committee, trustees board member Kirsten Sandberg Caffrey will be chairwoman, and trustees board vice chairwoman Katrina Riddick will be vice chairwoman.

A meeting has been scheduled for 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at the St. Paul Community Baptist Church, 1901 E. Federal St., to give city officials community input before they issue a request for proposals for possible redevelopment of the long-vacant American Brewery. Housing officials said they decided to issue an RFP after a developer expressed interest in the nearly 2-acre site in the 1700 block of Gay St. near North Avenue, which the city has owned since the late 1970s and which consists of an 1887 brewhouse and a separate bottling plant.

A bill that would create Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr.'s program for encouraging revitalization of older neighborhoods was introduced during last night's County Council meeting -- nearly a year after the executive first proposed the concept. The legislation is a modified version of Smith's original "renaissance" plan, a widely critiqued program that has been the subject of community and advisory group meetings and review by the county executive's staff for months. But while the discussion included a public hearing held by the County Council in May, yesterday marked the first time the council has been asked to approve the program.

Woodlawn High School PTA President Van Ross can't say enough good things about Baltimore County Executive C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger. For years, she and others fought with the school board to relieve crowding at Woodlawn, a school built for 600 that had 2,000 students, to no avail. Eventually, Ross called the county executive's office, and she was pleasantly surprised when she was able to talk on the phone with Ruppersberger. He met with parents and found the money to expand the school.

In Baltimore City Pratt is meeting with residents to discuss future The Enoch Pratt Free Library is holding community dialogues this week at branches around the city to discuss development of a long-range facilities and services plan. The sessions, all scheduled for 6 p.m., will be held at the Herring Run branch today; Reisterstown Road tomorrow; Northwood on Wednesday; and Light Street on Thursday. Library officials hope that community input -- with the expertise of Dubberly Associates, an Atlanta library consulting firm, can help shape the Pratt's future.

Democrat James T. Smith Jr. was narrowly fending off Republican Douglas B. Riley in a surprisingly tight race yesterday for Baltimore County executive. The heavily favored Smith held a slim but growing lead with 80 percent of precincts reporting in the largely Democratic county, where only two Republicans have ever been elected to the position. In other county executive races in the Baltimore region, Republican incumbent James M. Harkins scored an easy victory over Democratic challenger Paul Gilbert in the race for Harford; Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens, a Democrat, was clinging to a narrow lead last night over Republican challenger Phillip D. Bissett, a former state legislator; and in Howard, incumbent County Executive James N. Robey won re-election easily in a race against Republican Steven H. Adler.

Acknowledging complaints about the proposed path and the process used to promote the high-speed maglev train, Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend last night criticized handling of the proposal by state transportation officials, but did not abandon her support for the $3.5 billion project. "I think it's important to get community input. Clearly, I think they [residents of Anne Arundel and Howard counties] have not been consulted," she said. "They have not been included early enough in the process."