Community Members

At 7:30 on a typical weekday morning, Kathleen Brennan is sipping tea in the kitchen of her Towson home, letting out her dog and otherwise getting ready for work. Her morning routine does not include jostling for space in a crowded hallway as rock music blares from overhead speakers and flocks of teen-agers make their way to class. But that's where she found herself one morning this week. Minutes later she was in a high school classroom for the first time in 17 years as English teacher Steve Hollands began his lesson on Odysseus and the Greek warrior's travels through the Underworld.

Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr.'s proposal for streamlining the development process has come under attack from community organizations, who say they would be excluded from critical project planning meetings that Smith had promised would promote greater public involvement. The county executive's proposal, presented to the Planning Board last month, calls for the establishment of special revitalization districts. As planning for redevelopment projects in these districts begins, developers and community members would take part in an intensive set of meetings.

Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. sent draft legislation to the Planning Board yesterday calling for a new development process designed to create traditional Main Street-type communities featuring a mix of shops, offices and homes. The draft fleshes out Smith's proposal, announced two weeks ago, to give developers proposing projects in older communities the chance for quick approvals. In exchange, the developers would engage in an intensive, seven- to 14-day collaboration with county officials and community members, known as a "charette."

When she arrived at Calvin M. Rodwell Elementary School six years ago, Principal Cynthia M. Winkler was astounded to learn that her students had virtually no recess, and with good reason - what should have been the playground was nothing more than scrubby grass, cracked asphalt and broken glass. "The children didn't even go outside," Winkler recalled. "They ate lunch, and then they went back to their classrooms." To the school's teachers and parents, the situation was plain wrong. Children, even those from the city's poorest corners, should have swings and slides and monkey bars.

Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. is set to unveil his first major legislative initiative today - a new development process designed to speed revitalization of underused or vacant commercial properties in older communities. Dubbed "Renaissance Redevelopment Regulations," Smith's proposal would give developers more flexibility and allow them to obtain approval faster on sites approved by the County Council. It would also give county officials and the public the chance to provide ideas at the beginning of a project rather than after the developer has made a plan, as is now the case.

Developers planning subdivisions in eastern Howard County or projects that require conditional-use permission must meet with neighbors before submitting plans to the county. The next meetings are: Monday at 6 p.m. at 1050 Sunset Valley Drive, Sykesville, for a conditional-use proposal for a two-family dwelling there. Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at Mildenberg, Boender & Associates, 5072 Dorsey Hall Drive, Suite 202, Ellicott City, for a proposal to build eight homes on 4.7 acres of the Coon property, 10695 Harding Road.

Members of the National Civilian Community Corps have built a children's garden at Mount Pleasant Farm, the home of the Howard County Conservancy in Woodstock. "We gave them a piece of land, and we said, `We want some kind of garden,' " said Martha Moore, volunteer coordinator for the conservancy. "They looked at it, and they said, `Children's garden!' " About 12 young adults, ages 18 to 24, spent the past month working on the conservancy's land, which is used for conservation programs and environmental education.

Developers planning subdivisions in eastern Howard County or projects that require conditional-use permission must meet with neighbors before submitting plans to the county. The next meetings are: Monday at 6 p.m. at Fisher, Collins & Carter Inc., 10272 Baltimore National Pike, Ellicott City, about a proposal for two units on 2 acres at 10151 Rodona Drive. Wednesday at 5 p.m. at 8651 Stonehouse Drive, Ellicott City, about a proposal for three units on 2.482 acres at that site, a re-subdivision of lot 309, Daniels Mill Overlook.