Comprehensive Plan

The county has scheduled more Grassroots Gatherings for residents to get involved in the Carroll County Comprehensive Plan. The Pathways Web site (car rollpathways.org) includes a calendar of all community meetings associated with the plan. Agendas for the fall meetings are available by clicking on the specific community meeting on the calendar section of the Web site. Interested people can register to be on an e-mail list at the "Contact Us" page. Meetings include: McKinstry's Mill/Linwood/Marston: 7 p.m. tomorrow, Linwood Brethren Church, 575 McKinstry's Mill Road.

A controversial big housing development in western Maryland that was reported last fall to be shelved apparently has new life. Terrapin Run, which sparked lawsuits and legislation to strengthen the state's Smart Growth laws, is back on track, Columbia developer Michael Carnock told WCBC radio in Cumberland.  He said he hopes to proceed with his original plan to build 4,000 townhomes in eastern Allegany County. The developer had reportedly been trying to sell the 935-acre site near the Green Ridge State Forest, and Allegany's county commissioners agreed to drop their lawsuit against the state planning and environment departments to aid a sale, according to the radio station.

The candidates for Carroll County commissioner on the Nov. 8 ballot, Republicans Donald I. Dell, Richard T. Yates and W. Benjamin Brown, and Democrats Elmer C. Lippy, Rebecca A. Orenstein and Grover N. "Sam" Sensabaugh, were asked to respond to the following questions: What existing measures will you use to control Carroll County's residential growth? What new measures are needed? Their responses appear below:The primary tool used to control growth in Carroll County is the comprehensive plan and the zoning ordinance and maps xTC which implement it. By continuing to support this overall plan, the majority of the county will remain rural with a very small amount of residential growth.

It's a start. Baltimore City's decision to consider selling or otherwise turning over 15 city-owned historic landmarks to new ownership or management is a step in the right direction. But is it well thought out and does it go far enough? For decades the city's enormous collection of historic properties has languished. It has been clear for some time that neither municipal resources nor will are sufficient to provide the stewardship these properties require and deserve. The situation has worsened with every passing year, so I applaudMayor Rawlings-Blake's recent action.

Planners from Carroll County and Westminster met last night to discuss the county's proposed comprehensive plan for the area surrounding the city.The plan will deal with issues such as traffic congestion and water availability."

The Freedom Comprehensive Plan, a land-use program that will guide growth in South Carroll - the county's most populous area - for the next five years, won unanimous approval from the county commissioners yesterday. Steven C. Horn, county director of planning, reviewed comments from a public hearing last month before the commissioners' vote, the first major revision to the 1977 plan for the area, which has tripled in population in the past 24 years to nearly 30,000. The bulk of residents' concerns were with schools and roads that have not kept pace with development.

Bel Air needs to expand existing roads and build new ones to alleviate congestion if the Harford County seat is to avoid major traffic problems by the year 2000.That's a top recommendation put forth in a proposed comprehensive plan for Bel Air. Such plans provide guidelines for a community's development.The plan lists recommended highway improvements, but Carol Deibel, Bel Air's planning director, said the suggested improvements depend on the approval of, and funding by, the state and County.

Carroll County planners are asking residents living in the unincorporated areas around Westminster to air their ideas about the region's future. When planners open an informal workshop to the public on Wednesday, it will be the first time in five years that residents will have a forum to express opinions about the Westminster Environs Community Comprehensive Plan. The plan, in draft form, includes recommendations crafted after a series of public hearings in 1999. "Our objective is to weed out anything that is objectionable to the public initially," said Daphne P. Daly, one of the county's comprehensive planners and leader of the Westminster environs project.

A Carroll County planner recommended to the Finksburg Planning Area Council last night that it begin a two-year process leading to a comprehensive plan -- the first for the area since 1981. "This is a new process," said Daphne Quinn, a comprehensive planner for the county, "and there will be some give and take in how we go through it." Quinn plans to ask the county planning commission Oct. 20 to authorize a full update of the plan for the area. The so-called miniplan would focus on growth and zoning issues in Finksburg, which is unincorporated and has no officials to be consulted, unlike in the county's eight incorporated towns.

When developer James W. Rouse revealed plans in 1963 to build a "new city" in Howard County, he predicted that it would have more than 100,000 residents by 1980. Nearly five decades later, Rouse's planned community - named Columbia in 1964 - still hasn't officially crossed that numerical threshold, federal and local planners say. But it appears poised to do so within the next few years. According to both the U. S. Census Bureau and Howard County's Department of Planning and Zoning, Columbia had between 99,000 and 100,000 residents as of December 2011, and that number has essentially held steady for the past several years because of a lack of housing construction.

In what some see as a critical test of a recent Smart Growth law, environmental groups and some property owners have filed suit to overturn the recent decision by Queen Anne's County's commissioners to zone 525 acres of Eastern Shore farmland for development. The suit, filed Thursday in Centreville, charges that the commissioners violated state law Nov. 8 in narrowly approving rezoning of four farm tracts, two of them in the headwaters of the Wye River and one in the Choptank River watershed.

In the past several weeks, the Oakland Mills Village Board has been presented with three separate plans for tree planting in Columbia Association open spaces that are now grassy areas. Are there more proposals to come? So far we haven't been told. I appreciate the willingness of CA watershed manager John McCoy to come and discuss the reasons for these changes with the community, but what was missing is the comprehensive plan for all of these important changes to Columbia's landscape.

Your editorial "After the downgrade" (Aug. 9) completely misses the real reason for the debt downgrade by Standard & Poor's. Rather than a "rejection of doctrinaire politics" as you describe it, the downgrade expressed a totally realistic concern about our inability to manage the massive debt which has ballooned under this administration. While those tea party members who opposed any increase in the debt ceiling may have been short-sighted, their concerns were well-founded and are shared by most Americans.

I recently read the article titled "Bill would all City Council to dedicate funds for school facilities" written by Erica Green ( June 1). I applaud the Baltimore City Council for taking a strong and affirmative action to address Baltimore City's efforts to improve its public school facilities. The initiative taken by the City Council to set up an account to pay for school construction and athletic facilities is something I've strongly advocated for in my many years of public service.

As the climate continues to change as a result of human actions, the government has done little to regulate the known causes of the problem. Consider Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's recent proposal to restrict the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions. Such actions disregard the science behind greenhouse gases and their relation to global warming. Contrary to Senator McConnell and his ilk, we need an effective response to global warming.

Baltimore City Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot unveiled an ambitious initiative this week aimed at improving the overall health of Baltimore citizens by 2015. It sets practical goals for reducing the most serious health risks and acknowledges that achieving them will take the combined efforts of the city's hospitals, schools, social services agencies, foundations and private businesses. If it works, it will be a major achievement for Dr. Barbot, who arrived in Baltimore a year ago. But the plan is maddeningly short on details about how such a complex collaboration would actually work and who would direct the effort.

The problems facing our government today have never been more serious, the issues never more complicated, the situation never more dangerous, and the solutions never simpler. The critical issue is neither Republican nor Democratic but a problem for all Americans. The "Gang of Six" after months of working together have produced a comprehensive plan to address the deficit. It may not be perfect, but it is a good starting point. Mr. President, Baltimore just laid to rest its best ever mayor with a flourish.