Development

A vote by the Baltimore County Council on Monday will bar new development at Green Spring Station in Lutherville for the near future. Developers cannot build near intersections graded "F" under the county's "basic services maps," which identify deficiencies in public infrastructure throughout the county. The council approved the maps Monday. The intersection of West Joppa and Falls roads near Green Spring Station — which has shops, restaurants and offices — had been labeled failing for about a decade, and the planning board recommended "F" again this year.

How bad is traffic at Falls and Joppa roads in Baltimore County? It depends whom you ask, and the answer could determine whether the county allows additional growth near the intersection. A dispute over the intersection near Green Spring Station, a collection of shops, restaurants and offices in Lutherville, was the subject of a County Council discussion last week. Council members are scheduled to vote Monday on the county's "basic services maps," which identify deficiencies in the county's sewer, water and transportation infrastructure plans.

Baltimore County is preparing to sell three taxpayer-owned properties to private developers, but members of the public won't know all the details of what they're planning until officials make a decision. County leaders said last week they would not release proposals for the North Point Government Center in Dundalk, the Towson fire station, and a police substation in Randallstown after The Baltimore Sun filed a Public Information Act request. Don Mohler, County Executive Kevin Kamenetz's chief of staff, said the county wants to keep the documents under wraps so that the procurement process is "devoid of any kind of external pressure.

I applaud The Sun for its recent editorial on income inequality ("Labor reawakens," April 27). The increasing income inequality in this country affects the ability of families to survive, much less thrive, on what they earn from minimum wage jobs. The editorial highlighted a labor strike by Chicago low-wage workers and their "Fight for 15" rally. Yet the fact that Baltimore workers are organizing around "fair development" was mentioned in only one sentence. I wonder why The Sun did not find it important to cover the local "reawakening" here by reporting on the Fair Development Rally and March held April 20th.

The Baltimore Development Corp., the city's economic development agency, is looking for an outside consultant to provide an analysis of the city's "economic development landscape," according to a request for applications issued Tuesday. The consultant is being asked to assess the city's "existing economic conditions, obstacles, opportunities for expansion, and strengths," as well as identify "priorities and options to move the City's economy forward" and figure out a way "to track the success of new initiatives in terms of job growth, investment, and economic impact," according to the request for proposals.

Gov. Martin O'Malley on Tuesday called last week's indictments of 25 inmates and correctional officers at the Baltimore City Detention Center "a very positive development" in the state's fight to dismantle violent gangs in state prisons. A day after returning from a weeklong trade mission to Israel, the governor told a State House news conference that he is standing firmly behind Secretary of Public Safety and Correctional Services Gary D. Maynard in the wake of a federal probe that found widespread corruption and smuggling at the city jail.

Here we go again: City leaders want to invest more public dollars in the Inner Harbor ("Improving the city's 'playground,"' April 24). One would have thought had learned from the mistakes of the past. The Inner Harbor long has symbolized the wrong turn our city took in its economic development strategy. We have invested in high-profile projects that benefit a small segment of the population while neglecting ordinary residents and their neighborhoods. In 1970, before the Inner Harbor was redeveloped with enormous infusions of public money, 5.3 percent of Baltimore's housing units were vacant.

Developers plan to build 1,700 housing units near a mixed-use business park in White Marsh, saying it will "supercharge" an area that had previously been targeted for job creation. The $100 million development, Greenleigh at Crossroads, would be part of the 1,000-acre Baltimore Crossroads @95. Baltimore County officials announced the plans Wednesday with representatives from developer St. John Properties and Somerset Construction Co. St. John officials said they'll break ground on the 200-acre project — which will include single-family houses, townhouses, condominium units and apartments — within the next year to 18 months.

A Harford County Council bill designed to block the proposed move of Walmart's Abingdon store about two miles to the north to a plot near the intersection of Route 924 and Plumtree Road came to strange end last week. The bill, which initially seemed to have strong support as it was co-sponsored by four of the seven members of the county council, came up for action last week in a legislative session and died a procedural death. A motion for action on the legislation was made, even as dozens of people in favor of it were in attendance to monitor what promised to be tumultuous legislative session.

The folks at "House of Cards" sure love the Baltimore area. Not only is the majority of the political thriller filmed in and around the city (and, full disclosure, in The Baltimore Sun newsroom), now the show's head honcho, Beau Willimon, is slated to come to Towson University on Wednesday (April 24) to discuss how he developed the addictive series. According to a Towson University press release, Willimon will speak at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday in Van Bokkelen Hall, Room 204. The event is free and open to the public.