Enterprise Zones

A California-based retailer is opening a warehouse and distribution center in an Essex industrial park that will bring in up to 100 jobs over the next six months.Restoration Hardware, a specialty home furnishings store, will open its East Coast distribution center in September in the Marshfield Business Park in the 8400 block of Kelso Drive.The company, based in Corte Madera, signed a seven-year lease with UPS Properties for 276,000 square feet of warehouse space in a building vacated by County Seat, an apparel maker that has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Hoping to keep and attract jobs in Maryland's targeted growth areas, Gov. Parris N. Glendening has expanded enterprise zones in Baltimore City and in Baltimore and Harford counties by 1,000 acres.State enterprise zones -- areas in which companies can get credits on property and employment taxes -- were expanded yesterday to include Cherry Hill and Westport in the city, the Bethlehem Steel Shipyard in Dundalk, the Lockheed Martin plant in Middle River and the planned Rite Aid regional distribution center in Perryman.

State economic development officials designated parts of three counties as enterprise zones yesterday, hoping to bring jobs and help jump-start languishing economies.The new enterprise zones in Cecil, Wicomico and Worcester counties bring to 35 the number of areas in the state offering tax breaks and other incentives to business in exchange for job creation.In Cecil, the enterprise zones designated by the state's Department of Business and Economic Development in Elkton, Perryville, North East and Port Deposit represent the first ones in the rural county.

Baltimore will ask the state to renew or add "enterprise zone" status, which gives tax breaks to growing businesses, in parts of the city's southwestern section.The expanded zone would include Port Covington, Westport and parts of Cherry Hill, all older, economically challenged tracts on the Patapsco River's Middle Branch. Port Covington has been an enterprise zone for almost a decade.It's time to renew it, and "we said this could be extended and give a boost to Westport and Cherry Hill," said M. Jay Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corp.

With Baltimore County's first business enterprise zone now in place along North Point Boulevard, economic development officials say they are contemplating a second zone to boost industry in the southwestern area.Economic Development Director Robert L. Hannon said his office is looking at census tracts in the Lansdowne-Arbutus-Catonsville area to see whether they might meet the state requirements for enterprise zones.Yesterday, state and county officials and several local businessmen held a news conference to announce creation of the county's first enterprise zone, covering 2,370 acres in the southeastern area.

TOWSON -- The final round of public hearings in the county's quadrennial comprehensive rezoning process will begin tomorrow night when the County Council meets at Franklin High School, 12000 Reisterstown Road, to hear concerns about issues in the 3rd Councilmanic District, which covers Owings Mills and the north and western county.A hearing on issues in the southwestern 1st District is scheduled for Thursday night at Lansdowne High, 3800 Hollins Ferry Road. Another on issues in the northwestern 2nd District will be held Sept.

The state has approved parts of Halethorpe and nearby areas in southwest Baltimore County for "enterprise zone" status, a switch that will give tax breaks to companies that make investments and boost employment in the economically stagnant area.Gov. Parris N. Glendening, who has said he wants to control sprawl and steer growth to developed areas, was expected to announce the change today, along with enterprise zone status for downtown Silver Spring."The Baltimore County zone is, in fact, a perfect example of where growth should occur," Glendening said.

Edgewood has been named one of four new enterprise zones in Maryland, a designation that will mean tax breaks for businesses relocating, expanding or renovating in the eastern Harford County community.It also means that businesses in the zone, which stretches along the U.S. 40 corridor from Joppatowne on the Harford-Baltimore County line to Route 755, will receive up to $3,000 for each person they hire who is unemployed or underemployed, according to the Marilyn Corbett, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of Economic and Employment Development.

Turning to a strategy long used by Baltimore City to stir economic development, officials in Baltimore County are proposing the creation of their jurisdiction's first enterprise zone.The proposed zone includes 2,370 acres sprawling haphazardly from the Baltimore Beltway at Pulaski Highway south along North Point Boulevard to the Bethlehem Steel Corp. plant at Sparrows Point.Economic Development Director Robert L. Hannon asked County Council members yesterday for a resolution to apply for the state program, which would give tax credits to industries expanding within the zone or "enhancing the value" of properties there.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton marked the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday yesterday by opening the competition for 104 inner-city and rural-development zones that are expected to receive at least $7 billion in federal funds and tax breaks."

Despite flagging revenues and a dismal financial outlook, Maryland is moving ahead with plans to support development related to the influx of thousands of military jobs here from the base relocation and closure process. State officials have their priorities straight. In providing $5 million to help finance improvements in five newly created enterprise zones, Maryland can direct growth where it wants it, promote mass transit use and capitalize on a major federal investment. The five locations selected by the state as BRAC zones fit the objectives of smart growth: redeveloping industrial sites, building high-density areas and providing transit access.

House passes measure on child lead poisoning Members of the House of Delegates passed a measure Saturday that would allow earlier intervention to prevent childhood lead poisoning and to require landlords to clean up lead problems. The House unanimously supported the measure, which is one of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s legislative priorities this session. The governor has joined a nationwide effort to eliminate childhood lead poisoning by 2010. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration, where it is expected to have support.

In Baltimore City $500,000 bail set for man charged in 3 traffic deaths Bail was set at $500,000 yesterday for a Baltimore man charged with three counts of vehicular manslaughter in a May traffic accident in Northeast Baltimore. Prosecutors allege that Michael William Anderson Jr., 31, of the 4300 block of Harford Road had a blood-alcohol level of 0.18 percent - more than twice the legal limit - while he was driving a van that struck several vehicles near Morgan State University before shearing a car nearly in half and leaving three members of one family dead.

A California-based retailer is opening a warehouse and distribution center in an Essex industrial park that will bring in up to 100 jobs over the next six months.Restoration Hardware, a specialty home furnishings store, will open its East Coast distribution center in September in the Marshfield Business Park in the 8400 block of Kelso Drive.The company, based in Corte Madera, signed a seven-year lease with UPS Properties for 276,000 square feet of warehouse space in a building vacated by County Seat, an apparel maker that has filed for bankruptcy protection.

State economic development officials designated parts of three counties as enterprise zones yesterday, hoping to bring jobs and help jump-start languishing economies.The new enterprise zones in Cecil, Wicomico and Worcester counties bring to 35 the number of areas in the state offering tax breaks and other incentives to business in exchange for job creation.In Cecil, the enterprise zones designated by the state's Department of Business and Economic Development in Elkton, Perryville, North East and Port Deposit represent the first ones in the rural county.

Hoping to keep and attract jobs in Maryland's targeted growth areas, Gov. Parris N. Glendening has expanded enterprise zones in Baltimore City and in Baltimore and Harford counties by 1,000 acres.State enterprise zones -- areas in which companies can get credits on property and employment taxes -- were expanded yesterday to include Cherry Hill and Westport in the city, the Bethlehem Steel Shipyard in Dundalk, the Lockheed Martin plant in Middle River and the planned Rite Aid regional distribution center in Perryman.

Baltimore will ask the state to renew or add "enterprise zone" status, which gives tax breaks to growing businesses, in parts of the city's southwestern section.The expanded zone would include Port Covington, Westport and parts of Cherry Hill, all older, economically challenged tracts on the Patapsco River's Middle Branch. Port Covington has been an enterprise zone for almost a decade.It's time to renew it, and "we said this could be extended and give a boost to Westport and Cherry Hill," said M. Jay Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corp.

The state has approved parts of Halethorpe and nearby areas in southwest Baltimore County for "enterprise zone" status, a switch that will give tax breaks to companies that make investments and boost employment in the economically stagnant area.Gov. Parris N. Glendening, who has said he wants to control sprawl and steer growth to developed areas, was expected to announce the change today, along with enterprise zone status for downtown Silver Spring."The Baltimore County zone is, in fact, a perfect example of where growth should occur," Glendening said.

TOWSON -- The final round of public hearings in the county's quadrennial comprehensive rezoning process will begin tomorrow night when the County Council meets at Franklin High School, 12000 Reisterstown Road, to hear concerns about issues in the 3rd Councilmanic District, which covers Owings Mills and the north and western county.A hearing on issues in the southwestern 1st District is scheduled for Thursday night at Lansdowne High, 3800 Hollins Ferry Road. Another on issues in the northwestern 2nd District will be held Sept.

With Baltimore County's first business enterprise zone now in place along North Point Boulevard, economic development officials say they are contemplating a second zone to boost industry in the southwestern area.Economic Development Director Robert L. Hannon said his office is looking at census tracts in the Lansdowne-Arbutus-Catonsville area to see whether they might meet the state requirements for enterprise zones.Yesterday, state and county officials and several local businessmen held a news conference to announce creation of the county's first enterprise zone, covering 2,370 acres in the southeastern area.