Farmland Preservation Program

William Powel is being honest with farmers when they inquire about the county's farmland preservation program: Money is tight.No farmers will be able to sell development rights this fiscal year because the state has no money to buy them.Fifty-three farmers in Carroll had agreed to sell development rights in fiscal 1991, which ends June 30, said Powel, administrator of the county's Agricultural Land Preservation Program.With the budget crunch, Carroll County won't be able to offer farmers monetary incentives through a preservation program, which means less land will besaved for open space, Powel said.

Harford needs wise voting Having served on the county's Planning Advisory Board for four years, it is my hope that voters will realize the importance of their vote this election cycle. The county government is revamping our zoning code. [Military base realignment] is here. Comprehensive rezoning also will be on the county's agenda once again. We have three seats on the seven-member County Council up for grabs. It only takes four votes to make things happen. There will be a least three members who will be new at the job. Council President Robert Wagner must remain.

There's no denying that development is killing off farmland in western Howard County. But the political power of the Howard County Farm Bureau is hardly dead.Witness the County Council meeting Monday night, where Chairman Charles C. Feaga -- the only farmer on the council -- retreated from plans to repeal a 1912 fence law written when farm property was a key issue in Howard.The western Howard County Republican, who raises Black Angus beef cattle, told fellow council members that the law is outdated, but he conceded, "I do see a 440-member Farm Bureau group out there that wholeheartedly supports it."

Development in the county's rural western half will be be governed by a new set of rules intended to preserve open space.County Council members, acting as the Zoning Board, agreed to a new western zoning map Friday, ending a comprehensive rezoning process that began nearly a year ago. County planners expect to release a draft of the rezoning plan for the eastern half of the county this week.One goal of the new development guideline is to preserve undeveloped rural land. To accomplish that, the board created two zoning districts to replace the previous rural (R)

A hiring freeze on thousands of vacant state jobs has thawed a tad with Board of Public Works' approval of a handful of new positions for a farmland preservation program.Gov. William Donald Schaefer imposed the freeze in late August when he announced that the state was facing a $150 million shortfall in revenues. Since then, the projected shortfall has risen to $180 million by Schaefer administration estimates and as much as $322 under estimates released this week by legislative budget experts.

The Carroll commissioners voted yesterday to add eight properties totaling 652 acres to the state's farmland preservation program. The property proposals will go before the State Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation this month for final approval. Yesterday's action furthers Carroll's goal of protecting properties contiguous to other preserved farmland, said the county's program supervisor, Bill Powel. The eight properties, spread throughout the county, are close to farms participating in the state program.

The county's first attempt at developing a long-range, comprehensive plan to both preserve Carroll's rural heritage and prepare for growth began to take more definite shape this year.In December, county government and municipal officials convened for the first Town/County Partnership Conference to form the union that is considered necessary to implement policies recommended by seven "strategic planning groups."The committees, appointed by the County Commissioners about two years ago to study problems associated with the county's rapid growth and recommend solutions, completed their work earlier this year.

As County Administrator Raquel Sanudo started pushing titles around on a display board in front of the County Council on Monday, she saidshe felt like TV personality Vanna White.Sanudo was showing the council how things would look if the Office of Economic Development becomes a department reporting directly to County Executive Charles I.Ecker.Although council members laughed when Sanudo compared herself to White -- who turns letters on the game show "Wheel of Fortune" -- Shane Pendergrass, D-1st, and C. Vernon Gray, D-3rd, wanted serious answers about the kind of game the administration is playing.

After 300 hours of work and a month of informal hearings, the county's adequate facilities bill has been sent to the County Council for action.The bill is scheduled to be introduced at the council's legislative session tomorrow night, aired at a public hearing Jan. 21 and voted on Feb. 3. The council is expected to make the bill emergencylegislation, so that it would take effect immediately upon passage.The planning board will receive the proposal Tuesday morning toensure that the bill is consistent with the county's general plan and that the provisions for administering it are workable.

The County Council, which pledged 14 months ago to take up adequate facilities legislation, will finally get around to it Tuesday night.Believing that residents wanted to slow the county's development, council members promised in the 1990 election to take up adequate facilities legislation shortly after they took office.What happened instead is that the Ecker administration began anew, appointing a 12-member commission of developers, civic leaders, school officials and county employees to devise an adequate facilities plan.