Growth Controls

PALMER LAKE, Colo. - The red sandstone cliff to the north of Red Ranch Road looms over the valley in stark, rugged majesty. Pillars of stone, carved by the wind into strange, compelling shapes, rise from the foothills.The scene could be the backdrop of a Western movie if it weren't for all the subdivisions crawling up the slopes of the Front Range.This is not John Denver's Colorado. This is sprawl, Westernstyle, unchecked development that spreads into regions of extraordinary natural beauty and meager water supplies.

The intersection of Routes 32 and 26, the crossroads of Carroll's fastest-growing area, will fail within five years, a county-commissioned traffic study reports.Philip J. Rovang, county planning director, said he had expected the report's findings and predicted that unless Route 32 is widened, all the South Carroll intersections along it also will fail by 2002. But Rovang remains optimistic about a solution to the traffic woes."Both the staff and the community are looking at viable solutions," Rovang said.

The county commissioners will meet with their planning director at 2 p.m. tomorrow to talk about how to respond to the widespread condemnation of two key elements in Carroll's proposed adequate-facilities law.Nineteen of the 20 people who spoke at a crowded public hearing Wednesday opposed the growth-control measure as drafted, saying it would ruin small builders and spread economic chaos beyond Carroll's building industry.The only person to support the proposal during the 84-minute hearing, Sykesville activist Vincent DiPietro, appeared to do so halfheartedly.

The County Commissioners turned a deaf ear to developers and business leaders yesterday and voted to continue interim growth controls for nine months."

The intersection of Routes 32 and 26, the crossroads of Carroll's fastest-growth area, will fail within five years, a county-commissioned traffic study reports.Philip J. Rovang, county planning director, said he had expected the report's findings and predicted that unless Route 32 is widened, all the South Carroll intersections along it also will fail by 2002. But Rovang remains optimistic about a solution to the traffic woes."Both the staff and the community are looking at viable solutions," Rovang said.

County mayors expressed support for growth management planning that would be tailored to their individual towns at a meeting yesterday of the Carroll County Chapter of the Homebuilders Association.The homebuilders, fa Builders are concerned because the county has hired a prominent growth expert to help rework Carroll's 30-year-old master plan. Dr. Robert H. Freilich of Kansas City, Mo., is helping to formulate interim growth controls, which could be in effect for 20 months. His fee is $35,000.

A day after facing nearly 500 vocal opponents of the county's proposed Interim Development Control Ordinance (IDCO), Commissioner W. Benjamin Brown left the door open yesterday for revisions, but said he remains convinced that Carroll needs temporary growth controls.The County Commissioners and the Planning Commission heard more than three hours of testimony Wednesday night, much of it orchestrated by the real estate, building and banking industries, but Mr. Brown said he continues to support the proposal.

It is a glum group of senators and delegates that troops back to Annapolis on Wednesday for another 90-day General Assembly session. And why not? They face a $1 billion deficit, the possibility of massive layoffs and aid cut-offs, the elimination entire agencies, the potentially explosive issue of tax increases and a barrage of protests from every group affected by their actions. There aren't any happy campers in this legislative crowd.Right off the bat, the legislature will find itself in controversy.

Howard County, among the most vocal opponents of statewide growth controls, continues to make the best case for uniformity. Back in October, a stymied county council passed the job of coming up with a workable adequate facilities ordinance onto the newly sworn-in council members. The incentive for the new council to do something is an unpopular cap on building permits that remains in place until the council comes up with a plan forcing builders to help shoulder infrastructure costs in areas plagued by overcrowded schools and traffic gridlock.

Phase Two of the battle over statewide growth controls begins this summer when legislative committees, at the request of their presiding officers, begin a two-year study of land-use methods to safeguard the environment surrounding the Chesapeake Bay.Let's hope the second phase goes more smoothly than the first. While the Governor's Commission on Growth in the Chesapeake Bay Region -- better known as the 2020 commission -- made a strong case for reining-in rampant growth over the next 30 years, its recommendations proved too much for the General Assembly.

Few issues in Howard County are as complicated and contentious as affordable-housing policy and growth-management controls. A new County Council bill appears to renew a clash between the two. The tussle erupted at a council public hearing Monday night, but in some ways it echoed past debates. Until now, local lawmakers have been reluctant to relax growth-management laws to allow county-required affordable housing to be built faster. In July, the council sharply restricted an Ulman administration bill that also sought to bend growth controls to speed redevelopment along U.S. 1 - another county priority that includes developments that incorporate lower-priced housing.

With so many signs of its continued decline and the expectations of 1 million more people living near its shores in the next 20 years to add to its woes, the Chesapeake Bay is more in peril today than ever. But just because the task of protecting Maryland's most precious natural resource is difficult does not mean it's time to give up hope or abandon the effort. If there is a thread that might connect - and correct- the various sources of pollution, from failing backyard septic tanks to storm-water runoff and excessive shoreline development, it's the need for more stringent land-use planning.

Concerns over whether speeding up development would strain public services could delay a County Council vote on a bill to double the number of new homes allowed annually in the U.S. 1 corridor. During a session this week, the council discussed tabling an Ulman administration bill for a month when it comes up for a vote at Monday night's council meeting. The measure would make available up to 250 housing allocations per year from future years for projects along U.S. 1. The "borrowed" allocation would be added to the 250 a year that are available for projects in the area.

The certificate from the county told Bruce Wentworth his plan was coming along fine. So the developer thought he was set to gain approval for the seven-home subdivision that would keep his small Carroll County company busy and profitable for the next year. Then, he heard about the county commissioners' growth freeze, the one that would not only close the door to future projects but would stop a long list of others that had passed earlier stages of review. The freeze goes into effect Tuesday - exactly one week before Wentworth's plan was scheduled to be reviewed by the planning commission for approval.

Elected on promises to slow growth, the Carroll commissioners took a first step toward doing just that yesterday by imposing freezes on significant portions of residential and commercial development in the Baltimore metropolitan area's fastest-growing county. The measures are the most stringent growth controls applied in Carroll in the past five years, and among the toughest ever enacted in the county. The two unanimous votes to approve the limits appeared to stun developers, who had expected the commissioners to approve more moderate measures that would not have halted projects already in the pipeline toward gaining approval.

Six months after they were elected on promises to limit growth, the Carroll commissioners appear set to take a first step today to slow development in the Baltimore metropolitan area's fastest-growing county. The commissioners are to vote on two proposals that would freeze significant portions of the county's residential and commercial growth for the next year. And although the county's building industry has lambasted the proposed freezes at a series of meetings over the past six weeks, the commissioners say they have no plans to turn back from the aggressive policies their planning officials have recommended.

Six months after they were elected on promises to limit growth, the Carroll commissioners appear set to take a first step today to slow development in the Baltimore metropolitan area's fastest-growing county. The commissioners are to vote on two proposals that would freeze significant portions of the county's residential and commercial growth for the next year. And although the county's building industry has lambasted the proposed freezes at meetings during the past six weeks, the commissioners say they have no plans to turn back from the aggressive policies their planning officials have recommended.

Mount Airy might be the only municipality in Carroll County with no election this year, but its Town Council has a different look. Council members selected a new president last week, and a new councilman took office. The council selected attorney Peter Helt to fill the council seat vacated by Frank Johnson, who resigned this year to focus on his duties as special assistant to county Commissioner Julia Walsh Gouge. The council picked John Medve, who was elected to the panel last year, to replace Johnson as president.

After months of bickering with Carroll's commissioners over growth management, several town officials have drafted a plan to stem sprawl throughout the county - and they're marshaling support from their colleagues. Even as the commissioners worked yesterday to revise the county's growth-management law, one town councilman was circulating a letter calling for stronger action from the county. Frank Johnson, president of the Mount Airy Town Council, drafted the letter, which lists six measures to control growth.

After months of bickering with Carroll's commissioners over growth management, several town officials have drafted a plan to stem sprawl throughout the county - and they're marshaling support from their colleagues. Even as the commissioners worked yesterday to revise the county's growth-management law, one town councilman was circulating a letter calling for stronger action from the county. Frank Johnson, president of the Mount Airy Town Council, drafted the letter, which lists six measures to control growth.