Guzzone

Tough restrictions proposed for village-style projects may face more delays, but not because of a verbal onslaught mounted by business leaders at a Howard County Council public hearing this week.Councilman Guy J. Guzzone, a Laurel-Savage Democrat, said he might move to table his bill next week because the county's top two planners will be in Seattle at a professional conference.Guzzone and other council members need planners' guidance, he said, to find a path through the competing interests of homeowners and business leaders who have diametrically opposing views of the bill's two most important features.

Slogging toward a way to make large village-style developments more acceptable to residents, the Howard County Council has made a decision: one more meeting.A work session discussion yesterday produced no agreement on what council members agree is the crucial element of Councilman Guy J. Guzzone's bill to tighten regulations on mixed-use developments (MXD) -- roads.Guzzone, a Laurel-Savage Democrat, presented his colleagues with seven options -- ranging from requiring that roads be open before each phase of development starts to grandfathering approvals for two proposed developments in Laurel and Fulton.

Heeding election-year voter concerns, a Howard County Council member has proposed tough restrictions on village-style projects in the fast-developing suburb, launching Howard's first battle over growth in 1999.Guy J. Guzzone, a Democrat and freshman councilman from the Laurel area, would put new controls on mixed-use developments, typically large projects that mix residential, commercial and employment uses on one tract of land.While many growth-control activists might be pleased, some developers are wary of Guzzone's ideas, which could lead to rounds of counterproposals by advocates on all sides.

CHANGES that Howard County Councilman Guy J. Guzzone wants to make in the mixed-use zoning classification are political dynamite that must be handled carefully. Mixed-use zoning is a good tool to implement Smart Growth policies that reduce sprawl and cluster development for efficient use of infrastructure. That tool could be damaged in Mr. Guzzone's zeal to stop one particular project.The councilman, former head of the state Sierra Club chapter, has been an ally of critics of two large, planned mixed-use developments.

County Councilman Guy J. Guzzone plans to reintroduce his original bill restricting large mixed-use developments despite Planning Board recommendations that would weaken it, he said yesterday.Guzzone, a Laurel-Savage Democrat, said he will let the council and the public decide what changes ought to be made in the bill, which seeks to reassure community residents worried about traffic and congestion from large village-style projects.The county Planning Board proposed last week removing the toughest provision in the bill -- requiring that proposed roads be completed before any home construction could begin.

Heeding election-year voter concerns, a Howard County Council member has proposed tough restrictions on village-style projects in the fast-developing suburb, launching Howard's first battle over growth in 1999.Guy J. Guzzone, a Democrat and freshman councilman from the Laurel area, would put new controls on mixed-use developments, typically large projects that mix residential, commercial and employment uses on one tract of land.While many growth-control activists might be pleased, some developers are wary of Guzzone's ideas, which could lead to rounds of counterproposals by advocates on all sides.

AT EXACTLY 4: 27 p.m. Monday as I drove through the intersections of Calvert and Madison streets in downtown Baltimore, my car registered its 200,000th mile. The 16 years it took to accomplish that feat included some of the happiest and saddest moments of my life. Throughout them all was old Blue, my reliable Volvo wagon.It's good to have things you can depend on to perform adequately if properly maintained. You don't want any surprises when you try to crank up your car on a sub-freezing morning.

After years of debate over how to clean up Howard County's portion of U.S. 1, it appears the county may finally be on its way to developing a long-term plan for improvements.County Councilman Guy J. Guzzone, a Democrat who represents southeastern Howard, has initiated two efforts that have brought together the business community, residents and political leaders to form strategies to rid the corridor -- from Elkridge to North Laurel -- of blight."I really want to get moving on this," Guzzone said at a meeting he convened last week with Laurel city officials to hear about recent improvements they've made to U.S. 1 in Prince George's County.

For the moment, it looks as if the Rouse Co.'s plan to build a Columbia-style village in North Laurel can proceed without any new obstacles.The Howard County Planning Board hinted Wednesday night that it would attach a condition to proposed zoning legislation that would exempt the Rouse project from limits on major mixed-use developments. The board postponed that night a vote on the legislation; it meets March 11 for a work session.Three members of the five-member board agreed at the meeting that development proposals that have received preliminary-plan approval from the county should not be subject to the limitations proposed by County Councilman Guy Guzzone.

Saying he favors "whatever it takes" to provide more affordable housing in Howard County, County Executive James N. Robey has strongly endorsed county housing agency goals to supply those homes for low- to moderate-income residents.Housing officials are to meet with the County Council this week to discuss their three primary goals -- neighborhood preservation, more housing for seniors and affordable housing -- which they hope to see included in the next 10-year county general plan now being prepared.

Government is often said to move slowly, but it does move, as many of those involved in planning a new 51-acre park and a 63,000-square-foot community center in North Laurel can attest. Bulldozers should be appearing within the next few weeks in what are now woods and grass between the rear of Laurel Woods Elementary School and Whiskey Bottom Road, and the $25.2 million combined facility is to open in October 2010 - after a mere two decades of effort for what most acknowledge is an old, settled area without enough public amenities.

The drama associated with the final voting session of the county's General Assembly delegation last week occurred mostly behind the scenes. And it came in the form of legislators' handling of two minor measures. In the end, both perished, but the episode seemed to provide a glimpse at the sometimes-curious ways of business in Annapolis. Republican state Sen. Allan H. Kittleman said he rejected what he viewed as an offer from Ned Cheston, the Ulman administration's General Assembly lobbyist, to save one of the senator's measures in exchange for him changing his vote and supporting an unpopular administration bill.

As the second-smallest county geographically in Maryland, Howard generally doesn't have the political heft of the state's biggest jurisdictions. But when the real presidential election is held in Annapolis on Dec. 15, two of the 10 Maryland electors casting ballots for Barack Obama are to be Howard Dels. Guy Guzzone and Elizabeth Bobo, both Democrats. Neither knows why they were selected by the state party, they said. Despite the popular vote nationally, the Electoral College, under the law, elects the president, a fact that upset those same Democrats in 2000, when George W. Bush lost the national popular vote but won the electoral tally.

Many Howard County members of the General Assembly are using their summers for professional travel, going as near as Washington and as far as Kazakhstan. While Del. Guy Guzzone attended a weeklong seminar in Washington last month, state Sen. Allan H. Kittleman is preparing to go halfway around the world for a cultural exchange trip to the central Asian republic of Kazakhstan with Maryland schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick and others. This large, former portion of the old Soviet Union, skewered a few years ago in the comedy film Borat, will host the Marylanders from Friday to Aug. 16. Kittleman, a Republican, said he is looking forward to it. "I've been very involved with literacy in Maryland," he said.

Reported cases of Lyme disease in Maryland doubled last year and more than tripled in Howard County, leading the county health officer to join state officials yesterday in warning citizens and recommending prevention measures. "We're seeing a dramatic increase in Lyme disease in the area," said Dr. Peter Beilenson, adding that experts believe many cases go unreported. Statewide, the number of reported cases jumped from 1,248 in 2006 to 2,576 last year. In Howard County, the number increased from 113 to 358 during the same period.

It has been just over two years since the Howard County chapter of Habitat for Humanity finished its first house, on Harriet Tubman Lane in Columbia, but the group's groundbreaking Friday in Jessup for two more houses showed how much things have changed for the faith-based group. The event was a virtual extravaganza of political, business and community support under a large white party tent, complete with celebratory T-shirts on every folding chair and fruit and bagels on a side table.

The advice to Howard County Executive Ken Ulman from his nine transition-team subcommittees seems endless. Appoint a planning ombudsmen and hire more planners. Provide more drug treatment and do more for seniors and the homeless. Pay teachers, social workers and corrections officers well enough to attract and retain the best. Hire more police, and train firefighters faster. Fill 35 vacancies in the Department of Public Works and start fixing $1.5 billion worth of unglamorous, neglected infrastructure.

The Howard County Council is scheduled to vote on a Republican-sponsored property tax cut bill for seniors 70 and over Tuesday night, but the vote comes as political tensions between the body's two Republicans and three Democrats are reaching the boiling point. The bill offers to freeze property taxes after a 25 percent cut to seniors with incomes under $75,000. A large number of seniors spoke in favor of the bill at a council public hearing Sept. 19. Commission on Aging members said they, too, like the concept, but suggested delaying consideration until the county gets more data on the cost and the housing needs of seniors.

A bill that would give Howard County residents a property tax credit for installation of solar or geothermal energy-saving equipment is to be introduced at Tuesday night's County Council meeting. Councilman Guy Guzzone, a North Laurel-Savage Democrat, is sponsoring the measure, which would limit the credits to $5,000 per house and $250,000 a year in the county overall, according to the legislation. The credit could not exceed the total property tax bill for a residence. Guzzone, who is running for House of Delegates, has vowed to introduce statewide credit legislation, if elected.

When three-term Del. Frank S. Turner knocked on their door, retirees Irene and Jim MacDonald agreed to put a Guzzone-Pendergrass-Turner campaign sign on the lawn of their 33-year home in Columbia. They did the same thing when Del. Neil F. Quinter showed up with his sign. The MacDonalds, who live on the high-traffic corner of Tamar Drive and Old Montgomery Road, are one of a handful of families with lawn signs advertising four candidates for the three available Democratic nominations to the Maryland House of Delegates from Howard County's District 13. The popularity of the four elected officials is creating a problem for about 11,000 Democrats likely to vote in the Sept.