Howard County Council

Anyone thirsting for a Howard County winery tour will have to wait at least one more month to begin planning. Legislation to allow wineries in Howard County was tabled Monday night by the Howard County Council, the second consecutive year that the Ulman administration legislation has run into trouble. Council members who asked for the delay said more time is needed to iron out unresolved issues over relatively small preserved parcels of land in residential areas. Some worry they could attract too many people and too much traffic if used for wineries.

I am writing about the bill by Councilman Fox proposing changes to the stormwater management fee. Having read about the many issues that have arisen as counties try to implement this fee, I can appreciate Councilman Fox's motivation, but I am opposed to this bill and urge you not to pass it. There are many problems with stormwater management both locally, with many areas suffering flooding or standing water, and regionally, including pollution of...

After weeks of debate, the Howard County Council unanimously approved yesterday an amended package of Ulman administration legislation intended to give environmentally friendly development a strong push. "I believe this county moved forward dramatically," County Executive Ken Ulman said after the vote. Greg Fox, the five-member council's lone Republican, disagreed, saying, "It was gutted to the point where it was responsible." Fox earlier tried to have the package tabled, saying the council needed more time to consider the complex legislation.

The "Resident Visual Artists Exhibit 2013" showcases artists who maintain studios at the Howard County Arts Council. They're making art at this Ellicott City facility, but their imaginations roam all over the place. A case in point is Mary Jo Tydlacka, who is well-known for watercolors depicting the historic district in Ellicott City and other sites around Howard County. She travels far from home for the subject matter in the current show, however, with three watercolors and an oil painting that depict Italy.

Sheila M. Tolliver, who was council administrator when Democrats controlled the Howard County Council four years ago, is coming back to the job now that the Democrats have won back a 3-2 council majority.At $89,752 a year, the Democrat will make substantially more than her Republican predecessor, Christopher Emery, who earned roughly $68,000 a year.Her salary also is more than $20,000 higher than it was when she was fired by the County Council after Republicans won a 3-2 majority in 1994.

The Howard County Council unanimously approved a watered-down bill last night prohibiting the Howard County government from buying items using any of 43 tropical rain forest wood products.The bill, introduced by Council Chairman C. Vernon Gray, D-3rd, follows the lead of the Baltimore City Council, which adopted a similar ban earlier this year out of concern that depletion of the world's rain forests might speed up global warming and lead to the extinction of wildlife and marine life.But the Howard County Council limited its impact by applying the ban to purchases exceeding $2,000.

The Howard County Council voted 4-1 early today to lift immediately a controversial cap on new home building permits and to wipe out a permit allocation system that builders had charged resulted in the hoarding of permits.In a separate 4-1 vote, the council defeated a bill that would have extended the cap on new housing permits through Sept. 15.The 18-month cap was to have expired March 15.Council Chairman C. Vernon Gray's bill lifting the cap extends until Oct. 31 bans on subdivision rezoning and on new subdivisions in western Howard County.

John DeWolf III, the Howard Hughes Corp.'s senior vice president for development, is a tall man doing a big job from a large office in downtown Columbia. The floor-to-ceiling windows face Lake Kittamaqundi, and the conference table is covered with maps and plans for downtown development, a 30-year project to include new stores, homes, offices, hotels, transit lines, walking paths, renovations at Merriweather Post Pavilion — all in pursuit of James W. Rouse's original idea of a "real city.

A YEAR AGO, conventional wisdom was that C. Vernon Gray would not run for a fifth term on the Howard County Council. However, rather than aim at becoming Howard's first African-American county executive, Mr. Gray has resorted to the relative safety of yet another campaign for his 2nd District council seat. He deserves re-election.Mr. Gray, a Democrat, is opposed by Republican Susan J. Cook, whom many countians will recall from her successful tenure on the school board from 1990 to 1996. Education remains Mrs. Cook's central focus, but she also promises to work to revitalize older neighborhoods and to address neighborhood concerns about encroaching development.

THE LESSONS that George L. Layman has learned as a member of the Howard County Zoning Board of Appeals would make him a valuable asset to the county council. Mr. Layman successfully made the transition from outsider to insider.As a community activist more than a decade ago, he helped block construction of Route 100 through his neighborhood. But the past five years he has played a different role: passing judgment on development projects as an appointed county official. He would bring both perspectives to the council.

The Howard County Council adopted a $923.5 million general fund spending plan Thursday that increases allocations for schools and police while not raising income or property taxes. The council voted 4-1 to approve the budget, roughly $2.7 million higher than the proposal made a month ago by County Executive Ken Ulman. The dissenting vote was cast by Councilman Greg Fox, the council's lone Republican, who criticized spending practices several times during the two-hour session. Fox wrapped up his remarks after the vote with a display of black, pointy wizard hats, each representing a new fund that he said appears suddenly, as if by magic, every year in the budget while some basic needs go unfunded.

Howard County legislators said this week that they believe the General Assembly will need to make adjustments to a state-mandated stormwater management fee imposed on Howard County and nine other Maryland jurisdictions. "I don't think it's over yet," said state Sen. James Robey, co-chair of the county's delegation to Annapolis. "We need to go back and make this more fair. " Robey and six other members of the county delegation spoke at the Howard County Chamber of Commerce's annual legislative wrap-up breakfast Thursday in Columbia.

The object was to depict a vivid memory on colored paper, creating a narrative of depth and symmetry. Marriotts Ridge High School junior Taylor Hensh conjured up a piece illustrating what happens when New Year's Eve fireworks go wrong. The piece recalls a vacation at Deep Creek Lake two years ago with her family and a few others, when the fathers decided to set off fireworks — one of which struck Taylor in the arm, putting holes in her North Face jacket but leaving her otherwise unscathed.

The Howard County Council faces a busy voting session this week before the August recess, taking up the master plan for growth, several charter changes and whether to allow voters to consider term limits for newly elected council members. The master plan, PlanHoward 2030, is a guide to issues that include environmental protection, housing, transportation, and the redevelopment of U.S. 1 and U.S. 40. Years in the works by the council, Planning Board, Department of Planning and Zoning, consultants and citizens, the nearly 200-page proposal takes stock of changes since General Plan 2000, updates that document and generally maintains existing policies.

John DeWolf III, the Howard Hughes Corp.'s senior vice president for development, is a tall man doing a big job from a large office in downtown Columbia. The floor-to-ceiling windows face Lake Kittamaqundi, and the conference table is covered with maps and plans for downtown development, a 30-year project to include new stores, homes, offices, hotels, transit lines, walking paths, renovations at Merriweather Post Pavilion — all in pursuit of James W. Rouse's original idea of a "real city.

The four artists in the exhibit "Intertwined Expressions" are linked by their devotion to abstraction. Similarities in how they use coiling lines and densely layered colors make for a cohesive show at the Howard County Arts Council. These linkages are most clearly seen in the works by Peter Gordon and Allison Long-Hardy. For both artists, circular and oval shapes help anchor compositions that otherwise feature enough floating forms to verge on being formless. Gordon intensively uses pencil and crayon to almost completely cover the paper surface in such works as "Early Morning, Autumn.

Expense limits may seem like a cut-and-dried matter. But for the Howard County Council, that's hardly the case -- as evidenced by the latest chapter in the yearlong saga of council members trying to control their own spending.During Friday's council meeting, Councilman Dennis R. Schrader of North Laurel introduced two pages of formal rules for council expense limits.He hopes that if the rules are adopted, they will end the long-running argument over whether Councilman C. Vernon Gray owes the county $1,300 in travel and cellular phone expenses -- bills that some council members insist exceed a expense limit.

The County Council's move to revise the county ethics laws makes Howard one of the first local governments to approve the new standards mandated by the General Assembly last year. The changes, approved Monday, provide more detail in the county ethics laws regarding gifts, financial disclosure statements and lobbying provisions. It also expands the role of the county's ethics commission, requiring it to maintain an annual report of lobbying activity. The bill bans former County Council members from lobbying on legislative issues for a year after leaving office, and prohibits former employees from bidding to do business with the county on a contract for which they helped write specifications.

Listings are accepted on a space-available basis. Deadline is 5 p.m. Thursday prior to date of publication at the latest. To submit contest items, mail to Contests, Patuxent Publishing Co. Editorial, 501 N. Calvert St., Baltimore, MD 21278; email hccalendar@patuxent.com ; fax 410-332-6336; or call 410-332-6497. Howard County Arts Council Call for Entries - Seeking submissions for its biennial juried exhibit, Art HoCo 2011. Entrants must be 18-years-old or older who live, work or study in Howard County.