Kentlands

Baltimore County's next major planned community will be an old-fashioned village with pathways, alleys and a town square, according to new guidelines crafted by county officials.The guidelines for Honeygo, to be discussed for the first time tonight by the planning board, govern everything from street widths to the distance between streets and homes. They are designed to give the 3,000-acre, 5,600-unit community near White Marsh a small-town feel."The whole idea is to go back to a community that has some sort of feel of an interrelationship, not just you pull into your driveway, go into your house and shut your door and that's your world," said Arnold "Pat" Keller III, the county planning director.

In Baltimore County County solution rate of serious crimes tops U.S. average TOWSON -- The rate at which Baltimore County police solved serious crimes last year outpaced the national average, according to a recent analysis of national crime trends. About half of all robberies in the county resulted in at least one arrest that was turned over for prosecution last year, county police said. The national clearance rate for robberies is about 25 percent. The clearance rate for homicide was 77 percent in the county, compared with the national average of 62.4 percent.

From 1973 to 1981, James R. Martin Jr. lived in a third-floor apartment above a Christmas merchandise store on Main Street in Annapolis, and he loved every minute of it."It was wonderful," recalled the 48-year-old printer, who now lives in Admiral Heights. "I could go to the movie theater across the street, go to the shops and restaurants downstairs. It was all very convenient."That concept is driving officials at the county Department of Planning and Code Enforcement to contemplate reviving the development style of the Main Street, U.S.A.

Seeking to create an upscale community with a small-town feel, Baltimore County officials are putting the final touches on regulations that would hold developers in the Honeygo area of White Marsh to the most detailed and stringent design guidelines in the county.The guidelines, introduced to the County Council last night, would require that townhouses be built of brick, would regulate the appearance of the rear of houses and stores, and would require apartments and commercial buildings to be built of brick and masonry.

When architect Charles W. Moore received the Gold Medal last week from the American Institute of Architects -- an award considered by many to be architecture's highest honor -- the developers of a new residential community in Maryland had good reason to be glad.The 3,000-unit Russett community will go on the market starting this spring as the latest of three large developments in western Anne Arundel County, and one of the features that sets it apart from its competitors is that the community center has been designed by Mr. Moore, a longtime friend of co-developer Curtis F. Peterson.

ESIC of Columbia appoints 4 new officersEnterprise Social Investment Corp., a Columbia-based organization that helps provide affordable housing capital by using the federal low-income housing tax credit, recently appointed four new officers.Chickie Grayson was named president of Enterprise Construction Co., which says it is the nation's largest developer of affordable housing financed through the federal Nehemiah housing program. Grayson joined ESIC in 1987 and has served as vice president of the construction subsidiary.

If all the furniture and accessories decorating the new Gaithersburg store Mod Decor are changed the next time you visit, don't be surprised. That's just owner Nidhi Gupta experimenting. A fresh perspective is key to Gupta, who delights in helping her customers select contemporary objects for their own space. It was a love of interior design that inspired Gupta to open her modern-furniture store a year ago, after having worked years in the corporate business world. Mod Decor features an extensive line of home furnishings, including sofas, chairs, tables, wall units and rugs from German designer Rolf Benz, as well as minimalist, sleek sectionals, chaises and coffee tables from Montreal-based Periphere.

* The Baltimore Opera elected the following officers: John R. "Jay" Young, president of Oles Envelopes, chairman of the board; Edward J. Brody, president of Brody Truck Rental, president; Carl E. Hecht, president of U.S. Tag and Label, secretary; Samuel G. Macfarlane, retired chief financial officer of Waverly Press, treasurer and chair of the Finance Committee.The following vice presidents were also named: Lisa Dijulio Bertani, Repertoire Committee; Henry D. Felton, Long-Range Planning Committee; Erwin L. Greenberg, Endowment Committee; Mary Mangione, Education Committee; E. Meredith Reid, Administration Committee; James W. Stevens, Marketing and Public Relations Committee; James S. Weaver Jr., Development Committee; Patricia Wilson, president of the Baltimore Opera Guild; and Hugh Woltzen, chairman of board development and Nominating Committee.

Digital television must not leave poor and urbanites behind The Sun's article "Sinclair tries to change the future of TV" (July 4) scratched the surface of the competing agendas in the discussion over the digital television (DTV) technical standard. Many participants in this debate have built careers, businesses and reputations on the selection of the current standard (8VSB). Preserving the status quo is in their self-interest. Few of them seem to care about the viewers. Sinclair Broadcast Group does have an agenda and it is not hidden: DTV should work at least as well as, if not better than, today's analog TV service.

A fresh vision of suburbia is headed for the Baltimore region. Small lots. Narrow streets. Condominiums near townhouses near houses, each looking a little different from the one next door. Garages tucked discreetly out of view, facing alleys. Stores, offices, parks and a field filled with schools just a stroll away. No cul-de-sacs. Not one. If it sounds more like a city than the suburbs, that's because its planners are taking their cue not from post-World War II living but from older places such as Roland Park and Annapolis.