Land Development

The Land Development Council of the Home Builders Association of Maryland named Morris H. Wolf, principal of Morris H. Wolf Enterprises, of Towson, Land Developer of the Year for 1997 at its awards program last month at the Camden Yard Banquet Club.Projects developed by Wolf include Vineyard Oak, Country Walk, Woodbridge Center, Harford Town and Laurel Valley in Harford County and Parkview Trail, Chapelgate and Owings Overlook in Baltimore County.Project of the Year honors went to Paternal Gift for Paternal Gift Farm, an equestrian-centered development in Highland, Howard County, that will include 28 homeowners with joint ownership of a 74-acre working farm with pastures, riding trails, stables and an on-site manager.

Builders should not be in the business of selling their creations, Robert J. Lucido says.That may seem like backward thinking. Where would builders be, after all, without buyers?Yet Lucido has built his career on just that premise, and builders have gladly taken the advice.Builder clients of the Columbia-based sales and marketing firm Builder's 1st Choice leave the selling of their homes to Lucido, whose business it is to know why some builders fail where others succeed.Most, he says, are simply too busy building to step back and consider the appeal of the two-story foyer or placement of the optional den.For five years, Lucido and his team of new-homes specialists have acted as extensions of dozens of area building companies, becoming their eyes and ears in a fiercely competitive marketplace, recruiting and training salespeople to staff model homes, and scoping out suitable building sites.

Baltimore County, once known as Maryland's golden horseshoe, is running out of space.At the current pace of construction, the county's last vacant developable tracts could be spent in 15 to 20 years -- making a profound impact on residents' lifestyles and pocketbooks. And from Hunt Valley to Essex, residents already are feeling the pinch.Fights commonly erupt as developers try to squeeze new houses and stores into urbanized areas. Builders, meanwhile, are trying to push into north county farm lands with projects such as the golf course community planned on the historic Hayfields farm.

Marita Davison awoke one recent morning to a picturesque landscape. From her dormitory room at McDonogh School, she saw horses on a far-off, snow-covered hill. Icicles sparkled on corral fences and hardwood trees."It's like a fantasyland," Marita, a 16-year-old senior, said of the wintry scene. "Everyone here is really proud to have such a beautiful school."For more than a century, a bucolic setting has helped form the Owings Mills school's identity. It is an important asset -- important enough to inspire McDonogh the prep school to become McDonogh the developer.

After decades of paving streets and parking lots, Genstar Stone Products Co. is paving the way for its first ventures into land development.And the Hunt Valley-based company, which owns 3,000 acres in Maryland and some of the largest parcels of undeveloped business property in Baltimore County, is poised to become one of the region's largest land developers."

New development standards that will allow farmers and other rural landowners to cluster the development of their land was passed by the Harford County Council last week and signed into law yesterday by County Executive Eileen M. Rehrmann.The goal of the new standards, which are optional, is to prevent suburban sprawl while preserving rural land and open space. Landowners developing a small part of their property must place the remaining, undeveloped portion of their land in a permanent easement, preventing most future development.

The candidates for Harford County executive on the Nov. 8 ballot, Democrat Eileen M. Rehrmann and Republican Ronald M. Szczybor, were asked to respond to the following questions: How should growth be managed by county government, with respect to public facilities, zoning and land use decisions, and incentives to developers/businesses? What type of development is needed and how should it be achieved? Does development growth cost more than it brings to the county, and how to reconcile any such disparity?

Pikesville company bags Governor's RunA Pikesville land development firm took the prize at Friday's auction of Governor's Run, bidding $5.1 million for the 150-acre tract along U.S. 40 in Ellicott City, land that Howard County has approved for construction of 183 homes.Elkridge Plaza Inc., an affiliate of Greenebaum & Rose Inc., hopes to cash in on the fact that the real estate slump and credit squeeze stopped land development in its tracks during 1991 and 1992. Those problems have led to another: a shortage of lots.

Maryland's growing counties will face an acute shortage of homebuilding lots beginning next summer because of the lack of loans for land development, real estate analysts predicted yesterday.At the same time, lagging consumer confidence in the economy and fear of job losses will keep home sales in the Baltimore area static through 1994, the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors was told at its annual convention."The resale markets are still a little weak, especially at the upper [price] end," said Robert Kleinpaste, president of the Legg Mason Realty Group.