Landowners

The fierce and twisting debate over Carroll County zoning law took another turn yesterday when the county's planning staff proposed amendments that would not only dilute the effects of a contentious ordinance but would eliminate a long-held development right for landowners. Commissioner Robin Bartlett Frazier expressed immediate disapproval of the amendments, saying they would drastically reduce the flexibility of zoning laws. "This runs contrary to what I thought we were trying to accomplish by reviewing our zoning ordinances," she said.

An advisory commission studying whether shale gas extraction should proceed in Maryland called Monday for new legislation to deal with potential abuses in leasing and drilling for the fuel, but environmentalists said so many questions remain about the safety of the drilling method known as "fracking" that they want lawmakers to impose a moratorium until the issue has been fully analyzed. The 15-member panel appointed by Gov. Martin O'Malley agreed during an Annapolis meeting to recommend three bills to address concerns about the hydraulic fracturing drilling method, including a proposed state "severance tax" on any gas extracted to help pay for effects on nearby communities.

A Howard County judge has ruled that petitions used to put a controversial County Council rezoning bill on November's election ballot were properly prepared and labeled, hurting efforts by landowners to defeat the referendum. Judge Lenore R. Gelfman's decision dealt a setback to landowners trying to block a public referendum, but activist Angela Beltram and her supporters, who gathered more than 6,000 names to put the bill, known as "Comp Lite," before the voters, were happy with the judge's ruling.

The hunter-backed effort to bring wild elk back to western Maryland is gaining some steam, though fierce resistance remains in key quarters. A survey done by pro-hunting groups finds that nearly three-fourths of Marylanders asked favor restoring the large, majestic ungulates to the state's mountainous region, which hasn't seen any of the animals since the 1700s. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources has been working with the Maryland Legislative Sportsmen's Foundation and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation to review the biological, social and economic feasibility of restoring the species in the state.  The telephone survey, done by Responsive Management , a Virginia-based polling firm, was underwritten by the two foundations, according to a DNR press release about it. While the survey found widespread public support for bringing elk back to Maryland, the survey also found a strong current of opposition among some western Maryland farmers and others  who feared the large animals could jeopardize their livelihood, spread disease or damage their property.

WASHINGTON - In their first public, face-to-face confrontation with U.S. officials, a small group of landowners from a Pacific Ocean atoll vowed yesterday to block a lease renewal agreement for a missile range that is vital for tests of the Bush administration's new anti-ballistic missile system. The landowners from Kwajalein, part of the Marshall Islands, told congressmen, staffers and U.S. State Department officials that the plan negotiated with the island government to extend the lease on the Ronald Reagan Missile Range until 2066 was unfair.

CHICAGO - The Illinois attorney general, Jim Ryan, and state legislators are stepping forward to defend 15 landowners against the Miami tribe of Oklahoma in a lawsuit in which the tribe lays claim to 2.6 million acres in 15 counties. In a battle being fought on the Great Plains of Illinois, the small tribe of 2,400 members is claiming legal rights to land they were granted in a treaty signed almost 200 years ago. The land in dispute encompasses private farms and homes, two state universities, state parks and prisons.

VERONA, N.Y. - Five years ago, people in this quiet, rural community gazed with envy and amazement at the instant success of the Oneida Indian Nation's new Turning Stone Casino, an economic juggernaut that created thousands of jobs and lured millions of visitors to this desolate area halfway between Syracuse and Utica.A few grumbled that it was unfair that the Oneidas did not have to pay taxes on their new wealth. A few others complained that the casino was crowding out small businesses. Yet on balance, most tolerated the incongruously mammoth Oz-like resort here, perhaps rationalizing that the Oneida Indians deserved a leg up after suffering years of poverty and discrimination.

Carroll builders and landowners began their counterattack against a county-imposed growth freeze last week, filing a barrage of administrative appeals that could lay the groundwork for lawsuits over the next few months. County officials said they're worried that the appeals - about 20 have been filed, with more expected - will distract from efforts to develop lasting growth controls for the county. But the commissioners have said they won't be bullied into changing their minds on the yearlong freeze.

The Carroll County Zoning Ordinance Oversight Committee will investigate whether landowners should be allowed to deed real estate to family members or farm employees.Under current zoning law, landowners may build a second home on their property for a relative or a farm employee, but they are not allowed to subdivide the lot. Therefore, the owner of the second home cannot receive title to the property.In response to requests by several landowners to change the law, the County Commissioners yesterday referred the question to the seven-member committee for a recommendation.

The Harford Soil Conservation District and the USDA Soil Conservation Service will sponsor a public meeting to inform agricultural landowners about the proposed cost-share program for the Deer Creek watershed 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 23, at The Cooperative Extension Office, 2335 Rockspring Road, Forest Hill.The project will authorize cost-share assistance to landowners who want to install best management practices to help solve problems with cropland erosion, animal waste andwater quality. It also will provide cost-share money to compliment existing sources ofCost-Share Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Services (ASCS)

The House today passed legislation aimed at safeguarding western Maryland landowners from potential harm from drilling for natural gas in shale deposits in mountainous Garrett and Allegany counties. One bill,  HB1204 , would require the gas industry to finance the state's ongoing study of safety questions around the widely used but controversial drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking. "  Amid fierece debate over fracking's impact in other states, Gov.Martin O'Malleylast year ordered his administration to conduct a wide-ranging three-year review before approving any drilling permits - but state officials had said they lacked funding to carry it out.   By a vote of 88-49, delegates approved a one-time fee of $15 per acre on all new and existing drilling leases so the Maryland Department of the Environment could complete the study.  In deference to industry supporters who complain the delay in drilling is excessive, the fee was scaled back, and lawmakers directed the department to speed up its review, finishing in 2013 rather than 2014, as now called for under the governor's executive order.

Maryland's threatened little bog turtles may be getting some extra help from the state's farmers, under a new federal conservation initiative. Obama adminstration officials are slated to unveil today (3/8) a $33 million bid to make more farmers and other landowners partners - instead of potential adversaries - in efforts to save seven rare and endangered critters, including North America's smallest turtle, which in Maryland is found here and there in marshy spots in Carroll, Baltimore, Harford and Cecil counties.

— The first natural gas well has yet to be drilled into the Marcellus shale deposits underlying Western Maryland, but ripples already are being felt here from an industry that has brought wealth — and controversy — in neighboring states where drilling has proceeded apace. Complaints from landowners about misleading pressure tactics by drilling company agents and concern that widespread leasing for mineral rights could hurt home sales are prompting calls for legislation to change the state's laws on leasing of land for gas and possibly other energy development.

Optimism abounded in Garrett County in September, when more than 500 landowners signed leasing contracts allowing a Texas-based oil and gas company the right to drill on their properties for the natural gas deposits believed to be underground. Landowners were to receive, among other concessions, a $1,150-per-acre up-front payment on five-year leases. The first landowners were to receive the payments within 90 days - or the first week of this month. But then the economy soured, and investors in the deal became reluctant to make sizable financial considerations up front, county officials said.

BITTINGER - Henry Bowser has seen it before: outsiders converging on Garrett County eager to dig deep beneath its mineral-rich soil and promising local residents a bounty of fossil fuel fortunes. While waiting last week to sign a lucrative lease allowing a natural gas company to drill on his 120-plus acres, Bowser recalled that his late father, George, had leased the land 40 years ago - for annual payments of $1 per acre - to a company convinced it would find gas underneath. Nothing turned up, and the lease was dropped after 20 years.

Convinced that the 84-year-old landowner knew what she was signing, the County Council has approved a lease agreement that protects a 400-acre dormant farm in West River from private development. With the council's 6-0 vote Monday night, the Anne Arundel Soil Conservation District, a quasi-state agency that advocates for and assists farmers, will effectively take over the prized South County tract for the purpose of expanding cattle operations and creating a demonstration farm. In other matters, the council endorsed a state study that will determine the feasibility of converting Fort Meade's shuttered equestrian center into a federal animal quarantine center and heard the county's election administrator defend last month's primary election as "successful" despite numerous difficulties.

The Environmental Protection Agency proposed yesterday to narrow the definition of a wetland after months of intense criticism from landowners, farmers and oil industry interests who argued that too much land is included in the classification.EPA chief William K. Reilly handed over the draft report to a Senate subcommittee, saying he expected that the new proposal would require fewer landowners to apply for federal permits to develop their land. The proposed definition would require that land be saturated with water for 10 to 20 consecutive days a year rather than only seven days under the old definition.

The Endangered Species Act has just turned 30 years old, and for at least 20 of those years, its friends and foes have shared a common assumption about the reaction of some landowners when they discover an endangered animal on their land: Shoot, shovel and shut up. That pithy advice sprouts on billboards and bumper stickers across the country, wherever different sets of residents - wolves and cattle ranchers, for example, or rare songbirds and suburbanites...

A Howard County judge has ruled that petitions used to put a controversial County Council rezoning bill on November's election ballot were properly prepared and labeled, hurting efforts by landowners to defeat the referendum. Judge Lenore R. Gelfman's decision dealt a setback to landowners trying to block a public referendum, but activist Angela Beltram and her supporters, who gathered more than 6,000 names to put the bill, known as "Comp Lite," before the voters, were happy with the judge's ruling.

As Howard County's suburbanites press for slower growth, rural western county landowners are pushing hard to stave off tighter residential zoning restrictions, putting a spotlight on growing development tensions. One vivid illustration: the western county farmers who lined up 20 big tractors in front of Glenelg High School on Tuesday night as more than 200 rural landowners told Marsha L. McLaughlin, the county planning director, that proposed zoning changes would be akin to stealing the value of their land.