Master Plan

A Baltimore architectural firm was honored this week for its master plan of the Homewood campus of the Johns Hopkins University, more than five years after the plan was developed. Ayers Saint Gross received the annual Excellence in Planning for an Established Campus prize, which is awarded jointly by the Society for College and University Planning and the American Institute of Architects. The award acknowledges not only a plan's design but also the success of its implementation. Since Hopkins adopted the master plan in early 2001, the fast pace of construction on the Charles Village campus has closely followed Ayers Saint Gross' development road map, said Luanne Greene, who directs the firm's campus planning.

Finksburg-area residents are invited to a community meeting at 7 p.m. tomorrow at the Westminster Senior Center.Discussions will center on the county's master plan for traffic in Finksburg. There also will be an update on activities and future issues.A community organization has been established. Call the Finksburg Planning Area Council, or FinkPAC. Membership is open to residents of Finksburg and its environs.Information: Dave O'Callaghan at 410-833-5620.PoliceWestminster: The owner of Cards, Candy and More in Crossroads Square Shopping Center told police Sunday that someone stole items from the store.

Severna Park business and community leaders are forming a corporation to develop a master plan for the area and help generate money for cultural and community services.The leaders are calling their new organization ASPIRE (Association for Severna Park Improvement, Renewal and Enhancement) and applying to the state for nonprofit status that would make it eligible for state and county grants, said Pat Troy, who will serve as the chairwoman of the board of trustees."We are embarking on a whole new area with this," said Maggie Miller, who will work as the vice president of development.

"Hopes and dreams" were the watchwords last night as more than 300 people gathered at the first forum in Baltimore to draw a new comprehensive master plan, billed by officials as offering a "clean slate" for the city.Charles C. Graves III, the city planning director, said the session at the Poly-Western auditorium was intended to develop a blueprint for Baltimore for the next century with resident participation.In his welcome to participants at the opening of PlanBaltimore!, Graves said, "We're not doing this for us. We're doing this for the next generation."

Columbia General Manager Greg Hamm and General Growth Properties invite the community to an evening with Keith Bowers, the third in a series of community forums with members of the planning team working on the master plan for Columbia Town Center. The forum will be held at 7:30 p.m. today at the Spear Center at GGP headquarters, 10275 Little Patuxent Parkway, in Columbia. Bowers is founder and president of Biohabitats, an ecological restoration design, planning and assessment firm, and serves as chair of the Society for Ecological Restoration International.

Baltimore County Council members authorized the creation of a master plan to guide development of a state hospital property in Owings Mills last night, saying they want the document in place before the Rosewood Center is made available for development. The state announced in December 2007 its plans to close the hospital for the severely disabled. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has been relocating the remaining nearly 150 patients to community placements and will shutter the facility July 1. After its review, the state will likely declare as surplus the nearly 225-acre property near Reisterstown Road and begin accepting proposals from the public and private sectors for its use. Rosewood, which opened in 1888, housed nearly 3,700 people at its peak.

Sykesville plans to use $30,000 from the state to help develop a master plan for the Warfield Complex, a 131-acre site at Springfield Hospital Center.The money is part of about $57 million for various projects that Gov. Parris N. Glendening proposed in the supplemental capital budget Tuesday."We have Del. Ellen Willis Miller to thank for this," said Matthew H. Candland, town manager. "She took the lead and worked with the governor on our behalf."In December, the state approved Sykesville's proposal to renovate the 15 aging buildings into a business and industrial campus.

Baltimore's City Council, meeting for the first time since the election, unanimously approved a far-reaching comprehensive master plan yesterday that could shape how land is developed in the city for decades. Sheila Dixon, the incoming mayor, has said that implementing the 200-page master plan, an advisory document, will be a key goal of her administration. City planners spent two years drafting the plan. "We've made history today," said Dixon, who is now the City Council president but who will serve the remainder of Gov.-elect Martin O'Malley's mayoral term next year.

Declaring that Carroll County business "is like a ship without a rudder," the county's Economic Development Commission has started work on creating an economic master plan designed to strengthen industry, employment and land use.The economic master plan, Economic Development Commission members said at a meeting late last week, would be a blueprint for the future of Carroll businesses and guide economic strategies in the county into the 21st century.Similar...

Three Sykesville Planning and Zoning Commission members discussed the county's comprehensive master plan for Southwest Carroll with a county planner last night, but adjourned without taking any action for lack of a quorum.Two members missed the meeting due to illness, leaving the commission one short of the four members needed to vote on any agenda items."There is a lot going on with this plan," said Gregg Horner, a county planner, of the Southwest Carroll plan. "Nothing is written in stone, though."