Master Plan

As the director of community planning for the Columbia Association and the lead on CA's Aquatics Master Plan project, I was concerned by Richard Blank's perspective ("CA staff still trying to kill the neighborhood pool concept") on what is a complex topic. The Columbia Associaiton, a private not-for-profit service organization, has 23 outdoor pools, five indoor pools and an impressive set of statistics for community pool use, staff safety records and customer satisfaction. I think we all agree that swimming and pools are an important part of the Columbia culture.

Disturbingly enough, there's been relatively little in the way of public comment so far as the latest step in devising a new land use plan for Harford County draws to a close. This process will culminate, after many administrative and political twists and turns, with a countywide comprehensive re-zoning, when there will be a big push to amend zoning maps to clear the way for development, largely residential development, based on the new land use plan. That aspect of the land use planning cycle, however, is beyond the horizon.

A developer's plan for a 36-unit waterfront condominium with boat slips that has pitted neighbor against neighbor for years in Bowleys Quarters has been rejected by a Baltimore County hearing officer. In a 45-page opinion based on days of hearings, John E. Beverungen denied the Galloway Creek condominium proposed by Milton A. Rehbein III, who for decades has owned a marina at the site along Burke Road on the Bowleys Quarters peninsula. While Beverungen agreed with some of the developers' arguments, he rejected the project on grounds that it conflicts with the county master plan and neighborhood community plan, and violates a law that specifies where such projects are allowed in Bowleys Quarters.

A core piece of Montgomery County's plans to build a "science city" has ended up in court. When it was approved by the County Council in the spring of 2010, the Great Seneca Science Corridor master plan envisioned a $10 billion research and development center that would rival industry hubs such as North Carolina's Research Triangle or Palo Alto, Calif. The Johns Hopkins University expected to play a major role. But the university's plans to develop the 138-acre Belward Farm may have run afoul of the terms under which the school received the property from a longtime Montgomery County family.

A new vision for the redevelopment of 88 acres north of Johns Hopkins Hospital moves the East Baltimore project in the right direction but should focus more on attracting families and improving community life for existing as well potential new residents, members of a city design panel and area residents said Thursday. Those were among the reactions to a preliminary revised master plan for the mix of new homes, shops, offices and amenities for the Middle East neighborhood presented to a city design panel by developer Forest City New East Baltimore Partnership.

In the coming weeks, the Harford County Department of Planning and Zoning will unveil the master plan for guiding land use in the county in the coming years. Devising this guide, no doubt, has been tedious, making the county reflect its vision will require an even more tedious process. To date, the county government has held a series of community planning meetings, which took place last winter and were attended by about 50 people, and another 280 comments via the Internet.

WESTMINSTER - The Carroll County Planning Commission will host its next work session on the county's Master Plan update Monday, Sept. 26 at 6 p.m., in room 003 of the County Office Building, 225 N. Center St., in Westminster. On the agenda is a discussion of several components of the plan, including its overall "vision statement" and community involvement, as well as aspects relating to agriculture in the county. Documents related to the master plan are available for review online at ccgovernment.carr.org/ccg/compplan/masterplan2011.

I'm disappointed by the whining of certain county officials during PlanMaryland discussions at the Maryland Association of Counties conference ("State land-use plan prompts objections," Aug. 20). As a fiscal conservative, I agree with most of PlanMaryland's land use policies because they promote economically sustainable development, protect the value of existing businesses and homes, improve our quality of life and reduce wasteful spending of our taxes. The article reported that certain county chiefs "complained that the plan to link local aid to compliance with statewide goals would take authority away from localities.

Adam Gross surveys the grassy quadrangle, surrounded by brick walking paths trimmed in marble, nary a car in sight. "This is one of those seminal shots," he says, taking in the view of the Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus. "This used to be all asphalt. " If Gross sounds like a proud papa, well, he is. Baltimore's most prestigious university looked a lot different — a lot junkier in Gross' view — before his firm, Ayers Saint Gross, got its hands on the master plan in 2001.

As Carroll County commissioners Richard Rothschild and Robin Frazier spoke recently during a slide presentation on their goals/visions in the 2010 Master Plan, I found myself thinking, "I've heard this tune before. " But I hadn't heard it on WTTR - no, it was at the public meetings where the commissioners tried to explain in January why the a land-use plan submitted by the Planning Commission in January was dead on arrival. Seven months passed before the commissioners got around to making recommendations they considered necessary to gain the board's approval.