Moratorium

The Baltimore County Council voted last night to impose a six-month moratorium on new pawnshops.By a unanimous vote, the seven-member council adopted legislation introduced by Councilman Kevin B. Kamenetz to freeze the number of pawnbrokers in the county at 11 -- the number that police and planning officials have identified as currently in business.The measure now goes to County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger III for his signature. The Ruppersberger administration did not oppose the legislation.

The County Commissioners Tuesday passed a development moratorium in the Wakefield Valley area that will allow some home building activity.The law will prohibit further subdivision and mining expansion in the area, but won't stop landowners from obtaining building permits on land that's already been subdivided.Outgoing Commissioner President John L. Armacost cast the lone vote against the measure."It's so watered down now, we don't need a deferral period, and so should go along as is," he said.

Facing certain defeat at tonight's County Council meeting, Baltimore County Executive Roger B. Hayden has temporarily withdrawn a bill that would have imposed a three-year building moratorium on Honeygo, a 3,000-acre section of Perry Hall threatened by overdevelopment.In its place, the executive plans to submit a new bill tonight -- with virtually the same provisions as the first bill, except that the effective date of the ban would be July 6 instead of May 1."We haven't changed our minds," Mr. Hayden said Friday of the proposed moratorium.

This is in response to a recently issued Chesapeake Bay Foundation state of the bay report, "Turning the Tide."The Maryland Watermen's Association has taken a strong position against a proposed three-year moratorium on oyster harvesting.The last thing the seafood industry needs is an oyster moratorium. Older watermen who have worked on the waterall their lives have seen oysters, as well as rockfish, come and go. During the last two years, watermen have reported an abundance of small oysters in the main stem of the Chesapeake Bay.Shutting down the watermen for three years is as impractical as shutting down the farmers, the sewage treatment plants and the industries that pollute the bay.During the Oyster White Paper Committee meeting that took place the same night as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's call for a moratorium, Jackie Russell,a St. Mary's County waterman and member of the Potomac River FisheriesCommission, summed up the feelings of many watermen: "I look at this with a controlled type of rage.

The Anne Arundel County Council unanimously approved last night a moratorium on the licensing of video peep shows.The legislation came in response to applications by two companies which had intended to install them at stores in Glen Burnie and Odenton.Both applications were withdrawn last week in the face of vigorous protests by angry residents in those two communities.Nevertheless, council members said they were still concerned about the potential spread of peep shows in the county."My mission is not one of censorship," said Councilman Edward Middlebrooks, D-2nd, of Glen Burnie, who co-sponsored the moratorium.

RISING SUN - Cecil County commissioners have rejected a controversial legislative proposal that would have halted preliminary approval for new housing units in more than half the county for a period of six months. By a vote of 3-2 the commissioners killed a bill that its sponsor said would have stopped the paperwork leading up to housing construction while a newly appointed 11-member comprehensive review committee examined the county's long-term growth plan. William C. Manlove, the bill's author, said it was designed to prevent a flurry of new home construction plans from being filed with the county while the review committee did its work.

The Baltimore County Council narrowly defeated measures last night that would have imposed building moratoriums in several older communities. A bill by Council Chairman Joseph Bartenfelder called for the county to stop issuing permits for new homes in the Overlea/Fullerton area until creation of a community growth plan. A similar bill by Bartenfelder and Councilman Vincent J. Gardina applied to the Carney and Parkville areas. Both failed on 4-3 votes. The north county's councilman, T. Bryan McIntire, the only Republican member, voted against both and said he opposed using moratoriums to derail unpopular housing projects.

Residents who live near Baltimore's industrial underbelly voiced overwhelming support last night for a bill imposing a five-year moratorium on the construction of incinerators in the city.At a packed City Council hearing on the bill, supporters said a moratorium is needed to give city officials time to sort out Baltimore's trash-disposal needs and to encourage recycling. They also said they were tired of their neighborhoods being used as a dumping ground for the region."Why not think about what is best for Baltimore?"

ELKTON - Cecil County commissioners will meet Tuesday evening to consider proposed legislation that would impose a six-month moratorium on housing construction in about 63 percent of the county. "It has stirred a lot of excitement," said Commissioner William C. Manlove, author of the bill, which would halt the required county approval for new homes in the northern and southern agricultural regions. "The homebuilders really hate me." Manlove said he wants a break in housing development long enough to allow a newly appointed 11-member comprehensive review committee to examine the county's long-term growth plan.

A proposal to limit residential development in the traffic-clogged Mountain Road corridor of Pasadena is drawing mixed reviews from residents.County Councilman Thomas W. Redmond has introduced a bill that would impose a one-year moratorium on subdivision approval for the area east of the Mountain Road-Route 100 intersection.A vote on the bill is expected tonight in the County Council chambers at the Arundel Center, 44 Calvert St. in Annapolis.Redmond said his bill would prohibit the county Department of Planning and Code Enforcement from approving any subdivision plans submitted between May 9, 1996, and May 8, 1997.