Office Of Planning

Steven R. Cover, who coordinated some of the Redskins' planning for the team's proposed football stadium in Laurel, will be the new director of Anne Arundel County's Office of Planning and Code Enforcement.County Executive John G. Gary was to announce the appointment of Mr. Cover, former head of the county's subdivision section, today. Mr. Cover will begin work Jan. 26.In his new post, Mr. Cover, 38, will oversee development of the county's new master plan and comprehensive rezoning, as well as the drafting of new laws and enforcement of building regulations.

Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz announced Tuesday the formal consolidation of two community planning and support offices in county government that will now fall under one director - Andrea Van Arsdale, who was named as the county's director of planning in April. Kamenetz said the merger combines the former Office of Community Conservation with the Office of Planning, while eliminating one director and one senior staff level position through attrition. The new agency will be known simply as the Department of Planning.

Anne Arundel County's Office of Planning and Zoning was scolded yesterday for failing to keep careful account of certain development and building fees - mistakes that in one instance may have cost the county as much as $1 million in unused funds. Auditors found that the Office of Planning and Zoning has been slow to decide what to do with forfeited landscape deposits worth about $1 million - money that could be used by the county to spruce up weeded lots. In addition, auditors discovered that the office has been incorrectly calculating fees to developers for changes to building plans and subdivisions - a situation that has cost the county an unknown sum of cash.

The Anne Arundel County Council will consider zoning changes to parcels of land across the county beginning next month, a process that will likely take most of the year and begin with projects related to the federal military realignment plan expected to bring thousands of new residents and jobs to the region. In an effort to prepare for the influx, the council plans to tackle the process of comprehensive rezoning incrementally, with legislators first considering rezoning applications in council districts 1 and 4. Those districts are in close proximity to Fort Meade and the National Security Agency — where the bulk of development relating to the Defense Department's base realignment and closure plan, or BRAC, is expected.

In an article in Tuesday's Howard County edition of The Sun, Rupert Friday, a planner in the Maryland Office of Planning, was incorrectly quoted. In reference to the future of Elizabeth C. "Nancy" Smith's property in Columbia, he said: "I'm sure there are sharp land-use attorneys who are already knocking on the heirs' doors after the place."The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 3/06/97

StoneyBrooke Village residents worry that three proposed single-family homes at Duvall Highway and Stoney Creek Drive will make the intersection unsafe.Robert M. Garcia of Stoney Creek Road has asked the county Office of Planning and Zoning to subdivide a 1-acre lot, across Duvall Highway from North East High School, into five parcels. The lot already contains two homes.Donald E. Meeker, president of the StoneyBrooke Village Association, has asked the Office of Planning and Zoning to deny Garcia's request.

The Office of Planning and Zoning will meet Aug. 13 to review preliminary plans for a 5-acre subdivision near Riviera Isle.According to plans submitted to the county, the Amherst subdivision would be built on the northeast intersection of Fort Smallwood and Elizabeth roads. Plans call for 10 single-family homes valued at between $125,000 and $149,000, with three or four bedrooms. Lots will be a little less than a half-acre.Plans were submitted by the property's owner, American Savings Bank, at 4023 Annapolis Road.

Advisory board to take comments on draft of zoning plan The county Office of Planning and Zoning will present the draft South County Small Area Plan and Comprehensive Zoning Map to the Planning Advisory Board at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Southern High School. The advisory board will hear public testimony on the plan at 6:30 p.m., with speaker sign-up between 5:30 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. It will take comments on the draft Small Area Plan, then testimony on individual zoning applications. It will accept written comments until Sept.

Dog kennel zoning exception on county panel's agendaA Pasadena family, cited in March for operating a dog kennel without the proper zoning, is seeking special-exception approval from the county Office of Administrative Hearings.Richard and Beverly Fleig, residents of the Pinehurst-on-the-Bodkin community, want approval for a facility with five dog runs in the 8100 block of Riverside Drive. The 9,018-square-foot lot is bordered by woods and Bodkin Creek.The county Office of Planning and Zoning cited Mr. Fleig with a zoning violation on March 3, said Kevin Dooley, county planning analyst.

Marylanders apparently have suffered more from the recession than the rest of the country has, as personal income in the state has suffered more than in the nation as a whole, according to figures from the Maryland Office of Planning.Personal income in Maryland has declined in every quarter since the end of 1990 when compared with the same quarter a year earlier, the figures showed. The last time Maryland posted an increase in personal income was in the summer of 1990, and even that increase was smaller than the gain recorded by the nation as a whole.

An Annapolis developer has withdrawn its plan for a 500,000-square-foot Target-anchored shopping center in Waysons Corner, a move expected to delay the project for months. After failing to meet two county deadlines for submitting a storm-water management plan, Petrie Ross Ventures decided to pull the site plan rather than ask for another extension, said Charles F. Delavan, a lawyer representing the company. Once the plan is redrafted to county specifications, Petrie Ross will resubmit it. "Some storm-water management issues have proven a little more difficult to resolve than we had hoped," he said.

It was a simple exercise. Either you liked it, or you didn't. There was the slide image of a simple cottage home. An American flag hanging from the awning over the wooden front porch. A home of stone and shingle, mellowed by age and surrounded by trees and shrubs. A warm fuzzy feeling - home, sweet home. Give that one a thumbs up. Now the slide of the modern-day "McMansion." A dominating, protruding front-entry three-car garage. A home situated on a cul-de-sac that overpowers the streetscape.

In an unusual move, an Anne Arundel County Council member has cited the Maryland Public Information Act - as newspaper reporters and government watchdogs are more likely to do - to gain access to public documents regarding a long-embattled shopping center project. Councilwoman Barbara D. Samorajczyk said Friday that she has serious concerns about the Parole Plaza renovation project near Annapolis but has had trouble getting public records on it. A Democrat who represents the Annapolis and Parole areas, Samorajczyk said she has tried to review key files at the county's Office of Planning and Zoning regarding the $250 million project, but that her requests have been ignored.

In an unusual move, an Anne Arundel County Council member has cited the Maryland Public Information Act - as newspaper reporters and government watchdogs are more likely to do - to gain access to public documents regarding a long-embattled shopping center project. Councilwoman Barbara D. Samorajczyk said Friday that she has serious concerns about the Parole Plaza renovation project near Annapolis but has had trouble getting public records on it. A Democrat who represents the Annapolis and Parole areas, Samorajczyk said she has tried to review key files at the county's Office of Planning and Zoning regarding the $250 million project, but that her requests have been ignored.

Anne Arundel County's Office of Planning and Zoning was scolded yesterday for failing to keep careful account of certain development and building fees - mistakes that in one instance may have cost the county as much as $1 million in unused funds. Auditors found that the Office of Planning and Zoning has been slow to decide what to do with forfeited landscape deposits worth about $1 million - money that could be used by the county to spruce up weeded lots. In addition, auditors discovered that the office has been incorrectly calculating fees to developers for changes to building plans and subdivisions - a situation that has cost the county an unknown sum of cash.

Advisory board to take comments on draft of zoning plan The county Office of Planning and Zoning will present the draft South County Small Area Plan and Comprehensive Zoning Map to the Planning Advisory Board at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Southern High School. The advisory board will hear public testimony on the plan at 6:30 p.m., with speaker sign-up between 5:30 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. It will take comments on the draft Small Area Plan, then testimony on individual zoning applications. It will accept written comments until Sept.

Months before crews complete a 100-bed addition to the detention center, the County Commissioners learned yesterday that more jail space might be needed by 2010.The commissioners also discovered that the county -- projected to grow by 55,000 residents over the next two decades -- might need to spend $135 million to build three elementary schools, two high schools, a middle school and to renovate schools.The schools were among more than 100 projects outlined in the county's long-range wish list, compiled at the request of the Maryland Office of Planning.

In an article in Tuesday's Howard County edition of The Sun, Rupert Friday, a planner in the Maryland Office of Planning, was incorrectly quoted. In reference to the future of Elizabeth C. "Nancy" Smith's property in Columbia, he said: "I'm sure there are sharp land-use attorneys who are already knocking on the heirs' doors after the place."The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 3/06/97