Older Communities

Cissell Avenue in North Laurel is pockmarked by the ravages of rain. It has swept so much dirt from Ron Giddings' front yard that his cable lines are exposed. It has knocked the foundation out from under a neighbor's mailbox. It has eaten away at the ditches beside the road, rushed underneath the old pavement and triggered collapses. And water regularly pools on Donna Thewes' property even though she put in two extra sump pumps and French drains all around her house. The Howard County neighborhood is a potent reminder of the unintended effects of man altering the landscape without fully accounting for the wrath of Mother Nature.

Moving into the Baltimore County neighborhood of Academy Heights carries a responsibility.Residents adhere to a strict covenant and strive to keep the community uniform and looking its best. But they also have a strong sense of camaraderie, evident in the way the community takes care of its own.Homeowners must follow restrictions that mandate slate roofs, black or brass front porch lights, green awnings. Mailboxes must be green, black or brass and masonry foundations must be painted white, gray or sandstone.

The Baltimore County Council voted last night to add some legal firepower in fighting a proposal to relocate more than 1,300 families from inner-city public housing to the more affluent suburbs.The last-minute request from County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger III to hire outside counsel was the county's latest move to stop a proposed settlement of a housing discrimination suit between Baltimore and the American Civil Liberties Union.The tentative settlement would end an ACLU suit filed against Baltimore and involving the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The average size of the typical residential lot has grown by more than a third in Maryland since the mid-1980s, a reflection in part -- builders say -- of how difficult it has become to profitably develop higher-density housing that uses land more efficiently.In 1985, the average residential lot size of parcels five acres and less in Maryland was 0.42 acres. But home construction between 1985 and 1993 was on parcels averaging 0.57 acres, a nearly 36 percent increase, according to the Maryland Office of Planning.

Pushing waterlogged belongings out the front door of her duplex, Suzy Cunningham trod over a buckle in the floorboards. "Our porch went all to hell," she lamented as she cleaned up last month after Tropical Storm Lee. "Their ain't a floor in Port Deposit that's even. " Nor was it the first time the waters of the Susquehanna River had rushed through this Cecil County town that locals call "Port. " Most of the houses built in the lowlands between the river and North Main Street show the scars of decades of flooding.

The state will triple its spending in established neighborhoods on streetscape improvements such as sidewalks, landscaping and crosswalks, Gov. Parris N. Glendening announced last night.Over the next six years, funding for the program will increase from $50 million to $150 million, Glendening told a gathering of local officials at the Maryland Municipal League's annual convention in Ocean City.The neighborhood conservation program is part of Glendening's Smart Growth effort to revitalize older communities and discourage suburban sprawl.

With a bit of tinkering, Baltimore County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger III has added $12 million to next year's proposed capital budget, largely for school construction and improvements to the county's older communities.The new county executive is expected to deliver the bricks-and-mortar spending plan along with his first operating budget today. Both require final approval by the County Council, which may cut money from his requests but may not increase spending.The county planning board had recommended a $149.

From Randallstown to Greektown, communities in Baltimore County and Baltimore City were awarded more than $2.2 million in grants yesterday as part of the state's Smart Growth program to rebuild older communities. The awards, announced by Gov. Parris N. Glendening at a housing conference in Baltimore, were part of $15.5 million awarded to jurisdictions statewide. In the city, grants will be used to help homeowners upgrade their properties in Brooklyn-Curtis Bay, to renovate the Woman's Industrial Exchange downtown, to revitalize Belvedere Square, and to launch facade improvement programs in Greektown and Washington Village/Pigtown.

The Board of County Commissioners last week approved enrollment in the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development's "On Behalf of Local Governments" housing program, designed to aid first-time home buyers. The initiative is a state bond issue used to promote home ownership. The program offers local governments opportunities to partner with the state to either provide mortgage financing for first-time buyers or to help revitalize older communities. A total of $5,609,891 in bond authorization has been allocated to the Department of Housing and Community Development for the program, which is dubbed Maryland Mortgage.

Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. has proposed a modest change to the local tax rules in a bid to spur multimillion-dollar development in older communities. Smith has proposed easing the rules so developers spending $10 million or more in the county could get a 10-year tax credit. Currently, the rule mainly affected development in Towson. Under the proposal, a developer spending $10 million to renovate a building, for example, wouldn't have to pay the $111,500 a year in additional taxes triggered by the improvements.