Parking Garage

The Baltimore County Revenue Authority is reopening negotiations on its agreement with developers of Towson Circle III and plans to talk with the new county administration about its commitment to the project after a financial analyst raised questions about the deal. On Thursday, the authority postponed a vote on a pact covering its role in financing an underground parking garage for the movie theater, store, restaurant and office complex along East Joppa Road. Instead, the authority held a 15-minute closed-door session to consider new proposals from the developers, Heritage Properties Inc. and the Cordish Cos. Donald P. Hutchinson, chairman of the authority, which runs parking garages, public golf courses and an indoor recreation center, would not discuss details of the developers' proposals.

Its gestation period has been much longer than for the average pachyderm, Towson Circle lll will nonetheless become one of the largest white elephants in Baltimore County's history ( "Not coming soon: a new movie complex in Towson," Nov. 14). They are going to build a parking garage practically next to another parking garage no one uses at night now and across the street from a free parking lot for a cost of at least $12 million. The revenue it may generate will not be enough to pay for the annual maintenance and staffing costs, so one can forget about ever recouping the taxpayers' money.

Cameras don't eliminate crime. They don't patrol neighborhoods. They can't interview suspects. They don't make arrests. But as the evidence of recent years suggests, they can be a helpful tool in both deterring and solving certain kinds of crime. Five years ago, a science teacher was murdered in a parking garage at Towson Town Center, and public outrage over the event gave rise to a Baltimore County law requiring shopping centers with big-box stores or 15 or more retail businesses to install enough security cameras to monitor at least 75 percent of parking spaces.

A 47-year-old Glen Burnie man wanted for failing to appear in an Anne Arundel County courtroom was found Tuesday by deputies pretending to be asleep in a car and arrested, authorities said. Charles Wilkins of the 700 block of Griffith Road is being held without bail at the Anne Arundel County Detention Center, according to the county sheriff's department. A spokesman for the department said Wilkins was ordered to be at a morning hearing for a second degree assault charge. Wilkins entered the courthouse but never went to the courtroom before leaving and going to a nearby parking garage, authorities said.

A nationally recognized authority on parking garages, McDonald walked from the Towson Town Center food court to Level C4 East, where she had parked her Mazda Miata. From here she would begin the tour of nearby examples of the architectural form she's been studying for nearly 20 years. McDonald, of Towson, watched as cars rounded sharp turns, rolling over the expansion joints on the garage floor, triggering occasional metallic thunder claps. "I've never seen anything so complex in all my life," she said, referring to the structure's many levels and sections.

A full-time Towson University graduate student has died after falling from a university parking garage off of York Road, according to Baltimore County Police. Michael Laub, 44, jumped from the fifth floor of the campus' Glen Garage at about 10:45 a.m., police say, and a preliminary investigation points to suicide. Glen Garage and all roads near the garage remained open, according to Towson University.

A Virginia-based developer's quest to build a parking garage at 18 W. Saratoga St. received a key endorsement Thursday when Baltimore's Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel gave "revised schematic approval" to the latest design for the project. The plan by David and Richard Hillman of Southern Management Corp. calls for a 12-level, 375-space garage to be buried mostly underground, with just 24 spaces above street level. The top of the building would be 26 feet above the sidewalk.

After encountering strong opposition to a plan to build an 80-foot-high parking garage next to Old St. Paul's Rectory in Baltimore, developer David Hillman is now proposing to bury most of the garage underground. Hillman and architect Peter Fillat are scheduled next week to present a new plan for a 12-level garage to Baltimore's Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel. The property at 18 W. Saratoga St., part of the Central Business District urban renewal area, once contained a house owned by university and hospital founder Johns Hopkins.

Federal, private funds awarded for green job training The U.S. Department of Labor announced Wednesday it has awarded $4.6 million for "green" job training to dislocated workers and others in Baltimore and Prince George's counties. The grant recipient, H-CAP Inc., will provide training to prepare job seekers and entry-level environmental services for "new and emerging green occupations" in the health care industry, the department said. The grant also will cover workers in California, New York, Washington and the District of Columbia.