Planning Department

Greg Cantori plans to downsize when he retires. Really, really downsize. His retirement home is 238 square feet — one-tenth the size of the average new American house — and sits in his Anne Arundel County yard. He and wife Renee can hitch it to a truck and take it with them wherever they go. "It's so cheap — that's what's so cool about this," said Cantori, 52, who envisions a surf-and-turf future, alternating between the house and a sailboat. "We bought the house for $19,000.

U.S. 1 in Howard County gets you from Elkridge to Laurel, from the White Elk Motel to the Fat Daddy Saloon, with an array of industrial and office parks, homes, fast-food restaurants, storage places and gas stations in between. The strip is looking better in recent years, sprouting new developments with names like Elkridge Crossing, Howard Square and Ashbury Courts, but it's still a work in progress. The county's planning department has a vision of what that 11-mile stretch along Howard's eastern edge could be, and has included these notions in the proposed master plan for growth to be presented to the County Council for the first time Monday night.

The city Planning Department is undergoing a reorganization intended to give it a more active role in charting the city's development. Otis Rolley III, who became planning director in August, is eliminating 16 jobs, creating 20 new ones and replacing six divisions with three. Those changes, expected to take effect by Jan. 1, will help the agency guide Baltimore's development - a mission set out for the department in the city charter, but one that it got away from over the years, Rolley said.

Baltimore County Council members are poised to adopt a lean spending plan that would achieve savings largely through early retirements and reorganizations in a number of government departments. The council made only one cut Thursday to the $1.65 billion operating budget County Executive Kevin Kamenetz recommended in April. Members trimmed the Department of Public Works' fuel budget for dump trucks and other equipment by about $208,000 because the county auditor found that the administration had overestimated the cost of fuel.

Baltimore's Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation, a city agency that rules on such sensitive development issues as whether landmarks should be saved or can be demolished, will become part of the city Planning Department, Mayor Martin O'Malley's office announced yesterday. The merger, which was initially introduced as a City Council bill, has preservationists worried that the reorganization will muzzle the 40-year-old commission and dilute its authority as a watchdog on behalf of buildings of architectural or historical distinction.

U.S. 1 in Howard County gets you from Elkridge to Laurel, from the White Elk Motel to the Fat Daddy Saloon, with an array of industrial and office parks, homes, fast-food restaurants, storage places and gas stations in between. The strip is looking better in recent years, sprouting new developments with names like Elkridge Crossing, Howard Square and Ashbury Courts, but it's still a work in progress. The county's planning department has a vision of what that 11-mile stretch along Howard's eastern edge could be, and has included these notions in the proposed master plan for growth to be presented to the County Council for the first time Monday night.

There's gold in the hills of Carroll County, but not much. Miners are more likely to find limestone, greenstone or shale.The county'smineral resources are spread throughout the county, with concentrations of limestone in Wakefield Valley, greenstone in the central area,and shale in the northwest, a county planning report says.Gold reportedly was found in five areas, including a ridge running from Cranberry Valley to north of Manchester and in copper mines inSykesville, the report says.The county never has had a comprehensive plan for handling its mineral resources and now is seeking inputfrom a committee of residents to help write a plan.

A proposed merger of Baltimore's preservation agency and Planning Department came a step closer yesterday after a City Council hearing showed that many local preservationists could support the arrangement, albeit with reservations. After hearing three hours of testimony about a council bill that would make Baltimore's Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) part of the Planning Department, Urban Affairs Committee Chairwoman Paula Johnson Branch promised a final bill that would keep CHAP strong even though it would be integrated with the city department.

THE DECISION by the Anne Arundel County Planning Department to reject preliminary plans for the Village at Waugh Chapel is the equivalent of sending a meal back to the kitchen because it needs more cooking.Rather than viewing the department's action as a rebuke, developer Robert DeStefano should seize this opportunity. Since will have to resubmit his plans to the planning department, he can still create a development of exceptional design in western Anne Arundel.In his rejected plans, Mr. DeStefano identified the ingredients needed to create a "suburban community center."

If only a tenth of the people Councilwoman Shane Pendergrass invited to tomorrow's council hearing show up to testify, the council could be in for a long night.Ms. Pendergrass, D-1st, sent letters to 13 individuals and the presidents of 216 civic associations, saying she welcomed testimony on her bill to require the county Planning Department to set up an early warning system to alert residents to new development."The impetus for this legislation comes from community associations and residents concerned about the lack of prior notice of new subdivision activity in their community," Ms. Pendergrass said in her letter.

Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold is considering a move to overrule the recommendations of his own planning department, as he weighs a veto on a hard-fought bill that would allow a Pasadena apartment complex to move forward. The county's Office of Planning and Zoning recently recommended that the County Council approve intensified zoning for a property along Long Hill Road in Pasadena, where Annapolis-based development company Koch Homes plans to build 390 apartments.

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.

Foraging for culinary delights in Herring Run Park is a testimony that some things can be savored but they cannot be bought ("The thrill of the hunt," June 8). Moreover, it reflects the passion, hard work and commitment of the surrounding communities and park users, and especially their values. Abutting the Herring Run lie a necklace of valley stream parks that go largely unnoticed. Yet within the boundary of this extensive park system lie cool forests, beckoning meadows, winding trails and, yes, food for thought and sustenance.

Gov. Martin O'Malley announced Friday that the state Department of Housing and Community Development will move its headquarters from Anne Arundel County to Prince George's, the first state agency to relocate to the county. The department, which works on rental housing, neighborhood revitalization and foreclosure-prevention programs, will move more than 330 employees from its Crownsville site to a location that has yet to be determined. "Prince George's County is the second-biggest county in our state; yet in the 375-year history of our state, it has not been home to the headquarters of a state agency, until now," O'Malley said.

Eager to see construction begin on a controversial "robotic" garage and apartment project planned for West Saratoga Street, the building's developer has agreed to let a mural be painted on two sides, and Baltimore's planning department has offered to help secure funding for it. Developer David Hillman of Southern Management Corp. in Vienna, Va., is working with the planning department and Baltimore's Office of Promotion and the Arts to select an artist to create the mural on the west and north sides of a 402-space, 80-foot-high garage that he wants to build at 18 W. Saratoga St. One possible subject of the mural is university and hospital founder Johns Hopkins, who owned a house that once stood where the garage would rise.

The shell of Baltimore's long-dormant Morris A. Mechanic Theatre would be partially preserved as part of a mixed-use complex containing a 30-story residential and hotel tower and commercial space, if its owners can obtain city approval and financing to carry out their latest plans. Renderings of the proposed development were filed with Baltimore's planning department this summer in preparation for a public hearing at 1:30 p.m. today by the Baltimore Planning Commission. The project is the latest of several hotel and residential towers proposed for construction in downtown Baltimore despite the uncertain real estate market.

WHAT'S GOING on at the city Planning Department? The agency has been without a permanent director since November. Now about a third of its planners are to be moved to the housing department. "Is this the end of the Department of Planning?" wonders a city councilman. A valid question. Mayor Martin O'Malley says the transfers are linked to his efforts to improve neighborhoods. The exact impact of the mayor's changes, which have not been publicly announced, is not yet known; they are still subject to budget deliberations with the City Council.

Over the protests of preservationists, a City Council committee approved a proposal last night to merge Baltimore's historic preservation commission with the city Planning Department. In the bill that now goes to the full City Council for approval, the committee left out amendments urged by the Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation - an omission that critics say will strip the commission of its power. "It feels like someone's trying to put a lid on us," Judith Miller, chairwoman of the CHAP board, said after the Urban Affairs Committee's 3-1 vote, with one abstention.

Baltimore's Morris A. Mechanic Theatre has been closed for four years, but it's still a source of high drama for those curious about what will happen to the key downtown property. A year after Baltimore's Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation recommended that the dormant theater at 1 W. Baltimore St. be added to the city's landmark list as a way to protect it from demolition, the building's owners have come up with a redevelopment plan that would keep it standing, although not as a theater.

Otis Rolley III, who has served as Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon's chief of staff since January, resigned from his powerful position and will help launch a nonprofit advocacy group focused on regional transportation, city officials said yesterday. Long considered a rising star in city government, Rolley submitted his resignation last week, according to a Dixon spokesman. His departure, which came as a surprise to many, represents one of the first major shakeups in the administration since Dixon won the primary election last month.