Planning Department

With his office under increased scrutiny from newly elected County Executive Janet S. Owens, the director of the county's land-use office announced yesterday he is resigning to take a job with a development engineering firm.The departure of Steven R. Cover, director of the county's department of Planning and Code Enforcement for the past four years, comes five weeks after Owens demanded to personally review all subdivision applications before they receive Cover's approval, to prevent the possibility of any favors to developers.

On homes too close to highwaysThe article in The Sun ("Homes won't get sound barriers," April 18) clearly illustrates why urban sprawl will not be contained until more citizen control is exercised over building decisions in the counties.Although this article discussed a new community in Howard County being built so close to Route 100 that hearing could be damaged, this could represent any county in Maryland.The so-called planning departments are, in fact, building facilitators.Their ties to the building community are too close and deep.

Ever since Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke announced last fall that he would not seek a fourth term, there has been a flurry of development activity throughout the city.It's not that Baltimore suddenly became a better place for investment. It's just that everyone with a project wants to get it under way before a new administration comes to power in December. The mayor, too, understandably wants to get as much going as possible to cement his place in city history.(The same phenomenon occurred just before William Donald Schaefer left the mayor's office in 1987.

PlanBaltimore is first step to futureWhen Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and the Baltimore City Planning Department released the draft of PlanBaltimore on April 22, we were gratified to get widespread coverage in Baltimore's media.This coverage was important in our effort to engage citizens in a dialogue about our city's future. That dialogue is under way.For it to move forward, citizens must have a clear understanding of what PlanBaltimore is and where the process goes from here.PlanBaltimore is not a block-by-block blueprint of Baltimore's physical future.

Preserving Baltimore's architectural heritage and open space were high on the list of concerns aired at a meeting on the city's future yesterday.A diverse group of 150 residents turned up at Roland Park Elementary and Middle School to discuss PlanBaltimore, the Planning Department's draft comprehensive plan.It was the second of two meetings held this month to gather public comment.Charles C. Graves III, the city planning director who led the two-year process that resulted in the draft, mainly listened to people's views yesterday.

The Carroll County Planning and Zoning Commission has adopted a major policy change that officials fear may tarnish Carroll's business reputation.The commission voted unanimously Tuesday to review every site plan submitted to the planning department -- a move that could slow commercial and industrial development projects by a month or more.Until yesterday, commission Chairman Thomas G. Hiltz or Philip J. Rovang, county planning director, approved many minor project site plans on behalf of the planning panel.

Arena plans factoring in other efforts downtownI read with interest your editorial "Replacing the Baltimore Arena" (Feb. 1), and wanted to do what I could to alleviate the "worry" you expressed that planning for the arena is isolated from other downtown efforts.Contrary to your assertion, the Baltimore Planning Department's efforts to identify sites for a new arena have taken into consideration many factors, including a variety of concentrated efforts around downtown.I convened a meeting Dec. 15 expressly to pull together all of the major stakeholders in the west side of downtown to coordinate planning efforts.

The Carroll County Planning and Zoning Commission has adopted a major policy change that officials fear may tarnish Carroll's business reputation.The commission voted unanimously Tuesday to review every site plan submitted to the planning department -- a move that could slow commercial and industrial development projects by a month or more.Until yesterday, commission Chairman Thomas G. Hiltz or county planning director Philip J. Rovang approved many minor project site plans on behalf of the planning panel.

Some county residents who spent nearly two years helping draft a new master plan to guide Carroll's growth are complaining that their key recommendations have been ignored."

WHY PLAN? That's the question many Baltimoreans have been asking since Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and the City Council changed an award-winning master plan for Inner Harbor East to permit a Wyndham Hotel to rise up to 430 feet on land that previously had a height limit of 180 feet, or about 18 stories.If the city is willing to undo its plan for the Inner Harbor shoreline to accommodate one developer, many asked, what part of the city will be undone next? And why should communities bother planning if that's the way city government operates?

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.

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.

Donald D. Duncan, a longtime city planner who was an instrumental behind-the-scenes player in Inner Harbor renewal, died of brain cancer Tuesday at his home in Sedona, Ariz. He was 73. In 1967, he and two other graduate students at Cornell University had devised a master's thesis that concentrated on Baltimore, including a revitalization focus centered on the Inner Harbor. He was immediately hired by Baltimore's legendary Planning Director Larry Reich when he graduated with a master's degree in urban planning in 1967.

The Board of Public Works rejected a proposal yesterday to move a small state agency from Baltimore to Prince George's County, a politically charged idea that pitted Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. against his frequent ally, Comptroller William Donald Schaefer. Dozens of elected officials and community activists from Prince George's crowded the ceremonial hearing room in the State House to plead for the relocation of the 110-person state Department of Planning, which they said would be a long-overdue recognition of the county's importance.

The Ehrlich administration is moving ahead with plans to move the Maryland Department of Planning from its longtime state-owned offices in Baltimore to rented space in Prince George's County, despite being denied funding for the nearly $2 million relocation by the General Assembly. The Department of General Services has prepared a lease agreement effective July 1, 2007, for the planning agency to occupy new quarters in Largo, according to an internal document obtained by The Sun. The department "has been requested" to present the lease to the Board of Public Works for approval, says the document, which is dated Aug. 1. Henry Fawell, a spokesman for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., said the administration is committed to the relocation to fulfill a four-year-old pledge.

Residents of an Ellicott City neighborhood battling to force a developer to build fewer new homes on a disputed 3-acre lot lost a round at a Board of Appeals hearing this week. The members of the St. John's Manor community wanted the county to require developer Harmony Builders Inc. to devote nearly a third of the land to open space to retain forest, limiting the number of new homes that could be built. But the board sided with the planning department's decision to allow the developer to meet forest-conservation requirements by using other options, like planting trees elsewhere or paying the county a fee. Because of the Board of Appeals' unanimous decision Wednesday, the planning department can continue its strict interpretation of state and county regulations, which means the department may not demand more than the minimum requirement for open space from such a development, dubbed "infill."

James Bieda had just moved into his Ellicott City home in October 2002 and was painting the walls with the help of neighbors when he got the notice in the mail. A local land developer had bought the house next door on 9010 Manordale Lane and the 3.04-acre lot that came with it. The developer's intention was to build four or five more houses on the property, a prospect that didn't please his St. John's Manor neighbors. "This development affects us," Bieda said recently, looking at the adjacent wooded property from his backyard.

In January, Greg Cantori and his wife, Renee, left their Pasadena home for five weeks and rented an apartment in Bogota, Colombia. It was a very different kind of vacation. The Cantoris were in the final stage of a rigorous adoption procedure, one that required them to take a figurative test drive with their prospective daughter. Things couldn't have gone better. Eleven-year-old Andrea proved to be the girl of their dreams. Surprisingly, Bogota also stole Greg's heart. "I felt like I was in Utopia," he says.