Planning Process

RESIDENTS have a rare opportunity to plan the future of their communities. They shouldn't forfeit it.Although complaining about poor planning is a popular pastime, the audiences have been pathetic at meetings of Anne Arundel County's small area planning process.Last week, for example, a forum in Crofton drew a smattering of a couple of dozen people.Crofton residents who did not show up lost an opportunity to hear about future projects, potential land-use changes and public improvements planned for their community.

Wind generators or windmills are sprouting up all over the United States. They're part of a growing move to expand the use of renewable energy sources, like wind and the sun, to produce electricity. Examples are everywhere. Construction of a 50-megawatt wind farm was just completed in New Mexico. Shovels will break ground in Indiana later this year for an even larger 100-megawatt wind farm. Contracts have been signed for a 49-megawatt solar project inOhio. Technology companies like Google are investing large amounts in renewable energy, including offshore wind projects along the Atlantic coast, because they recognize that it's the future.

EVEN THOUGH new residential development profoundly affects the existing residents of a neighborhood, they often feel as though they don't have a significant say in planning decisions that affect the quality of their lives, not to mention the value of their properties. Establishing local planning councils throughout the county is an excellent proposal to give citizens a meaningful say in the development process.The impetus for the new councils is coming from South Carroll, which in the past decade has witnessed an explosion of residential and commercial development.

Md. needs energy plan In her op-ed "New energy will fuel new growth and pollution," (Sept. 13), Karen Hosler voiced concern about the lack of energy facility planning in Maryland. We are participating with a large number of national, statewide and local organizations advocating the development of a comprehensive energy plan for the state. We now have a process in which new facilities are driven primarily by that which is most profitable. There's nothing inherently wrong with a market-driven process, provided other equally important factors are given adequate consideration.

TURN AROUND FOR a moment, blink and you may need another school, two libraries and a wider road. Your plan? Out the window. Still, you have to have a plan. The problems are too complex to be dealt with on the fly, when they arrive complete with crisis. In the best of all possible worlds, planning is democracy, involving voters in the shaping of their future. The key is communication. Suspicious citizens will sympathize with County Councilwoman Mary C. Lorsung who discovered earlier this week that Howard High School may be expanding more than planned.

Baltimore's comprehensive master planning process will be conducted from a regional perspective and coordinated with an effort under way in Baltimore County, organizers promised yesterday.Addressing more than 100 civic leaders and others at the official kickoff for the $500,000 planning effort yesterday, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke urged city planners to work closely with their counterparts in Baltimore County and other jurisdictions to produce a report that won't simply gather dust on the shelf.

First of three parts.There are only a few days left to July. Starting next week, chances are better than even you won't be able to get a thing done in Maryland until September -- at least anything that requires more than two people getting together.So, between answering phones because everyone else in the office is at the beach, here are some thoughts to consider about planning, apparently the word on the lips of nearly every nonprofit executive last spring, regardless of the size of their organization.

Planning is essential to the success of any organization. Without adequate planning, organizations are subject to the winds of fortune, and never seem to move their agenda forward or thrive.I have seen many an organization with wonderful visions fade into second-rate status because they never booked sufficient planning time, either through fear or avoidance or both.I'm not being facetious when I say that the first step in any planning process for a nonprofit organization is for key decision-makers to agree that they need to plan.

School project lacks planning Why has the Mount Hebron High School project been so controversial and costly? The answer would be "planning"-- the lack of. While other counties follow a process recommended by the state of Maryland, the Howard County public school system has used an inconsistent and difficult to comprehend planning process. A set of standards and a goal are the usual starting point for architects because they determine a project's scope and what the required results will be. Past HCPSS projects have sporadically used the Board of Education's 1999 Educational Specifications to determine a school's needs.

BUSINESS-friendly is one thing, citizen-friendly is another. Those two fundamental objectives for Carroll County need to be reconciled in streamlining the development planning process. County officials want to simplify the planning process by exempting business developments of under 20,000 feet from planning commission review. Plans also call for cutting in half the building permit fees paid by small-scale projects, and exempting projects under 5,000 square feet from landscaping requirements.

Planning process needs total overhaul In the editorial "Controlling growth" (March 13), The Sun states that "the current planning process is clearly broken." I strongly agree with that position. Here in Howard County, we have a beautifully written general plan, as is required by the state. The county executive and the County Council are responsible for implementing the plan through the comprehensive zoning amendment process, in which the status of all properties and regulations is up for revision.

School project lacks planning Why has the Mount Hebron High School project been so controversial and costly? The answer would be "planning"-- the lack of. While other counties follow a process recommended by the state of Maryland, the Howard County public school system has used an inconsistent and difficult to comprehend planning process. A set of standards and a goal are the usual starting point for architects because they determine a project's scope and what the required results will be. Past HCPSS projects have sporadically used the Board of Education's 1999 Educational Specifications to determine a school's needs.

The dispute continues over the height of a planned 23-story condominium tower in central Columbia after a three-hour meeting failed to produce a compromise, increasing the likelihood that the contentious issue will affect work on the master plan for Town Center redevelopment. "I think everyone gave it a great try, and we weren't able to come to an agreement," said Barbara Lawson, the recently retired director of the Columbia Foundation, who acted as moderator.

Howard Community College will present a revised master plan for the Belmont Conference Center in Elkridge tomorrow that scales back some elements in response to community comments, but still seeks to expand the use of the property by conference clients, students and community members. The meeting, at 7 p.m. in the Instructional Lab Building on the Columbia campus, will be the final public meeting in a planning process that began last summer. During that time, the college had received sometimes heated responses from residents of Elkridge concerned with preserving Belmont in as pristine a condition as possible.

Annapolis Mayor Ellen O. Moyer began her second term by pledging "the most inclusive, participatory and insightful planning process ever" in the development of a new 10-year master plan for the city. Following a bruising re-election campaign in which her opponents criticized her style as heavy-handed, Moyer used her swearing-in Monday to reach out to the city council, which has five new members. "Let's build bridges in the face of differences, not with complaints and criticism but through discovering our common ground and collective wisdom," said Moyer, 69. She said her top priority would be leading a "communitywide great conversation" on "Annapolis Vision 2018," a comprehensive plan that will take effect in 2008 and serve as a guide for the city government.

Plans for a 22-story lakefront tower in Town Center are moving forward even as the county prepares for a new planning process designed to map out central Columbia's future. Florida developer WCI Communities submitted revised plans for the building near Lake Kittamaqundi last week, and the county Planning Board could get the project as early as next month. A sales office is scheduled to open next month in the former Columbia Exhibit Center next to the 1.2-acre site, now a grass field where Bennigan's and an office building once stood.

Baltimore's downtown planning effort is the subject of a series of brown-bag lunches sponsored this week and next by the Citizens Planning and Housing Association.The free lecture series, "Downtown Baltimore: The Shape of Things to Come," is designed to inform the public on the "Strategy for the Progressive Development of Downtown," an 18-month planning process launched by Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke in May of 1989.During each session, citizens involved in a specific portion of the planning process will talk about their work so far and the recommendations they have made.

Anne Arundel County's beleaguered community-based effort to draft a land-use and development plan hit another bump yesterday when County Executive Janet S. Owens called the grass-roots process "flawed" and its goals "unrealistic." Owens, who inherited the Small Area Planning process when she defeated former County Executive John G. Gary in 1998, made the comments after a County Council meeting during which members also were critical of the process. "It's a very difficult process to manage," said Owens.

Baltimore is following in the footsteps of Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Denver and putting together a plan to eradicate homelessness within the next decade - action that could provide permanent housing to roughly 4,000 people who sleep in parks and shelters each night in the city. Local advocates and service providers for the homeless say they can meet their goal by increasing the number of affordable housing units, providing immediate access to the housing, and expanding services targeted at drug addiction, mental health and job training.

While some Harford County residents worry about plans to process tons of asbestos at Aberdeen Proving Ground, the Army and the contractor that would operate the plant say their pilot project would be a safe way to test a better disposal method for the hazardous ma- terial. "If we thought there were real safety or environmental issues involved with process and procedures used, we wouldn't do them," said Tim Blades, deputy director of chemical-biological services at the Army's Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, part of APG. The Army plans to spend $5 million next year to test a process that would, in essence, turn the military's asbestos into sand.