Property Owners

CA should focus spending narrowly Once again, the civic leaders of Howard County have asked the Columbia Association to provide funds for what should be a county-wide issue - the preservation of slave quarters. More disconcerting is the fact that the Columbia Association Board of Directors is likely to approve funds to preserve the property. The Columbia Association is neither a government nor a charitable foundation. It is a homeowners' association, albeit a relatively affluent one. More than half of its revenues are generated by assessments on all of the property owners of Columbia.

A zoning bill that would change the way Columbia's village centers may be redeveloped should be ready for County Council introduction in April, though the county Planning Board still must vote on it. That vote is tentatively scheduled for March 12, after a third board work session last week on the issue that produced no formal decision. Board members spent most of the meeting, which lasted more than three hours, debating minor word changes in the measure, though all agree on the concept - to allow property owners in Columbia's village centers the right to propose zoning changes.

ISSUE: The Anne Arundel County Council will take up a bill that would charge most homeowners a flat fee of $30 a year to help fund repairs to damaged waterways. Several council members last week pushed through this proposal as an amendment to a bill by County Executive John R. Leopold, whose plan called for levying fees mainly on future development. It would charge property owners based on the creation of most new impervious surfaces, such as patios, homes and parking lots. Leopold estimates his SMART Fund proposal would raise over $5 million a year, while backers of the amended plan say theirs would bring in $10 million annually.

Saying that historic properties give Baltimore's business district character, the Downtown Partnership is calling for the city to offer more incentives to owners to protect their buildings from demolition and to start talks about landmark status earlier, according to the nonprofit corporation's report released yesterday. The study, commissioned last year with financial support from the Abell Foundation, offers preliminary suggestions to guide elected leaders, planning officials and preservation activists.

Over the strong objections of one council member who bemoaned a waste of taxpayers' money, the Baltimore County Council approved last night the purchase of land in a crime-ridden Dundalk neighborhood slated for redevelopment. The proposed land deal in the old Yorkway apartment complex is part of the administration's plan to buy and raze the complex and then sell it for new development. In the most recent in a series of deals, the county offered $170,000 for less than two-tenths of an acre in Yorkway, using the higher of two independent appraisals.

Key state lawmakers plan to meet Wednesday morning, hours before the General Assembly session opens, to try to hammer out consensus on phasing out the state's arcane system of ground rents. "The time has come for us to sunset this ground rent business," Senate president pro tempore Nathaniel J. McFadden said yesterday. Lawmakers from both chambers plan in their morning session to figure out which concepts to draft into bills, said Del. Maggie L. McIntosh, a Baltimore Democrat and chairwoman of the House Environmental Matters Committee.

With their investments jeopardized by the continuing spread of Baltimore's slums, two powerful groups of property owners are pledging unexpected support for a pair of proposed state laws that would make it easier for the city to seize rundown houses.Banking officials and landlords have long opposed giving the city broad confiscation powers for fear that the ax would fall on them, placing millions in mortgages and property holdings at stake.But their resistance has softened amid growing recognition that Baltimore's 40,000 abandoned properties are dragging down real estate values across wide sections of the city and acting as warrens of crime that have destabilized entire neighborhoods.

Noting concerns about crowded schools, County Executive Janet S. Owens has said she would not grant a waiver to owners of nearly 1,000 wooded acres on the Marley Neck Peninsula who want to build 3,000 homes, a shopping center and a business park.The decision is another setback for landowners Jane Nes and CSX Corp. of Baltimore, who teamed up on the mixed-development proposal in June after years of working on separate projects. But county officials say the property owners -- who hadn't officially asked for a waiver -- are willing to go back to the drawing board to address school capacity issues.

MARYLAND'S young "brownfields" program to clean up and redevelop polluted lands is still trying to find its way.In the program's first two years, only four property owners have qualified for state grants and tax credits, and 52 have applied for voluntary cleanup registration, which limits their legal liabilities.The extreme caution of regulators and property owners alike should not be seen as a rejection of the initiative's main goal: to remove harmful contaminants at former industrial sites and reuse the properties, preventing the sprawl of development into open space "greenfields."

Seeking to reform a system criticized by developers and preservationists alike, a Baltimore County group is drafting a plan it says would eliminate confusion in how the county protects historic properties.The volunteer committee -- formed last year by the county after a series of disputed demolitions -- would revamp county historical preservation law by setting up three classes of historic properties with three levels of protection. The group is nearing consensus on a plan as existing law is being challenged as unconstitutional.

For years, the only way Baltimore code enforcers could prod property owners to fix problems - if asking didn't work - was taking them to court. Now the city can slap them with a fine. And it intends to. "We're going to be increasingly relying on citations for enforcement," said Michael Braverman, the city's deputy commissioner for permits and code enforcement. "We want the message to get out: Respond to the violation notice. Don't think about waiting for a summons to appear in District Court.

Trash court was in session, and for Robin Patterson, that meant an opportunity to solemnly swear, in effect, I am not a slob. Patterson didn't have to be in that downtown Baltimore hearing room. He could have simply paid the $50 fine for the garbage spotted behind his Northwest Baltimore home. But the maintenance worker says money is tight. Besides, he felt wrongly accused, so he had demanded a hearing. "I clean my yard twice a week," he explained with a note of indignation to Administrative Judge Patricia D. Welch.

A zoning bill that would change the way Columbia's village centers may be redeveloped should be ready for County Council introduction in April, though the county Planning Board still must vote on it. That vote is tentatively scheduled for March 12, after a third board work session last week on the issue that produced no formal decision. Board members spent most of the meeting, which lasted more than three hours, debating minor word changes in the measure, though all agree on the concept - to allow property owners in Columbia's village centers the right to propose zoning changes.

THE PROBLEM : Baltimore property owners paid their tax bills, but the payments weren't properly processed. THE BACKSTORY : Carol Foster of Phoenix couldn't understand it. She paid the property tax on her husband's dental office on Harford Road in July when the bill was due. But, in December, the couple received another letter. Foster thought it was another invoice. "I said, 'What, I've got to pay this twice a year now?' " she said. It was actually a notice to pay the taxes owed or the property would be sold at tax sale.

Glen Arm woman is killed in single-vehicle crash A 69-year-old Glen Arm woman was killed when her car left Dulaney Valley Road and struck a fence and trees late Monday, Baltimore County police said yesterday. Diane St. John Eckholdt of the 4300 block of Manorwood Drive was pronounced dead at the scene north of Stone Hill Road near Loch Raven Reservoir. Police said her 1993 Mercedes-Benz 300D was northbound on Dulaney Valley Road when it crossed the center line, went off the roadway and rolled over after hitting a wooden fence and several pine trees.

Baltimore officials mailed bills yesterday to owners of 200 city properties who are accused of improperly receiving property tax breaks. In the coming weeks, the state will send letters to the owners of about 1,400 other city properties who might also be abusing the tax system. The effort could net the cash-strapped city almost $2 million, officials said. Owners are being targeted because city and state officials have evidence that they are applying a homestead property tax credit to rental or vacant properties, improperly receiving a tax break that is supposed to apply only to a principal residence.

Deep in the nearly 700 pages of the new housing bill just signed into law is a complicated tax-code change that could affect substantial numbers of people who purchase second homes or rental investment real estate in the coming decade with an eye to occupying them as their main residence later. The bill narrows the use of the code's tax-free exclusion that allows sellers of principal residences to escape taxation on the first $500,000 of their profits (married joint-filers) or $250,000 (single-filers)

The Annapolis city council eliminated a controversial fee to maintain the city's sidewalks and approved refunds to the thousands of residents who paid it. How the city will maintain its 120 miles of sidewalks is unknown. Legislation approved at the council meeting called for more study of the issue. The council passed the fee - $25 for individual property owners and $125 for business owners - last year with little fanfare. But when residents received the bills last month, residents made clear their disdain for the fee, calling and e-mailing members of the council and speaking out at meetings.

A hotly disputed fee imposed on Annapolis property owners for maintenance of city sidewalks was unlawfully levied, according to an opinion issued by the Maryland attorney general's office. The fee is essentially a new tax because it is mandatory and assessed even on those who have no sidewalks, said William R. Varga, an assistant attorney general. Municipalities cannot levy new taxes without state lawmakers' approval. "The city lacks the authority to impose the charge unless the General Assembly was to enact enabling legislation applicable to all municipal corporations throughout the state," he wrote Monday.

Twenty-five dollars. It's not even half a tank of gas, less than the cost of a ticket to Six Flags, maybe a dozen crabs. But it's enough to drive Annapolis citizens to flood City Hall and city council representatives with furious calls and e-mails over the new fee to fund sidewalk maintenance and repairs - and enough to cause two aldermen to say they will introduce legislation Monday to suspend enforcement of the fee. The bills, which charge owners of...