Proposed Legislation

Proposed federal conservation legislation to add land to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge on the Eastern Shore could also cripple efforts to save the Delmarva fox squirrel, a coalition of environmental groups said yesterday.The coalition -- including Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club, Maryland Public Interest Research Group (MaryPIRG) and Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage -- yesterday urged Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest, an Eastern Shore Republican, and the rest of Maryland's Congressional delegation to oppose certain language in the legislation that it fears would hamper conservation efforts.

The Anne Arundel County delegation is supporting legislation to help homebuyers who fail to ask enough questions about the neighborhood into which they will be moving. Anne Arundel delegates and senators have been deluged with calls from frantic neighbors who never expected a megamall in North County, an auto racetrack on the Solley Peninsula, or expansions at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Officials say it's time homebuyers became more careful and developers more forthcoming.

The Anne Arundel County delegation is supporting legislation to help homebuyers who fail to ask enough questions about the neighborhood into which they will be moving. Anne Arundel delegates and senators have been deluged with calls from frantic neighbors who never expected a megamall in North County, an auto racetrack on the Solley Peninsula, or expansions at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Officials say it's time homebuyers became more careful and developers more forthcoming.

Three members of Anne Arundel County Council introduced legislation last night that would throw a speed bump in the path of developers proposing a 61,600-seat auto racetrack in Pasadena.The bill proposed by 3rd District Councilwoman A. Shirley Murphy and two other Democrats would require Chesapeake Motorsports Development Corp. to appear before a public hearing before building on bay front land south of Key Bridge.Murphy's bill would reverse a much-criticized zoning law that the council rushed through in April to allow motor racing complexes as a "conditional use" on land zoned heavy industrial.

Anne Arundel County Council members picked over proposed legislation yesterday that would allow an auto racetrack in Marley Neck, questioning the developers on noise limits, traffic impacts, and the level of public input that would be allowed.The developers of the 54,800-seat arena, Middle River Racing Association, attended the afternoon meeting with promises of noise levels lower than those generated by a manufacturing plant, and plans to widen Fort Smallwood Road.They also had color renderings of a brick-front stadium and projections of a $170.

Teen-age drivers, the most hazardous on the road, may face new restrictions and stricter curfews.Legislation before the Maryland General Assembly would require teens to receive more supervised on-the-road experience and wait longer to earn a full license. Teens would also face tougher penalties for traffic offenses.Supporters hope the proposed law will help save lives and prevent injuries among the most inexperienced -- and statistically the most dangerous -- drivers on the road.The accident rate for 16-year-olds is 10 times higher than the rate for 35-year-olds and nearly three times higher than that for 18-year-olds, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

The master plan for development along the eastern banks of the harbor would be overhauled to allow construction of the 44-story Wyndham Inner Harbor East Hotel, under legislation introduced at last night's City Council meeting.The legislation, proposed by the administration of Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, would scrap key provisions of the master plan for five waterfront acres.The height restriction would be raised from a maximum of 180 feet, or roughly 18 stories, to at least 44 stories, possibly higher if the height of the Wyndham hotel is raised.

Baltimore County residents feeling besieged by cellular telephone towers and wireless communication industry representatives clamoring for more antennas found agreement on one thing yesterday: A proposal to regulate the placement of towers needs more work.At a public hearing held by the county's planning board, community leaders argued that proposed zoning restrictions were too lenient."The residential areas are under attack," said Louis W. Miller of Timonium. Holding up the proposed regulations, he added, "This is a monstrosity of nothing."

The Arundel Center assumed the air of a revival meeting last night as an audience comprising mostly Baptist parishioners trying to build a huge church complex in Davidsonville turned out to protest legislation that could doom the roughly $6 million project.But the prayers, religious tunes and hours of testimony came amid indications that the County Council, facing one of its largest and most divided audiences in years, had lined up in favor of the bill that Anne Arundel pastors have cast as harmful to religious freedom.

The lobbying has astonished the rookies.Retired Army Col. Bert L. Rice, a veteran of two tours in Vietnam, grimaces when asked about the onslaught of calls and letters. "It's activism of the most intense kind," said the Anne Arundel councilman's aide, Jim Golden. "There's no gray area."Councilman John J. Klocko III can't explain it either. "I find it very perplexing that it's as intense an issue as it's been," he said.At the center of the controversy is legislation sponsored by the two first-term Republicans from West County that would test a new way of developing rural Anne Arundel while preserving agricultural land.