Public Hearing

The city's zoning board overruled Baltimore's housing commissioner yesterday for ordering a permit without a public hearing for an automobile shredding system at a controversial Southwest Baltimore metal scrap yard.The board then turned around -- after holding the public hearing -- and approved the new shredding system with more than a dozen new restrictions aimed at protecting nearby residents from air and noise pollution.The United Iron and Metal scrap yard, owned by the David Joseph Co., is behind the 2600 block of Wilkens Ave. in the community of Mill Hill.

The county commissioners will discuss possible changes to several Carroll laws, including the forest conservation ordinance, which requires developers to save trees.Commissioners Donald I. Dell and Robin Bartlett Frazier voted yesterday to hold a public hearing on the laws that govern forest conservation, private streets, parking and mobile home parks. Board President Julia Walsh Gouge was not present during the vote.The public hearing is expected to be held this winter. The commissioners will have the final say on what changes, if any, are made.

The Baltimore County Council's commission on redistricting has announced its plan for getting what critics said was lacking the last time lines were redrawn: public input. The six members, meeting for the first time Friday, said they are reluctant to schedule meetings with other groups that have drafted reform proposals or with people who complained that the council acted in secret when it drew new lines last summer. Such meetings, they said, could keep the commission from meeting its May 1 deadline.

Editor: Next Tuesday, Jan. 10, at 7 p.m. at the Harford County Board of Education building at 102 S. Hickory Ave. in Bel Air, the public hearing for the Solid Waste Transfer Station Bill 11-62 will be held by the County Council. This is a bill to make the County government inform the people that a solid waste transfer station is coming to their neighborhood. It details what sort of trash it will take, where the trash will be taken, how large a facility it will be, and how many trucks will be cruising your neighborhood.

A Glen Burnie partnership can build a 98-bed assisted living facility and office park in Pasadena without a public hearing, despite legislation passed last month requiring such hearings.Mountain View Limited Partnership is planning the facility on 7.4 acres at Mountain Road and Route 100 that is zoned for commercial development. The legislation, sponsored by Councilman William C. Mulford II, applies only to assisted living facilities and nursing homes of 16 beds or more on residential property.

Howard County school board members have agreed that they need to voice stronger opposition to a bill that would retool the seven-member, at-large, elected body to one with five members elected by district and two appointees. The bill, which requires legislative approval, will be discussed Tuesday at a public hearing. If passed during a special session this month, the legislation would take effect before the Jan. 11 school board primary filing deadline. Board Chairman Janet Siddiqui plans to testify at the hearing, and she asked board members this week for suggestions on rewording her previous testimony.

Swim club property taxes and rural zoning matters are among the pieces of legislation being discussed by the Howard County Council this month. County Councilwoman Courtney Watson is again pursuing a measure to aid six county nonprofit swim clubs whose operators say they are faced with high property taxes compared to pools operated by homeowners associations and the Columbia Association. Community swim club owners have argued that most of their pools face mounting debt because of high property taxes, as well as increased expenses to make much-needed improvements.

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.

Erin McKelvey enjoys the open space of Dayton, a small western Howard County town with rolling hills and cattle farms. Disparaging remarks about country life don't bother her."I'm perfectly satisfied," McKelvey says. "My friends say I live in the boondocks. And I say, 'Damn straight.' "McKelvey was among 300 people who attended a public hearing at Glenelg High School on Wednesday to oppose plans to radically restructure land development in western Howard County.Residents of such small towns as Lisbon, West Friendship and Clarksville urged a county-appointed commission on rural land use to reject proposals to channel development into villages or small, clustered areas.

APPLETON - Residents of this rural crossroads community in the northeast corner of the state are expected to turn out in force at a public hearing Tuesday evening to oppose a proposed housing development in their neighborhood, which they argue could affect the entire county. Aston Development Group Inc. of Newark, Del., wants to build 300 single-family homes and a golf course at Telegraph Road (Route 273) and Appleton Road (Route 316). It would be called Aston Pointe. The new golf course is designed to lure the 83-year-old Newark Country Club across the border to a site featuring a larger course and modern facilities.