Quarry

Worried that it had no authority to enforce developer Kingdon Gould's promises to Jessup residents, the Howard County Board of Appeals delayed a vote last night on Gould's proposal to set up a quarry in Jessup, dragging out one of the longest cases ever before the board."

Westminster officials will vote at tomorrow's Common Council meeting on a proposal to pursue a $2.5 million state loan that would help the city tap an emergency water supply and relieve the need to truck in water - a practice that has cost the city nearly $70,000 in the past month. The city is looking for money to build a 5.5-mile emergency water main connection that would connect a quarry just outside Westminster to the city's Cranberry water treatment plant. The pipeline would be buried along Route 31, providing a way for more than a million gallons of water a day to flow during emergencies.

Granite is a community as solid as its name implies.With the era of quarrying its legendary granite long gone, this quiet, rural village, which borders Patapsco Valley State Park southwest of Randallstown, has remained vibrant with a network of community groups and residents bent on preservation.Somehow, modern development had overlooked this town. Historical structures circa 1740, many of which are made from local stone, remain intact. Concerned citizens formed the Granite Historical Society, and got Granite designated as a National Historical District in 1994.

The County Commissioners may sign a contract today that will clear the way for a Wakefield Valley limestone quarry operator to begin joining two existing quarries into a single huge pit that will be 500 feet deep.The commissioners are scheduled to meet with representatives of Lafarge Corp., owner of Redland Genstar Inc., which has sought since 1993 to expand its 42-year-old Medford quarry. The expansion plan won approval from the county Planning and Zoning Commission in 1995, but county government and corporate negotiators have spent three years working out the proposed contract scheduled for discussion today.

At a third hearing last night, developer Kingdon Gould's experts continued to pitch his proposal to quarry rock on a 300-acre site in Jessup, and opponents filed a petition to bring in their own experts.Opponents hope to counter testimony from the dozen experts Mr. Gould has lined up to support his proposal before the Howard County Board of Appeals.They didn't have sufficient time or information from Mr. Gould to prepare witnesses before the hearings that began in January, according to their 11-page petition.

Concerned about the impact on Baltimore County's efforts to attract business, county officials might try to block a proposal that jeopardizes plans to build up to 1,000 homes on two of the last large tracts left for development.Top county administrators said yesterday that they are closely examining the measure proposed by the County Council chairman that would give the council authority to review -- and possibly reverse -- plans for multimillion-dollar housing developments and dozens of shops at the site of two quarries slated to be closed by Arundel Corp.

The Howard County Board of Appeals will decide tomorrowwhether to approve a proposed quarry in Jessup, its members said at a meeting last night.Preliminary opinions tallied during the meeting indicated that -- with significant reservations -- the board will approve the controversial project.After about two hours of discussion of how the rock-mining facility would affect surrounding residents, board members said they needed at least one more hour of debate before they could reach a decision.

Over the objections of Jessup residents, the Howard County Planning and Zoning Board voted 3-2 yesterday to recommend a 100-acre quarry on land owned by developer Kingdon Gould Jr., adjacent to about 1,000 homes.But board Chairman Theodore Mariani said the developer must make a "good faith effort" to cause the least disruption to neighbors, including the promise to compensate them for damage the operation might cause to their property.The county Board of Appeals is scheduled to make a final decision on the proposal Jan. 4.The vote came after a stormy three-hour session in Ellicott City during which Jessup residents objected to the project, citing concerns about traffic, tremors from blasts, dust, declining property values and safety.

As Greenspring Quarry near Pikesville winds down operations, a compromise on how many homes can be built around the abandoned rock pit remains elusive.Developer Steven S. Koren, representing landowner Florida Rock Industries of Jacksonville, Fla., says his company has sacrificed greatly by reducing the number of homes planned to nearly a fifth below what is allowed under a 1984 agreement with community groups."We cannot give any more," Koren said.The 624 homes and condominiums he wants to build -- with a hotel and office space -- "is a high-quality residential and commercial development," he said.

Some Jessup residents feel that they are caught between a rock and a hard place.The rock is called Baltimore gabbro, and it lurks beneath the soil on the edge of town. A quarry to retrieve it -- expected to be approved by the Howard County Board of Appeals tonight -- sounds like such a hard place that some neighbors fear it could endanger their quality of life and scare off newcomers."This will be a monstrosity," said Leah Woodbury, one of several leaders in the fight against the plan for a 546-acre wooded site bordered by single-family home and townhouse communities.