Rural

A panel of experts on environmental and growth issues offered harsh criticism Monday of Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposed statewide smart-growth strategy at a forum attended by more than 100 people from some of the most rural parts of the state. Speakers accused state officials of inflating statistics and muddying facts to better make a case for PlanMaryland, which would designate targeted growth areas. George Frigon, an environmental consultant and wasterwater treatment expert, criticized PlanMaryland for what he said was a false assumption that "people who live on two acres poop more than people who live in apartments.

Kudos to The Sun for supporting the Maryland Transportation and Infrastructure Act of 2013 ("Transit benefits us all," March 26). The measure would fund much-needed public transportation, as well as roads, bridges and highways. Despite the predictable moans from some of the state's rural legislators, public transit is in fact good for residents in rural areas as well as for those in urban areas. Each year, more than 5.5 million rural riders depend on transit to get to work, visit their doctor, go shopping or run their everyday errands efficiently - and with less pollution.

Community: Manchester Location: Carroll County Average sales price: $237,000 in ZIP code 21102 (January through June) Notable features: Rolling farmland, cows, horses and elbow room. You'll find homes with generous yards, new single-family houses for less than you'd spend in much of the Baltimore region and an old-town Main Street. Manchester is almost 40 miles from downtown Baltimore, and its ZIP code stretches to the Pennsylvania line.

I am writing in response to The Sun's editorial regarding septic tank limits, "Plowing old ground" (Feb. 15). I have introduced legislation to repeal the Sustainable Growth and Agricultural Preservation Act of 2012, the law requiring counties to adopt a tier system thus limiting new residential developments with septic systems. The state has told the counties they must either adopt the tier system established by the state or limit new major subdivisions, currently six or more housing units in Queen Anne's County, to land on public sewer.

ABOUT 15 years ago during a visit from Birmingham, Ala., to see friends and relatives in Washington I was introduced to someone who remarked, "I wish I lived in the country." I think he meant it as a compliment. He said "country folk" aren't pretentious, and rural lifestyles are peaceful.But I was offended, having recently learned that 'bama is a euphemism for "yokel" up here in the Mid-Atlantic. I quickly assured the man that I was city-bred and street-smart. Why, I didn't even know what a cotton boll looked like until I was well into my teens!

For the people of Kingsville, the meeting of Belair, Jerusalem and Bradshaw Roads and Sunshine Avenue is the center of the civilized -- rural -- world as they know it."Kingsville is close and it's country," says Mary Jo Button, a real estate agent and past vice president of the 400-member Greater Kingsville Civic Association.In Baltimore County's Master Plan, the guide to development, Kingsville's 10 square miles are labeled a "rural village" with only limited development allowed compared with nearby Hereford, considered a "rural center," where more development can occur.

Development in the county's rural western half will be be governed by a new set of rules intended to preserve open space.County Council members, acting as the Zoning Board, agreed to a new western zoning map Friday, ending a comprehensive rezoning process that began nearly a year ago. County planners expect to release a draft of the rezoning plan for the eastern half of the county this week.One goal of the new development guideline is to preserve undeveloped rural land. To accomplish that, the board created two zoning districts to replace the previous rural (R)

In Howard County, it is a familiar pattern of seduction.The refugees from more urban areas catch a glimpse of rural Howard's tranquillity -- its rolling farmland, placid valleys and winding, two-lane roads -- and they just have to find a way to call it theirs.That's what brought waves of migrants to Ellicott City and Columbia over the last three decades, newcomers who brought with them much of what they were fleeing: rows of townhouses, traffic jams, shopping strips, crowded schools, crime, pollution, noise.

The 1719 Hans Herr House, oldest building in Lancaster County, Pa., will host Heritage Day on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Workshops will be held on 18th century rural crafts and antique home and farm equipment. For children there will be 18th cventury games to play. Other attractions will include Conestoga wagon rides ande homemade food. Admission is $4 for adults, $1 for children. The museum is four miles south of Lancaaster just off U.S. 222d abd Route 741. Call (717) 464-4438

Iowa City, Iowa -- The fire that swept through a chicken-processing plant in rural North Carolina and killed 30 workers Tuesday was eerily and tragically similar to another blaze that jolted America's conscience 80 years ago.On March 25, 1911, 146 employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York died in a fire that began in a rag bin and quickly filled three floors of the building with smoke and flames.The fire's victims were members of society's least powerful groups: They were poor women, most of them immigrants or first-generation Americans with little or no formal schooling.

A bill to lift state curbs on development using septic systems has died in Annapolis, less than a week after a small "tractorcade" to the State House by farmers upset over pending limits on how many houses can be built on their land. The House Environmental Matters Committee gave an "unfavorable" report to HB106 , which would have repealed the "Sustainable Growth and Agricultural Preservation Act of 2012. "  Sponsored by Del. Michael A. McDermott, a Republican representing Wicomico and Worcester counties on the Eastern Shore.

Farmers and others upset over state-imposed restrictions on septic-based rural development staged a "tractorcade" Tuesday past the State House in Annapolis. The protest comes on the day the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee is scheduled to hear a bill, SB391 , which would repeal the Sustainable Growth and Agricultural Preservation Act of 2012 . The law, introduced by Gov. Martin O'Malley and passed last year over rural lawmakers' objections, restricts large-scale housing development that would rely on septic systems.

Leaders of the Dar-us-Salaam community in College Park have been looking for years for a new home, a place for a school and a mosque close enough to be convenient for members living in several counties. They've scouted hundreds of spots and looked closely at a handful, and now they think they've found what they've been looking for in the rural western section of Howard County.  The 66-acre former home of the Woodmont Academy, a Catholic school in Cooksville, looks just right to the Muslim community leadership, with buildings already in place and plenty of undeveloped land for parking and a new mosque to accommodate thousands of worshippers in the decades to come.

On a fall day, the landscape in northern Baltimore County looks pretty marvelous. Even the old-fashioned rural roads seem unobtrusive. It's hard not to think: Why hasn't all this gorgeous landscape been ruined, as close as it is to downtown Baltimore? It's taken me a while to realize why the areas such as the Worthington and Greenspring valleys remain so unspoiled. This week, at a little Victorian house on Pennsylvania Avenue in Towson, I held a 50-year-old report whose precepts have cast a long shadow.

Stopping sprawl needn't amount to a "war on rural Maryland," but pragmatic conservationists realize that rural residents need sustainable jobs if they hope to avoid endless battles over keeping farmland and forests from giving way to tract homes and strip malls. The Eastern Shore Land Conservancy is tackling that challenge Friday with an all-day " rural jobs summit " in Easton.  State and local officials, planners, farmers, business and community leaders have been invited to come discuss ways of preserving rural economies as well as land.

The Baltimore County Council on Monday made significant changes to a measure involving the county development approval process after preservationists said it would undermine an essential county growth-control tool and could run afoul of state law. Originally, the bill sponsored by Councilmen David Marks and Tom Quirk would have allowed development outside a growth-management boundary adopted 45 years ago, but the council removed that provision under...

Rural residents whose wells are contaminated or threatened with contamination got some relief last night from the Howard County Council.The five-member council amended the county's general plan to bring nearly 3,000 more rural acres into the planned water and sewer service area. The vote was unanimous.Covered under the amendment would be St. Louis Roman Catholic Church and all the commercial properties on 123 acres west of Route 108 in Clarksville, 23 acres in the Burleigh Manor subdivision west of Centennial Lane and 2,800 acres surrounding the county's Alpha Ridge Landfill.

John Cairnes' family has lived in Jarrettsville for eight generations. From his office, he can see the cornfield that marks one boundary of his farm, a 290-acre spread that has been in the family since 1769."

Maryland officials are drawing up plans to require potentially costly water pollution "offsets" for new development to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay. The new policy, which officials plan to begin airing next month, would force developers to pay for pollution reductions elsewhere to offset any increases in bay-fouling nitrogen that would result from their projects, said Robert M. Summers , state environment secretary.  He outlined the...

The Maryland Department of the Environment on Tuesday extended a drought watch to western Maryland and parts of central Maryland. A drought watch was already in effect for the Eastern Shore since April 13. The drought watch includes all of Harford and Carroll counties and parts of Baltimore and Howard counties, as well as Frederick County and points west. It doesn't include areas that get water service through Baltimore city. MDE issues a drought watch when at least two indicators show developing drought conditions.