Subdivision

Initial plans for a modest subdivision near the Patapsco Valley State Park have won approval. The development, Grovemont Overlook, would provide 33 single-family detached homes and 9 acres of open space - half of the 17.87-acre project. The property is on the east side of Landing Road, south of Norris Lane, in Elkridge. The state park and Belmont Research and Conference Center are to the east and south of the proposed project, and a 174-unit residential subdivision is to the north. The property of the proposed development is properly zoned, and there was no public opposition Thursday when the Planning Board unanimously approved the preliminary equivalent sketch plan.

Halle Development Corp. has agreed to repair the deteriorating roads in pricey Seven Oaks after an independent survey showed it was not necessary to tear out all the roads and rebuild them from scratch, county officials said.The county and the company reached the agreement Wednesday shortly before they were to appear before the county Board of Appeals.County officials had moved to revoke the $1.5 million road construction bond Halle had posted and take over road repairs in the Severn subdivision.

In response to neighbors' concerns, the developers of a proposed 32-home subdivision in Freetown will change the new community's name to reflect the rich history of the African-American neighborhood.The neighbors object to the size of the project, however, maintaining that it is too big for the 11.5-acre parcel slated for development."The name is not the major problem; the resistance is to the number of houses," said Willie Johnson, president of the Freetown Improvement Association.Mountain Valley, the working name for the proposed subdivision, will be changed to Bouyer's Heritage, Bouyer's Landing or another name to commemorate the Bouyer family, once-prominent landowners in the Glen Burnie community.

Arthur S. Tracey wants to protect the land he has farmed in northern Baltimore County since he was a teen-ager. His neighbors near Parkton want to preserve their rural community.Though they share a goal, the two sides are at odds over Tracey's plan to sell part of a farm straddling Interstate 83 at Middletown Road to a developer who wants to build 50 houses on it. Tracey said he needs the money to pay off a mountain of debt and save a second 400-acre farm where he lives."It hurts to sell," he said.

About a dozen residents attended a public meeting yesterday to oppose construction of a 7-Eleven convenience store and gas station on Route 30 near Hampstead.Neighbors of the proposed 2,940-square-foot building told members of the county Subdivision Advisory Committee that they have concerns about traffic congestion and the possible contamination of a nearby wildlife conservation area. The store and gas pumps would be built on the east side of Route 30, about 500 feet south of Wolf Hill Drive.

Long before the developers of Columbia dreamed up their village neighborhoods, there was the subdivision of Hammond Village. Started in the early 1960s, this subdivision of brick ramblers and split-level homes forms the core of the Hammond community."

The small Glen Burnie neighborhood of Freetown has always been more than a place to live to its residents. Homeowners have regarded it as hallowed ground, a destination for runaway slaves in the mid-1800s who bought land there, and a refuge from a segregated society during the next century.But for 20 years, community members have watched the historic African-American area shrink as residents have sold property to developers.Those who remain complain about development. But the latest subdivision proposal has residents worried that something less tangible -- the Freetown name and its rich history -- may be lost to future generations of African-Americans.

IF THERE'S ONE thing this nation needs, it's bigger cars. That's why I'm excited that Ford is coming out with a new mound o' metal that will offer consumers even more total road-squatting mass than the current leader in the humongous-car category, the popular Chevrolet Suburban Subdivision -- the first passenger automobile designed to be, right off the assembly line, visible from the moon.I don't know what the new Ford will be called. Probably something like the "Ford Untamed Wilderness Adventure."

Seventeen families from the Calvert Ridge subdivision in Elkridge, where several homes were evacuated last year because of a methane gas buildup, filed a federal lawsuit yesterday against the neighborhood's builders and developers.Ryan Homes and the Brantly Development Group are the main defendants named in the suit, which seeks $75 million in damages for lost wages, medical care, pain and suffering, and loss of the reasonable use of property.Robert Coursey, a spokesman for Ryan Homes, did not return calls to his office and car phone yesterday.

The Union Bridge planning commission began last night to review the initial design of a subdivision that could eventually double the population of the northwestern Carroll County town of about 1,000.Commission members floated ideas for bicycle paths; a pathway for the planned subdivision's senior citizens to walk to a nearby supermarket; and a bed and breakfast, or a branch library, in a historic farmhouse on the property.The panel plans to spend several months reviewing the design submitted by Manchester developer Martin K. P. Hill for the 120-acre property on the north side of Route 75. Hill has a contract to purchase the property from Towson dentist Dr. G. Jackson Phillips, who has planned to develop it for at least five years.

The forested, hilly land off Henryton Road where Shirley Collier and her neighbors live is wild and wonderful, but it's in Howard County, not West Virginia, and residents want government help to improve the half-mile unpaved private road that their developer installed three decades ago. But county officials fear that relaxing the laws on private road conversions for Collier's community would bring dozens more expensive requests. "It's our little piece of heaven out here," said Collier, a 23-year resident.

My wife owns a home that we would prefer to sell, but it is a rental property at the moment. The renter has informed us that she has bought a new house and will be leaving at the beginning of February so she will not be giving her 30-day notice and she does not intend to pay anything for January. A friend suggested that we put a lien on the new house so she won't be able to close on the house until she pays us. The rent is $1,700. Is that worth the amount of lawyers' fees it would cost to do all that?

Towson (3-7) @James Madison (7-3) Time -- 1:30 p.m. Site -- Bridgeforth Stadium, Harrisonburg, Va. Radio -- 1570 AM Outlook -- Towson (1-6 Colonial Athletic Association) will try to end a four-game losing streak in its final game of the season, but the Tigers face a difficult opponent in the Dukes (5-2 CAA). James Madison is ranked 14th in the NCAA's Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) and is coming off a 55-34 victory over William and Mary. The game features contrasting offenses: Towson likes to throw (224.

Initial plans for a modest subdivision near the Patapsco Valley State Park have won approval. The development, Grovemont Overlook, would provide 33 single-family detached homes and 9 acres of open space - half of the 17.87-acre project. The property is on the east side of Landing Road, south of Norris Lane, in Elkridge. The state park and Belmont Research and Conference Center are to the east and south of the proposed project, and a 174-unit residential subdivision is to the north. The property of the proposed development is properly zoned, and there was no public opposition Thursday when the Planning Board unanimously approved the preliminary equivalent sketch plan.

Hagerstown and federal authorities searched for new leads yesterday as they investigated the possibility that ecoterrorists set a Sunday morning fire that damaged four unoccupied townhouses in a large subdivision under construction on the city's west side. An e-mail to a local newspaper claimed that the Earth Liberation Front, an underground movement, was responsible for the single-alarm fire that destroyed one townhouse and damaged three others in Hager's Crossing. The FBI, which has named the radical environmental group one of the most dangerous in the nation and blamed it for $100 million in damage in the past decade, has launched a joint investigation with Hagerstown's fire and police departments.

Armed with a gun shoved in his waistband, Patrick S. Walsh packed his truck with flares and accelerant before he rode into a Charles County subdivision and helped commit one of the largest residential arsons in state history, the prosecution's star witness testified yesterday. Jeremy D. Parady, a co-defendant turned cooperative witness, offered the most damaging evidence about that night thus far in the trial against Walsh, who has pleaded not guilty to setting fire to the Hunters Brooke community in Indian Head on Dec. 6. But Parady, 21, readily admitted on the witness stand in U.S. District Court in Baltimore that he had lied to federal authorities and the presiding judge in the case for months before he changed his story and pleaded guilty.

Glen Burnie man charged with attempted rape Anne Arundel County police have arrested a Glen Burnie man and charged him with attempting to rape an 18-year-old woman Wednesday night, police said. Kevin Andre Chew, 41, was charged with attempted first-and second-degree rape, and first-and second-degree assault in the incident in the 3000 block of Patuxent River Road in Davidsonville, police said. Police said officers were approached by a woman who said she had been attacked by someone she knew but had struggled with him briefly and fended him off. State panel approves zoning, subdivision rules A state commission has approved new zoning and subdivision regulations for Anne Arundel County.

Willow Woods Location: Off WB & A Road in Severn Developer: Willow Woods LLC of Baltimore Description: A subdivision of 22 single-family homes on 36 acres. Status: The county recently signed plats for the subdivision, meaning the developer is clear to obtain building permits and begin construction.

The Arbors at Arundel Preserve Location: Off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, adjacent to Arundel Mills mall in Hanover. Developer: Bozzuto Homes Inc. of Greenbelt Description: The complex features 501 apartments on a 13-acre site. Most of the apartments will feature one and two bedrooms; 26 units will have three bedrooms. Status: The county recently signed plats for the subdivision, meaning the developer is clear to obtain building permits and begin construction this year.

Colonial Manor Location: Off Broadneck Road in Broadneck, on 19-acres, part of which contained the Colonial Manor Estates mobile-home park. Developer: Koch Homes Inc. of Anne Arundel County. Description: A 26-unit subdivision of luxury homes. Koch purchased the land from the former owner of the mobile-home park. Residents of the park, which contained about 55 lots for trailers, objected to the sale in 2002. Status: The final plan for the subdivision was submitted in March and is under review by county officials.