Subdivision

Anne Arundel County attorneys say the county's planning director, Joseph W. Rutter, has been improperly applying some development rules. Rutter disagrees and says he will not change his practices, which he called "the only defensible standard" under the law. Without the intervention of Rutter's boss, County Executive Janet S. Owens, it is unclear how this intragovernmental conflict will be resolved or what its implications could be. The mess started in...

INDIAN HEAD -- More than one person is believed to have set the fires that destroyed 10 homes under construction and damaged 16 others in a Southern Maryland subdivision, investigators said yesterday. Deputy State Fire Marshal W. Faron Taylor said investigators also discovered 11 other arson attempts in the Hunters Brooke subdivision. Evidence at those houses, which were not damaged, is of "monumental value" to the investigation, he said. "We are strongly considering that this act had to have been perpetrated by more than one person," Taylor said.

Delmar Farms in Fallston looks like any number of the upscale subdivisions that cover the Baltimore suburbs. Large brick-faced houses rise out of a one-time farm field. Sport utility vehicles and basketball hoops mark the driveways. Signs welcome buyers looking for "two-acre estate homes," which cost between $641,900 and $738,900. But the builder and residents of the 33-home development are facing a potential problem unfamiliar to other subdivisions in the area: the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE.

The Anne Arundel County Council will hold a public hearing tonight on proposed changes in the county zoning and subdivision codes. The revisions, proposed by the county land-use department, would constitute the most far-reaching overhaul of county building and development laws in 30 years. A vote on the lengthy and complicated revisions could be held as soon as Monday night. Although many of the proposed changes involve technical points or wording changes, some farmers are upset about a proposal that would reduce their ability to give land for homes to their relatives.

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- A new report suggesting the best and cheapest ways for Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania to improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay directs nearly all of its recommendations at farmers. The staff of the Chesapeake Bay Commission presented its findings yesterday to the panel, made up of legislators from the three states. The report concluded that farmers who manage nutrients and conserve soil are the most cost-effective hope for restoring the ailing bay. "We basically asked the question, `Which practices would deliver the largest result for the least cost?

CLARIFICATION An article in Friday's Howard County edition of The Sun about the Howard County Planning Board's approval of the Life Time Fitness facility planned for Columbia stated that the Owen Brown Village Board approved the facility. While the board said in a letter signed by Chairman Neil E. Dorsey that "all of our questions were answered satisfactorily," the board did not formally approve the plans. The Howard County Planning Board approved preliminary plans yesterday for the proposed Life Time Fitness facility off Robert Fulton Drive in Columbia, and an eight-home subdivision on Old Columbia Pike in Ellicott City.

ATLANTA - Shortly after college students become alumni, their mailboxes start to overflow. Give to the annual fund-raising campaign. Sign up for a credit card with the university logo. Attend the reunion. And now: Live among fellow alumni. Private developers building university-themed subdivisions are appealing to alumni looking to reconnect to the glory days of college or to be close to the intellectual stimulation of courses and lectures. Some are geared to baby boomers or retirees and have age restrictions.

Carroll County scored one minor court victory last week in its yearlong battle to curb runaway growth. Carroll County Circuit Judge Michael M. Galloway upheld several decisions handed down by the county Board of Zoning Appeals that validated the yearlong freeze. The moratorium was imposed by the county commissioners in June last year and lifted last month. The ruling filed Wednesday is a judicial review and does not go to the heart of the issue: the legality of the commissioners' action.

A reader owns a home in an 18-lot subdivision. The lots were sold subject to a declaration of restrictions recorded by the developer. The restrictions prohibit lot owners from erecting temporary structures. If a lot owner wants to construct a fence, wall or other structure or materially change the exterior appearance of a home, written plans and specifications for the project must be submitted and approved by the developer. The restrictions also prohibit lot owners from keeping commercial trucks or junk cars on their lots; prohibit raising animals for commercial purposes, and establish other regulations designed to "insure the maintenance of residential property values" for owners of lots in the subdivision.