Variance

The Carroll County Board of Zoning Appeals has conditionally approved a variance request from the owner of the Ramblin Pines Campground on Hoods Mill Road, Woodbine.Vivian Leatherwood asked for a variance reducing the minimum required area for two campsites from 5,000 square feet each to 2,900 and 2,800 square feet, and a second variance reducing the minimum setback line of 100 feet to distances ranging from 35 feet to 90 feet for seven other campsites.The site development plan for the campground, approved in 1972, originally depicted 80 family campsites and 15 primitive campsites.

Baltimore City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young on Thursday requested several city agencies prepare reports about a zoning bill introduced to the council this week that would allow a former Catholic school to be turned into a convalescent home for homeless people. Project PLASE (People Lacking Ample Shelter and Employment), a 30-year-old nonprofit headquartered in Charles North, has offered $1.4 million for the former St. Joseph's Monastery school buildings in the 3500 block of Old Frederick Road in Southwest Baltimore.

The county Environmental Affairs Advisory Board deadlocked yesterday over whether to give a sand and gravel company a variance from tree law requirements, then asked company officials to take another look at whether they really need such a variance.Laurel Sand & Gravel Inc. deferred its variance request last month to determine whether the county forest conservation ordinance applied to its plans. The Laurel company plans a transfer station in Finksburg to store stone to be brought in by rail, then loaded onto trucks for delivery.

The Friendly Inn on Frederick Road in Ellicott City can have an outdoor patio despite opposition by some nearby residents, according to a decision by Howard County's hearing examiner. The owner of the once-rural bluegrass bar must wait to see whether appeals are filed and must obtain permission from the county liquor board, but Jason Cooke is hopeful that he will be able to proceed. The patio would likely open by next spring, he said. The decision prohibits outdoor music or a roof over the patio and would not allow patrons of an existing snowball stand to use it. Examiner Michele L. LeFaivre's decision requires either a 3-foot-high fence or 3-foot-high planters bordering the 1,128-square-foot patio and limits access to the outdoor seating to and from the restaurant.

A Finksburg construction company proposed to the county commissioners yesterday that it should be allowed to dedicate about half an acre of woods on its property for permanent preservation rather than the 7 acres sought by county staff members.Kibler Construction Co. filed the first appeal of a variance denial in the county forest conservation ordinance's 15-month history after the county Environmental Affairs Advisory Board (EAAB) refused in December to concur with a variance.The county ordinance requires EAAB concurrence if administrator James E. Slater Jr. grants a variance, but not if he denies it. Mr. Slater refused to say at the hearing yesterday whether he would have granted the variance if the board had agreed to it.Charles D. Hollman, Kibler's attorney, said the company's offer gives the county a chance to obtain a preservation easement on a wooded area near Liberty reservoir "without confiscating all that land that happens to be forest today."

A county administrative hearing officer has granted Nextel Communications' request for a zoning variance and special exception to build a 102.5-foot cellular communications tower south of Andover Road in Linthicum.Columbia-based Nextel plans to lease 1.33 acres from BWI Partnership to build the tower and a small, unstaffed equipment building. A variance is required because zoning laws prohibit accessory structures higher than 25 feet.In the past few weeks, residents have expressed their opposition to the tower at several neighborhood association meetings.

The county Environmental Affairs Advisory Board will allow the owner of Carrolltown Center to plant about 10 trees to replace ground disturbed for construction of the mall's last possible business.The board granted the owner of the Eldersburg mall a variance to the Forest Conservation Ordinance yesterday. The variance applies only to the construction of Blockbuster Video at the mall, which faces Liberty Road.Blockbuster plans to open a 5,500-square-foot store there this fall. Construction, adjacent to the Super Fresh store, will disturb 8,500 square feet of ground and bring to 25,000 square feet the cumulative amount disturbed since the ordinance took effect last year.

The county Board of Appeals approved yesterday a variance to allow a Brooklyn Park church to build a 164-seat sanctuary at Hammonds Lane and Trillo Avenue.The board voted 5-2 to grant the variance to Christian Bible Church, ruling it would be consistent with other development in the neighborhood, which has a Lutheran church, a nursing home and two medical clinics.Northern Anne Arundel County is nearly fully developed, and it would be difficult for the church to find other land, the board said.

The Mount Airy Board of Appeals last night approved a variance in yard setback requirements that will allow the owner of Mount Airy Bowling Lanes to expand his operation.By a 5-0 vote, the board granted a variance to reduce side yard building setbacks from 25 feet to 14 feet. Town Planner Teresa Bamberger had recommended approval of the variance for the west property line of the bowling alley on Center Street.At first, Chairman Robert Woodward expressed reservations about granting the variance because the change was being sought because of business concerns and not because of site problems.

The county Board of Appeals is preparing to fight for turf threatened by new comprehensive rezoning regulations.Board members have come out against proposed zoning rules that would give the county Department of Planning and Zoning the power to grant zoning variances without the board's approval.The change is intended to save time and money for property owners by cutting the review process and fees nearly in half, said Joseph Rutter, county planning and zoning director. The new regulations would have to be approved by the County Council, sitting as the Zoning Board.

Baltimore's zoning board could gain new authority under legislation Councilwoman Rochelle "Rikki" Spector plans to introduce Monday that supports a controversial live entertainment bill. Spector's measure would allow the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals to reverse the property-use permission known as "conditional use" that the city currently grants but can never revoke. "What is given can be taken," Spector said. The bill says that exemptions to underlying zoning rules are not "out there for perpetuity," she said.

The Friendly Inn on Frederick Road in Howard County has been a rustic attraction since before zoning came to the increasingly suburban area, but the new owners of the bluegrass music bar have irked some newer "55 and better" residents of nearby age-restricted housing. Even its boosters agree that the Friendly doesn't fit the new upscale neighborhood image. "It was a pretty dilapidated, rough, tough place," said Jeff Marsh, an area resident who supports owner Jason Cooke's bid to draw more seasonal business with a small outdoor patio.

A church's six-year effort to place a huge electronic sign overlooking the Baltimore Beltway was dealt a perhaps fatal blow yesterday. The Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that Baltimore County officials had not violated the Trinity Assembly of God's right to freedom of religious expression by denying its request to erect the sign. The court said the church, based in Lutherville, could reasonably "identify itself and conduct outreach without a 250 square-foot sign" - four times higher and 10 times bigger than zoning regulations allow.

Frustrated by slap-on-the-wrist enforcement of a state law limiting waterfront development, members of the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly four years ago to increase the maximum penalty for violations from $500 to $10,000. As one advocate said at the time, landowners and developers viewed the old fine as merely "a small cost of doing business." It appears the cost of doing such business remains pretty small. In 2008, here's how little things have changed: Violations of the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area law rarely, if ever, result in serious fines being levied against the offenders.

To understand why Maryland's Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Law is not working particularly well, one need look no further than to the Queen Anne's County couple who wanted to build a parking garage on their waterfront lot. Last month, an Eastern Shore judge denied the couple the variance they needed to build it - but only after a yearlong debacle that easily could have been avoided. What's so bad about a three-car garage? By itself, not all that much. But the problem is that the more impervious surface created near the bay and its tributaries, the more harmful runoff pours into the water.

Anne Arundel County's lawsuit against a builder who constructed an island home in the Magothy River without permits will not be dropped, County Executive John R. Leopold said yesterday, despite a recent ruling by the Board of Appeals to allow the builder to keep his home. Leopold said the matter regarding Daryl C. Wagner "has been a black eye for the county. It's my intent to do everything in my power to ensure that this does not reoccur." Leopold's comments came a day after the seven-member appeals board granted retroactive variances, letting Wagner keep his glistening white home of more than 5,000 square feet on Little Island, near Pasadena.

Waterfront property owners would be able to build additions to their houses and sheds in their yards cheaper and faster under rules Anne Arundel County officials will propose to the state Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Commission.The new rules would allow property owners to build the additions without going through the process of getting a zoning variance, as long as the new construction is no closer to the water than existing structures.However, they would apply only to developed property that lies within the 100-foot buffer established under the state's critical areas law, said Joseph Elbrich, the county's environmental administrator.

The Howard County Zoning Board made it easier last night for property owners to obtain variances by giving county planners wider authority to grant them.But the Zoning Board did not give planners as much authority as they had sought.At last night's work session, the County Council, sitting as the Zoning Board, gave tentative approval to an amended set of changes to zoning regulations.The 4-0 vote is nonbinding because regulations must be drafted and signed by board members to become official.

Nov. 1 County Council -- Legislative session, 8 p.m., County Council Chambers, 212 S. Bond St., Bel Air, 410-638-3343; harfordcountymd. gov/council/Agenda.cfm Nov. 2 Zoning Hearing Examiners -- Public hearing, Case 5458: Variances proposed for the south side of Gravel Hill Road, Parcels 439 and 457, Havre de Grace, by Maryland Reclamation Associates Inc. to permit the disturbance of the 30-foot buffer yard; variance to Sections 267-28D(4) and E to permit disturbance within the 200-foot buffer from adjoining property lines and to permit disturbance within the 75-foot Historic Landmark buffer; variance to Sections 267-40.

UNTIL THIS week, discussions about a revised urban renewal plan for historic Mount Vernon, developed by City Planning Director Otis Rolley III, had led the public to believe that any new construction wouldn't exceed 180 feet, more than preservationists wanted and less than developers did. But the plan as now presented makes it possible for a 230-foot building to be constructed in the midtown neighborhood. That exceeds the stature of Mount Vernon's signature Belvedere Hotel and historic Washington Monument (although a building of that height would be prohibited within close proximity to the square)