Village Residents

SATURDAY MORNING brought the buzz of saws and the grinding of a wood-chipper to Fallriver Row Court in Harper's Choice -- the sounds of Columbia Association maintenance workers Jeff Schneider and Ray Buarque helping residents trim trees and clean up piles of yard waste. By afternoon, they had hauled away two truckloads.It all started with an anonymous tip to village covenant adviser Carol Jacobson from a neighborhood resident who was tired of people dumping their trash in the open space behind the townhouse development.

The developer of a vacant lot in Charles Village owned by the Johns Hopkins University has decided not to build a grocery store there. The university supports the decision about the site, at the corner of St. Paul and E. 33rd streets, said a statement released Wednesday by Armada Hoffler, the lead developer of the 1.1-acre site. The other firms involved are Beatty Development Group LLC and Skye Hospitality LLC. The development group, 3200StPaul, has met with residents of Charles Village and the surrounding communities in recent weeks to solicit their thoughts on how the land should be used.

More than a dozen Charles Village residents filed a lawsuit yesterday challenging the authority of a city program to collect additional property taxes in exchange for extra maintenance and security services, the latest twist in a long dispute over the practice. Residents, who filed the suit in Baltimore Circuit Court, argue that the Charles Village Community Benefits District illegally approved the tax because at least two members of the board of directors who voted on the measure do not live in the district.

Absentee ballots must be received at Stonehouse by no later than 4 p.m. on Friday April 19. But here's the problem: I haven't received mine yet (as of Monday April 15), and I've heard that I am not alone. If/when they do arrive, even if we complete them and drop them in outgoing mail immediately, they may miss the deadline. Voting can be done in person this week, between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday-Friday. I just voted. So if you can't make it to the official elections on Saturday (between 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.)

On a clear summer evening, Dawna Cobb pushes her 2-year-old son, Lucas, in a stroller, as 5-year-old Anders, skips along during a walk down Abell Avenue. As supper-time scents mingle on the tree-shaded street and guitarists strum a Beatles tune from their front steps, she points out the brick rowhouses of noted residents: a poet, a playwright, a John F. Kennedy authority.Ms. Cobb, a 37-year-old attorney, didn't meet people with such diverse interests while growing up in a small town in New York.

Baltimore's top two law enforcement officials tried to calm the fears of Charles Village residents last night in the aftermath of the killing of a Johns Hopkins University student, the firebombing of a community activist's house in Harwood and a triple slaying at a group home in Remington. The Charles Village Civic Association invited acting Police Commissioner Leonard D. Hamm and State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy to attend its monthly meeting last night to address an upswing in property crimes, as well as the recent violence, including the killing of Hopkins senior Linda Trinh, who was found dead in her Charles Street apartment Sunday.

San Francisco's "painted ladies" have come cross- country to Charles Village -- in the form of a playful Victorian house-painting contest in North Baltimore.San Francisco is nationally known for the creative color schemes that have long decorated its houses overlooking the bay. The nickname painted ladies was supplied by 19th-century architect Andrew Jackson Downing, who thought the multicolored houses resembled facial features.Traditionally, Charles Village, with its handsome turn-of-the-century housing stock, has been more staid in its sturdy shades of red brick and brown paint.

Michael W. Howard examines a Baltimore map and sees its heart: Charles Village.Clara King moved across the country to live in Baltimore, and has found her calling as a community activist in South Charles Village.Halle Van der Gaag first lived in Charles Village as a Goucher College student, and now, the mother of two young children is determined to make her community a magnet for other parents.This weekend, all three will celebrate -- and of course, take part in -- the Charles Village Festival, a two-day party that expands annually in proportion to thecommunity's renewed sense of cohesion and purpose.

Five seats are available on the Oakland Mills Village Board and one as the Oakland Mills Columbia Council representative. Village residents will vote April 21 and 22.Candidate packets and nomination petitions will be available at the village office at 9 a.m. Tuesday.Applicants must:* Pick up a candidate packet containing a nomination petition at the village office.* Get signatures of 12 village residents on the petition.* Return the petition to the village office by 5 p.m. March 15.* Submit a 150-word statement by 5 p.m. March 15.Information: 730-4610.

WHEN A POLICE OFFICER issues an order to stop, most of us obey. Those who don't usually find themselves in trouble. Failure to obey seems to be at the heart of the case that ended up with Fabian Gray, a 16-year-old Meade Village resident, being hospitalized with a variety of injuries.Eyewitness accounts differ, but every one seems to agree on a few facts. Last Friday afternoon, the teen-ager was riding a dirt bike on Meade Village Circle back and forth at speeds of up to 60 mph. Sgt. Brian Heger, with the Youth Activities Program in the western Anne Arundel County community, stepped onto the street to talk to the teen.

It was Monday, after work, and Deborah Robertson had chased her sister, Nellie, out onto the front porch of the house in Edmondson Village that they share. "She smokes and I don't, so she has to go outside," said Robertson. But soon enough, her sister was tapping on the window and motioning Robertson outside. There was a television crew coming down the street toward their house. "I said, "Oh my, I think they are here for me,'" said Robertson. "She didn't believe me. " It was interior designer Vern Yip and a crew from HGTV's Urban Oasis contest, a sweepstakes that offers a dream home as the grand prize.

Sitting in his empty barbershop with the television blaring, 65-year-old Anthony Tringali recalled better times at Wilde Lake Village Center, where his shop opened with the birth of the new town in June 1967. "I had five barbers working for me at one time," he said. "Now I'm down to one and a half - and I'm the one." Between the recession and the closing of the center's anchor Giant supermarket and several other stores, Tringali's business is down by half again in the past two years, he said, but he's not done.

A zoning bill that would change the way Columbia's village centers may be redeveloped should be ready for County Council introduction in April, though the county Planning Board still must vote on it. That vote is tentatively scheduled for March 12, after a third board work session last week on the issue that produced no formal decision. Board members spent most of the meeting, which lasted more than three hours, debating minor word changes in the measure, though all agree on the concept - to allow property owners in Columbia's village centers the right to propose zoning changes.

Howard County Council Chairman Calvin Ball ran into a verbal buzz saw from about three dozen Oakland Mills residents who attended a Village Board meeting last week to hear him explain three seemingly innocuous housing bills he sponsored this month. The resentment surfaced despite positive news in Oakland Mills in recent years. Construction is about to begin on a new office-retail building next to the village center, filling a vacant lot where a gas station once stood, and four large, upscale, detached homes are being built a block away- the kind of high-priced development the village residents say they want.

Benefits district offers key services The Sun's article about a lawsuit filed against the Charles Village Community Benefits District (CVCBD) mischaracterizes the essence of the CVCBD ("Charles Village residents file suit disputing tax program," June 6). The article refers to the CVCBD as "a city program to collect additional taxes." In fact, the benefits district was spearheaded not by the city but by grassroots activists in Charles Village who convinced the state legislature, the City Council, and more than two-thirds of their fellow residents to create the CVCBD.

More than a dozen Charles Village residents filed a lawsuit yesterday challenging the authority of a city program to collect additional property taxes in exchange for extra maintenance and security services, the latest twist in a long dispute over the practice. Residents, who filed the suit in Baltimore Circuit Court, argue that the Charles Village Community Benefits District illegally approved the tax because at least two members of the board of directors who voted on the measure do not live in the district.

The headquarters of the Department of Recreation and Parks has moved to 7210 Oakland Mills Road, Columbia 21046-1677.For questions about the department's program, call 313-PARK. For phone-in registration, call 313-4658 or 313-4659.Branch offices at the Executive Center in Ellicott City, Rumsey Road in Cedar Lane and the Parks Service Center have been eliminated.Seats available on board, councilFive seats are available on the Oakland Mills Village Board and one as the Oakland Mills Columbia Council representative.

Four angry Hickory Ridge village residents told the Columbia Council last night that many in their village are ignoring Columbia's strict covenants, a citywide trend that's threatening property values.The residents said they have worked for as long as two years to address violations in the Clemens Crossing neighborhood, but the response from village staff has been weak."People have lost respect for the covenants. They know people aren't going to do anything about it," said Carole Surbrook, urging the council to target more money and resources to enforce the strict property maintenance guidelines.

The Long Reach Community Association, in partnership with the village center owner, Perrine Wheeler Inc. of Norfolk, Va., will have a document-shredding truck in the village center parking lot from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday for Long Reach village residents to safely dispose of unwanted documents. The service is offered free to Long Reach residents. Identification showing residency is required. Participants will receive certificates of destruction to indicate that their documents have been disposed of safely.

The smell of freshly carved wood lingers in a new garage, erected over the footprints of an aged carport. Just feet away, a short, concrete pathway leads to the home where Lindsay Hamilton remembers playing with her cousins and the unforgettable time they darted through the doors, avoiding the vicious bite of a stray dog. She laughs at that episode today. The 25-year-old purchased the single-story home in Stevens Forest from her parents last summer and now lives there with her husband, Jason, 27. "It's a lot better," Lindsay Hamilton said, looking at the recent home improvements they completed.