Waverly Woods

Opponents of a proposed residential, commercial and golfing village in Marriottsville are hoping to postpone a county Zoning Board hearing Wednesday, saying they weren't given adequate notice of the date.The hearing on the Waverly Woods II project, proposed for 682 rural acres along Marriottsville Road between Interstate 70 and Route 99, will continue at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Banneker Room of the George Howard building."We were told last week the earliest possible date to resume hearings was going to be July 1st," said Jean Quattlebaum, president of Citizens Allied for Rational Expansion (CARE)

LIKE MANY other neighborhoods in Howard County, Waverly Woods is concerned about motorists speeding through the community. Shannon Gillen, a community manager for First Real Estate Management, is excited about the innovative approach to traffic calming that the Waverly Woods homeowners association will try out soon. "Installing bike lanes is a great alternative to the traditional traffic humps and other measures that usually go in," she said. The bicycle lanes will be marked with lines, rather than a physical structure, but according to information she has obtained, lines are just as effective as other traffic-calming structures, such as chokers or speed humps, and a lot less expensive to maintain.

The county Zoning Board will hear testimony this week on two hotly contested rezoning cases, one to build a 682-acre commercial, residential and golfing village in Marriottsville and the other to build two warehouse-sized stores in Ellicott City.On Monday night, the board will have the third and possibly last night of its hearing on a petition by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to rezone 54 acres near U.S. 29 and U.S. 40 from office/research use to retail. The nation's leading retailer plans to build a 119,500-square-foot department store and a 132,500-square-foot Sam's Wholesale Club outlet there.

Donald Reuwer's latest plan to build a golfing community in West Friendship doesn't sound as bad as the Waverly Woods project near Marriottsville. John Taylor and the residents nearby don't seem to be opposed to it at this time.Maybe the county can make a deal with Reuwer, where we let him build the 80 houses and the golf course, and he can forget about making the Waverly Woods project so large, and perhaps lose the business park part of it. That would make a lot of countians happy.The houses in the proposed West Friendship project would run between $400,000 and $600,000 each.

County officials joked last week that they expect 500 people to testify against the proposed Waverly Woods development at Tuesday morning's Planning Board hearing.The joke may not be far off. David Stough, chairman of a month-old group called Citizens Allied for RationalExpansion, says he has obtained a parade permit so residents can picket the meeting.Stough urged the protest last week at a meeting that he said was attended by 465 residents living near the Waverly Woods subdivision. He hopes a similar crowd will show up Tuesday, even though it's the first day of school.

The county Planning Board recommended yesterday by a vote of 3-2 that the Zoning Board approve a 682-acre residential, commercial and golfing village in Marriottsville.The Zoning Board is scheduled to hear testimony tonight on the project, Waverly Woods II, which would be located off Marriottsville Road between Interstate 70 and Route 99."We think it's fantastic," said Donald R. Reuwer Jr., Waverly's developer. "It's gratifying to see that the Planning Board looks at the plan and not at the small group of angry opponents."

After 16 days of public hearings and testimony that dre more than 400 people, Howard County Council members could decide the fate of Waverly Woods II today.At a 9:30 a.m. work session, council members, sitting as the Zoning Board, will attempt to decide whether to grant or deny rezoning for the 682-acre Columbia-style village proposed for rural Marriottsville and Woodstock.The hearings on Waverly lasted from March to December and drew more than 400 people, most of them residents of the area who vehemently opposed the rezoning.

5 No sooner had slow-growth advocates begun catching their collective breath than developer Donald R. Reuwer Jr. proposed plans for the largest residential, commercial and golfing village in the county outside of Columbia.The 682-acre Waverly Woods, just east of the county landfill at Marriottsville Road and Interstate 70, would be almostevenly split between housing and business uses, Reuwer said in a July zoning petition. He wanted to change the zoning from rural -- one house per 3 acres -- to a variety of commercial and residential uses.

The writer of "Waverly Woods: dream or nightmare" (Howard County Sun, Sept. 29) might well find it ironic that Donald Reuwer's newest proposed development is opposed by the very same people who are occupying his previous developments. Ironic it is, but not surprising when you consider the depth of cynicism about local government in Howard County.Many people in this area are convinced that the council will not consider the project solely on its merits, that the integrity of the process by which zoning requests are granted by the council has been so deeply corrupted that a fair and impartial hearing of the issues is just not possible.

A hotly contested proposal to build a subsidized apartment house for seniors in Waverly Woods was approved on a 3-1 vote by the Howard County Zoning Board last night -- the climax to four long, impassioned August hearings that each drew more than 100 protesting residents. Last night, developers' attorney David Carney said the board's decision was critical in determining whether moderate-income housing for people 62 and older is going to continue to be built in Howard, where six similar buildings exist.