Waverly Woods

Residents of Woodstock's Waverly Woods can walk to town for groceries, ice cream or their dry cleaning without breaking a sweat. They can swim and play tennis or golf without leaving the neighborhood. Colonial homes - with soccer balls punctuating the front lawns - sleek condominiums and chic townhouses ring an 18-hole championship golf course. To top it off, this 680-acre neighborhood is cradled by Patapsco State Park, an herb farm and rolling meadow with white-picket fences. Waverly Woods.

Leaders of a community group opposed to development of a 682-acre residential, commercial and golfing village near their neighborhood asked county officials and the developer this week to "negotiate a reasonable solution" with them within six months.According to the proposal, the county would not act on the Waverly Woods II project, and the developer would withdraw his petition to rezone the property untileveryone can either reach an agreement or decide there is no satisfactory solution.In return, Citizens Allied for Rational Expansion (CARE)

Residents who live near Waverly Woods in Ellicott City long ago lost their battle to prevent the 680-acre mixed-use community, but they are not through fighting the developer. Last night, more than 200 residents went to the Howard County Planning Board meeting to protest proposed rezonings of six parcels of land in and adjacent to Waverly Woods. They worry that the proposed changes -- which would make some residential land commercial and some commercial land residential -- would allow developer Donald L. Reuwer to build more homes and get twice as much space for commercial uses.

The Howard County Zoning Board will hear final arguments and decide on a proposed 102-unit, moderate-income senior housing building in Waverly Woods at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the County Council chambers. The board members completed their third evening of hearing testimony Monday night, adjourning about midnight after hearing six Waverly Woods residents who oppose the four-story building planned for a 2.3-acre site across from the community's shopping center. A rebuttal witness, developer Donald R. Reuwer Jr., also spoke.

A gas station owner will get more time to put together a bid to get zoning changed to allow a service station and car wash in Waverly Woods Village Center. Convenience Retailing LLC has been working on the project for about two years and has attended three public hearings on the matter. A Zoning Board hearing set for last week has been moved to Dec. 12. "We needed a little bit more time to prepare for our final argument," said Rick Levitan, whose company has gas stations in Dorsey's Search, Owen Brown and Pikesville.

Howard County Executive Charles I. Ecker has called for impact fees amounting to $6 million a year on commercial and residential development to raise money for roads."

A gas station proposed for Waverly Woods is the lesser of two evils in a contest with a possible fast-food restaurant, some residents and business operators believe. Others welcome the service station proposed for Waverly Woods Village Center shopping center by Convenience Retailing LLC as a way to draw new customers and to eliminate a roughly five-mile drive to get gas. "It is definitely better than a fast-food restaurant," said H.J. Pflueger, who lives in Waverly Woods, about six blocks from the service station proposed for the intersection of Warwick Way and Birmingham Way. "Then people come, they eat and they throw it around.

Opponents of the massive Waverly Woods II development are again crying foul over county zoning procedures -- this time over the $10,000 cost of hearing transcripts needed for two pending court appeals.Residents of the Marriottsville and Woodstock areas near the 682-acre development filed two lawsuits May 3 appealing the March 22 Zoning Board decision that changed rural, one-home-per-three-acres zoning to a mix of commercial and more dense residential zoning.To appeal, they must have 16 hearings transcribed, a job that the Zoning Board's administrative assistant, Robin Regner, estimates will cost $10,000 at $4.50 a page.

When ceremonial shovelfuls of dirt were turned over on the Waverly Mansion property in Howard County yesterday, they brought to fruition one of the possibilities of a real estate investment made some 30 years ago. They marked, too, the beginnings of a new public golf course.After the official groundbreaking, construction began on Waverly Woods Golf Course, located on Marriottsville Road just north of its intersection with Interstate 70. The first nine holes and a driving range are due for completion in the fall of 1997, followed by the second nine in the summer of 1998.

It may take more than a peace offering of muffins by County Councilwoman Shane Pendergrass, a 1st District Democrat, to get friends and foes of Waverly Woods II back together, but at least they'll be in the same room tonight.County Council members will sit as the Zoning Board for the 12th day of testimony on the proposed 682-acre commercial, residential and golfing village.Developers of the 30-year project, which would include 937 homes and 1.7 million square feet of office space, have presented their case, and opposition witnesses will continue testifying tonight.