Zone Residents

A contingent of community representatives complained yesterday that residents of Baltimore's federal empowerment zone are not having enough say in how $100 million in federal funds is being spent.The four representatives faulted the board overseeing the revitalization effort for not consulting the community-based Advisory Council before making recent decisions to emphasize economic development over social programs and to allocate money to six neighborhood "village centers" on the basis of population rather than in a lump sum, as originally intended.

Stymied by vocal opposition and a complex zoning process, developers who wanted to build a retail and residential village on Bestgate Road near Annapolis now say they are likely to build only single-family homes and townhouses. Michael DeStefano, president of Sturbridge Homes, said yesterday that his company and partner Erwin L. Greenberg & Associates of Baltimore are moving ahead with plans to build houses on the 54-acre property, which has been slated for various development scenarios during the past several years.

After months of debate and deliberations, the empowerment zone that is emerging in Baltimore differs in ways both profound and subtle from the book-length application that earned the city the coveted $100 million federal revitalization program nearly a year ago.The biggest change is in the increased emphasis being put on job creation and training at the expense of big-ticket social welfare programs.Less dramatic but nonetheless significant are the alterations within programs to foster economic development and train workers; possible redirection of millions of dollars for education -- and the apparent end to a number of smaller initiatives in the application.

Chick-Fil-A Inc. announced yesterday that it has withdrawn its application to build a hotly contested drive-through restaurant near a residential area in Ellicott City, leaving critics to celebrate what may be only a short-term victory."

Vicky Distance has neither a science nor technical background, but she does have an interest in the nuts and bolts of high-tech machinery. That curiosity, and the technical acumen she displayed on tests, may have landed her a career in the state's burgeoning biotechnology sector.The East Baltimore resident is one of nine Empowerment Zone residents chosen from a pool of 117 applicants to be trained in laboratory and other technical skills for Chesapeake Biological Laboratories Inc. (CBL).The program she'll be trained in and employed under is a novel venture among CBL, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Baltimore City Community College.

Several businesses in Baltimore's empowerment zone are upset at being shut out of the biggest tax breaks offered under the revitalization effort because they do not meet a federal requirement that more than a third of their employees live in the zone.And economic development officials working for the city and the empowerment zone say their efforts to recruit companies to relocate in the $100 million revitalization area are being hampered by the same federal regulation.Under federal law, companies cannot qualify for accelerated depreciation of equipment of $37,500 and tax-exempt bond financing of up to $3 million unless 35 percent of their employees live within the boundaries of the empowerment zone -- even if the companies themselves are in the zone.

Wanted: Empowerment zone tax credits. Will pay cash.Businesses in Baltimore's multimillion-dollar federal revitalization area will soon be able to raise money by selling their tax credits to outside investors through a fund set up by an Enterprise Foundation subsidiary.The sale of the federal employment tax credits is designed to provide capital to cash-starved businesses that need funds to expand -- and to speed the creation of jobs for some of the city's most impoverished residents.Patterned after the similar and well-established practice of marketing federal housing credits, the fund is itself expected to become a model for funneling more money into five other designated urban empowerment zones.

Baltimore's empowerment zone effort received commitments yesterday from two new businesses to employ a total of more than 100 workers -- and praise from the federal official overseeing the urban revitalization program here and in five other cities.Ribbon-cutting ceremonies were held yesterday to welcome American Distribution Resources, an office supply distributor, and Elder Health, a geriatric health care center, to the empowerment zone in West Baltimore.That is one of three impoverished areas of the city targeted for economic reinvigoration through $100 million in federal grants and tax breaks to businesses that could be worth $225 million more.

Baltimore's multimillion-dollar federal revitalization effort has made its first award of job training funds to a local drug chain to teach residents of some of the city's poorest neighborhoods how to deliver pharmaceuticals.The $12,000 grant of empowerment zone funds to NeighborCare will help pay for training five drivers who live in the zone in East, West and South Baltimore. After the drivers successfully complete the training, the company has promised to hire them at a salary of $7 an hour, plus benefits.

Stop Shop and Save Food Markets, a chain of Baltimore grocery stores, and an affiliated security company announced yesterday that they will train and hire dozens of residents in some of the city's most impoverished neighborhoods.Stop Shop and Save, which operates 16 supermarkets throughout the city, has agreed to provide training and jobs as cashiers and other positions to residents of the federally designated empowerment zone, which spans dilapidated areas of East, West and South Baltimore.

Vicky Distance has neither a science nor technical background, but she does have an interest in the nuts and bolts of high-tech machinery. That curiosity, and the technical acumen she displayed on tests, may have landed her a career in the state's burgeoning biotechnology sector.The East Baltimore resident is one of nine Empowerment Zone residents chosen from a pool of 117 applicants to be trained in laboratory and other technical skills for Chesapeake Biological Laboratories Inc. (CBL).The program she'll be trained in and employed under is a novel venture among CBL, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Baltimore City Community College.

A Rouse Co. official defended last night his company's proposal to build a 517-acre Columbia-style development in North Laurel, saying it would be well-planned and better for local neighborhoods than a primarily industrial site.Under cross-examination for a second night before the Howard County Zoning Board, Alton J. Scavo, a Rouse senior vice president, was questioned about Rouse's plans to build a loop road and connectors to other thoroughfares around the proposed development, which would be just south of Gorman Road and north of Route 216, and would be bisected by Interstate 95.The cross-examination was led by Thomas E. Dernoga, an attorney who represents the Southern Howard Land Use Committee, an umbrella organization of citizen groups that is fighting the rezoning Rouse needs to build the development.

Three weeks after Baltimore was named one of six federal urban revitalization areas, Vice President Al Gore toured the streets of East Baltimore last year and touted the multimillion-dollar initiative as a "new chance to succeed" for some of the city's most impoverished residents.Twenty-one months later, the $100 million empowerment zone effort seems to be more of a mixed bag of modest successes and much unfinished business.Nowhere is that more obvious than on the streets north of Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, where Gore walked in early January 1995.

Wanted: Empowerment zone tax credits. Will pay cash.Businesses in Baltimore's multimillion-dollar federal revitalization area will soon be able to raise money by selling their tax credits to outside investors through a fund set up by an Enterprise Foundation subsidiary.The sale of the federal employment tax credits is designed to provide capital to cash-starved businesses that need funds to expand -- and to speed the creation of jobs for some of the city's most impoverished residents.Patterned after the similar and well-established practice of marketing federal housing credits, the fund is itself expected to become a model for funneling more money into five other designated urban empowerment zones.

Stop Shop and Save Food Markets, a chain of Baltimore grocery stores, and an affiliated security company announced yesterday that they will train and hire dozens of residents in some of the city's most impoverished neighborhoods.Stop Shop and Save, which operates 16 supermarkets throughout the city, has agreed to provide training and jobs as cashiers and other positions to residents of the federally designated empowerment zone, which spans dilapidated areas of East, West and South Baltimore.

Baltimore's empowerment zone effort received commitments yesterday from two new businesses to employ a total of more than 100 workers -- and praise from the federal official overseeing the urban revitalization program here and in five other cities.Ribbon-cutting ceremonies were held yesterday to welcome American Distribution Resources, an office supply distributor, and Elder Health, a geriatric health care center, to the empowerment zone in West Baltimore.That is one of three impoverished areas of the city targeted for economic reinvigoration through $100 million in federal grants and tax breaks to businesses that could be worth $225 million more.

Funds for hundreds of additional drug treatment and day care slots were approved yesterday by the board overseeing Baltimore's multimillion dollar federal revitalization effort.But the approval of $6.4 million to treat 5,400 drug addicts and provide day care subsidies for 360 children rekindled a debate about whether too much money was being spent to expand existing social service programs and not enough was being directed to create jobs.The money is in addition to $34 million for business development, housing and job training programs approved last month.

THE SUSPICIONS began in January when what was supposed to be a 15-member board for Empower Baltimore grew to 29, still with only seven representatives from community groups. Outnumbered, the community leaders saw their dreams millions of dollars in Empowerment Zone funds for well-intended social programs fade into oblivion. While significant sums will be spent on drug treatment and day care, the expanded board will put most Empowerment Zone money into job creation and training.That is as it should be. Many of the empowerment zone neighborhoods are beset by drug abuse and crime.

Baltimore's multimillion-dollar federal revitalization effort has made its first award of job training funds to a local drug chain to teach residents of some of the city's poorest neighborhoods how to deliver pharmaceuticals.The $12,000 grant of empowerment zone funds to NeighborCare will help pay for training five drivers who live in the zone in East, West and South Baltimore. After the drivers successfully complete the training, the company has promised to hire them at a salary of $7 an hour, plus benefits.

A contingent of community representatives complained yesterday that residents of Baltimore's federal empowerment zone are not having enough say in how $100 million in federal funds is being spent.The four representatives faulted the board overseeing the revitalization effort for not consulting the community-based Advisory Council before making recent decisions to emphasize economic development over social programs and to allocate money to six neighborhood "village centers" on the basis of population rather than in a lump sum, as originally intended.