Zone Residents

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.

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.

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.

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.

Shhhhh.Can you hear that? It's the sound of a little peace and quiet on Fayette Street.Since August, there's been less rumble from tractor-trailers on the east side of town thanks to an ingenious compromise struck by community leaders, trucking interests and city government.If you've ever lived in a neighborhood frequented by trucks, you know how bothersome the noise and vibration can be. Plaster walls crack. Windows hum. Parents worry about children playing outdoors."The houses weren't designed for this kind of abuse," says Ed Rutkowski of the Patterson Park Neighborhood Initiative.

The county Planning Board endorsed a controversial "environmental" zoning category yesterday, urging county lawmakers to reconsider their opposition to the proposal.The advisory opinion was included with recommendations on 29 other last-minute rezoning requests that will be decided June 10 by County Council members sitting as the Zoning Board.The environmental category was rejected by the Zoning Board in straw vote taken during a March 17 work session.The proposal would allow three homes per acre, clustered away from sensitive areas such as steep slopes, wetlands and historical sites.