Zoning

Baltimore is going to end up in court if it doesn't comply with federal law that allows therapeutic, licensed group homes for drug addicts, the disabled and elderly to locate in the city without community approval. Members of the City Council have been stalling on legislation to revise the zoning code. But why move ahead with a change in policy that's likely to be unpopular when you can wait for a judge to order the city's compliance and sidestep any responsibility? That may be the easy way out, the politically safe choice, but it's not leadership, it's risky business.

Who'd have expected that one of the biggest housing developments proposed in Maryland in years would be in rural, mountainous Allegany County, where the population has been dwindling since the factory economy collapsed 30-some years ago? But that's just what has happened, since a Columbia-based developer offered to build a 4,300-home community, along with some stores, a riding stable and trails on scenic U.S. 40, hard by Green Ridge State Forest. And, perhaps even more surprising, it has drawn fierce opposition - from people who say the county failed to follow its own growth plan in approving the process.

Local government officials could block the legalization of slot machine gambling in their communities even if voters in 2008 approve a ballot initiative passed this week in the General Assembly, a lawyer with the Maryland attorney general's office said yesterday. A little-noticed provision in the referendum legislation that orders state slots operators to comply with local zoning regulations essentially allows local authorities to exercise final say, said Kathryn M. Rowe, an assistant state attorney general who deals with bills passed by the legislature.

In the five years I have represented District 31, the number one issue I deal with is complaints regarding Anne Arundel County planning, zoning and enforcement. Many constituents have come to a point where they perceive these departments to be adversarial to a cooperative balance between legitimate zoning law and personal property rights. Zoning regulations used properly along with a proper understanding and balance of citizens' property rights, would serve well to preserve within reason, the county's natural treasures.

The county authorized yesterday $40 million in industrial revenue bonds to help Episcopal Ministries to the Aging build a corporate headquarters in Sykesville.The loan will help EMA, the parent company of Fairhaven Retirement Community and Copper Ridge, consolidate its debt. Repayment rests solely with EMA, and the county incurs no financial obligation."People who invest in these bonds look solely to the user for repayment," said Don Bradfield, EMA executive vice president and general counsel.

BALTIMORE COUNTY officials should be awash in praise for their decision to add 150 slots to a popular drug treatment program.Instead, they're left dodging complaints.Not surprisingly, the gripes come from business people seeking to operate for-profit methadone-dispensing centers that have been unable to locate in the county.In recent months, drug abuse officials have noticed a dramatic rise in people under age 25 seeking treatment.They snort rather than inject heroin, which hooks them faster.

Second person charged in Washington man's deathAnne Arundel County police have charged a second man with first-degree murder in the shooting death of a Washington, D.C., man last month.Terrence E. Casey, 23, of the 1100 block of F St., Washington, also was charged yesterday with using a handgun in the commission of a felony, police said.According to police, Curtis Ray Rawlings, 35, of the 1900 block of Naylor Road S.E., Washington, was found shot to death in a cornfield along Plummer Lane in Lothian on July 9.The other suspect, Darron Terrell Williams, 29, of the first block of Riggs Road N.E., Washington, was charged July 27 with first-degree murder and illegal use of a handgun in connection with the slaying.

AT EXACTLY 4: 27 p.m. Monday as I drove through the intersections of Calvert and Madison streets in downtown Baltimore, my car registered its 200,000th mile. The 16 years it took to accomplish that feat included some of the happiest and saddest moments of my life. Throughout them all was old Blue, my reliable Volvo wagon.It's good to have things you can depend on to perform adequately if properly maintained. You don't want any surprises when you try to crank up your car on a sub-freezing morning.

Trying to strike a balance between promoting new businesses and controlling traffic on East Baltimore Street, the Taneytown City Council will vote on two zoning ordinances tonight that would modify the downtown business district.The council will vote on the ordinances after a public hearing at 7: 30 p.m.The ordinances are in response to increasing interest from business owners and potential business owners who want to locate along the city's main corridor, said Chip Boyles, city manager."There's been a number of inquiries," Boyles said.

With the future look and feel of the Broadneck peninsula in the balance, about 250 residents crammed into the Board of Education meeting room last night and told an Anne Arundel County planning advisory board to leave their neighborhood the way it is.A handful of proposed changes, recommended by a 15-member Small Area Planning Committee that has been reviewing development and zoning maps and land uses in the area for 18 months, have annoyed many residents....

The Anne Arundel County Council will not vote on zoning bills that would allow slots into the county until at least December, further delaying and potentially derailing an already stalled bid to open what would be the state's most lucrative gambling parlor. Council members introduced two competing bills Monday night - one to permit a slots parlor at Arundel Mills mall and another shifting the location to an industrial area in the western part of the county - but by law cannot vote on either measure until after a public hearing scheduled for Dec. 7. The decision sets up a clash among the various parties involved in bringing slots to Arundel.

Baltimore is going to end up in court if it doesn't comply with federal law that allows therapeutic, licensed group homes for drug addicts, the disabled and elderly to locate in the city without community approval. Members of the City Council have been stalling on legislation to revise the zoning code. But why move ahead with a change in policy that's likely to be unpopular when you can wait for a judge to order the city's compliance and sidestep any responsibility? That may be the easy way out, the politically safe choice, but it's not leadership, it's risky business.

Developers' plans never die. They don't even fade away. They just come back later, in another form. That's the thinking of Marc Norman, a resident of Turf Valley, at least since he learned earlier this fall that Mangione Family Enterprises - which owns the 809-acre planned golf-and-residential community just west of Ellicott City - is backing an effort to significantly expand the permitted size of grocery stores there. The measure would increase the allowed size of food stores in Turf Valley from 18,000 square feet, its current limit, to 55,000 square feet.

A single zoning change affecting one restaurant may not seem like a big deal. But the proposal to rezone the park property leased by the Oregon Grille could have ramifications for the rural character of a large area of northern Baltimore County. Residents would do well to watch for the outcome of this controversial zoning request that will be voted on by the Baltimore County Council tomorrow evening. The proprietor of the Oregon Grille restaurant has requested a change of zoning for the 2.8 acres in Oregon Ridge Park that he leases, along with the building, from the county for $5,000 per year.

The state government is shopping for a tenant to develop 559 acres of the former Crownsville Hospital Center, dashing the hopes of county officials who wanted control of the site and stirring the concerns of neighbors that the community's landscape will be drastically altered. Interested developers have until June 30 to respond to a request sent out by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which has controlled the property since the state-run psychiatric hospital closed in 2004.

Kevin Kamenetz says he has neighbors who haven't spoken to him since the Baltimore County Council last made widespread zoning changes - four years ago. But he and other county lawmakers say the decisions about land use are among the most important, if not most popular, ones they make. The final series of public hearings in the current round of requested zoning changes begins today. The yearlong comprehensive zoning map process - known as the CZMP - ends in September when the council votes on the petitions.

The Charles H. Hickey Jr. School, sitting on 220 acres in Cub Hill, is on T. Bryan McIntire's list. So are more than 600 acres of the Gunpowder State Park and the 55 acres used as the county dump. The Baltimore County councilman is looking to change the zoning on dozens of state- and county-owned properties in northern Baltimore County so that if the land is ever sold, fewer houses could be built in those areas. "I saw the threat of this land being sold to developers with the Hickey school," said McIntire, a north county Republican.

In an effort to ensure that "high-end" corporate tenants set up shop in an office complex planned for a parcel overlooking Interstate 95 near Aberdeen Proving Ground, two County Council members are proposing changes in the project's zoning designation. The 111-acre property on the west side of Route 543 at the I-95 exit, tentatively called James Run, is zoned for mixed-office use. The category allows office, retail, restaurant, hotel and conference center uses, but council members have proposed amendments to revise the wording to limit some uses to make the property more appealing.

Who'd have expected that one of the biggest housing developments proposed in Maryland in years would be in rural, mountainous Allegany County, where the population has been dwindling since the factory economy collapsed 30-some years ago? But that's just what has happened, since a Columbia-based developer offered to build a 4,300-home community, along with some stores, a riding stable and trails on scenic U.S. 40, hard by Green Ridge State Forest. And, perhaps even more surprising, it has drawn fierce opposition - from people who say the county failed to follow its own growth plan in approving the process.

Local government officials could block the legalization of slot machine gambling in their communities even if voters in 2008 approve a ballot initiative passed this week in the General Assembly, a lawyer with the Maryland attorney general's office said yesterday. A little-noticed provision in the referendum legislation that orders state slots operators to comply with local zoning regulations essentially allows local authorities to exercise final say, said Kathryn M. Rowe, an assistant state attorney general who deals with bills passed by the legislature.