Zoning Appeals

The Hampstead bypass will be a top priority of his, says Vincent Corsaro, the town's newest council member.Corsaro, 38, was appointed last week to complete the term of Councilwoman Wendy Martin, who resigned in May and moved to Florida.Corsaro, a 10-year resident of Hampstead, has served as a member of the town's Board of Zoning Appeals for about four years and brings additional support for a bypass to the five-member council.The bypass project, which was initiated about 20 years ago, is stalled, awaiting results of an environmental study on bog turtles that inhabit a portion of the proposed bypass.

Clearing a roadblock for the development of a 600-student private school in Finksburg, the Carroll commissioners yesterday increased the height limits placed on school buildings in the county.In a unanimous decision, the commissioners voted to raise the maximum height for school buildings from 35 feet to 120 feet -- the limit now for all public or quasi-public buildings.Yesterday's vote will allow the construction of the three-story, 55-foot tall Gerstell Academy, a nonprofit day school for students in grades K-12.

About two dozen neighbors of the Keymar Airpark oppose a recent county zoning appeals decision allowing the 29-year-old facility to operate as a commercial airport, and have filed suit asking the Carroll Circuit Court to review the decision.About nine of the plaintiffs testified at the Board of Zoning Appeals hearing earlier this year, saying low-flying airplanes disturbed them and might affect farm animals in the area, and expressed fear of accidents.A Frederick County couple, Dennis P. and Brenda L. Young, bought the Keymar airport in 1997 and built a home there, said Brenda L. Young, a 39-year-old mother of five.

The county commissioners are awaiting Sprint PCS' response to an independent engineering report that found Sprint may not need to build three proposed telecommunications towers to provide wireless phone service in the Westminster area.Sprint's response may be finished this week, but might not be made public until after Jan. 1, county officials said.If Sprint agrees with the report's findings, it would most likely end a festering debate over the towers that has dragged on since summer. If not, it could mean a bitter fight between tower opponents and the telecommunications giant.

The Carroll County Board of Zoning Appeals is losing its most outspoken member, Hobart D. "Hoby" Wolf, who announced his resignation yesterday.In his nearly three-year tenure, the 75-year-old Eldersburg resident has added sarcasm and humor to the usually staid land-use panel, often interrupting testimony for an aside."

The Carroll County commissioners delayed passage yesterday of an ordinance to regulate telecommunications towers, after a public hearing at which communications companies and residents asked for changes to the proposal.The draft ordinance includes new language for cellular towers that would:Require all applicants to submit a location analysis, prepared by a company chosen by the county and paid for by the applicant;Forbid towers near Carroll County Regional Airport, in accordance with federal regulations;Extend the required time for legal advertisement from 30 to 60 days;Require conspicuous posting of property and notice by mail to contiguous property owners;Make the ordinance apply to any application filed on or after Sept.

YOU COULD CALL it the Towering Inferno. Not the mega-disaster movie of a few decades ago, but the dilemma for Carroll County from a proliferation of infernal telecommunications towers across the rural landscape.The Board of Zoning Appeals, ever eager to turn farmland into commercial enterprise, two weeks ago approved the third conditional-use zoning variance for Sprint PCS to erect a 258-foot tower on a Melrose farm, north of Manchester. The three-member board did not just disappoint residents who showed up at a public hearing to protest the environmental insult.

Hoping to avoid further legal expenses, Hampstead officials will hold a public hearing tomorrow on a proposal to allow developers to build 66 rather than 90 condominiums in Roberts Field.The town sought to halt construction of the condominiums by builder Martin K. P. Hill and Woodhaven Building and Development Inc. in 1996. A final construction permit was denied, mainly because of concerns about open space and density.That permit would have allowed Hill and Woodhaven to complete the last phase of the Roberts Field development, located east of Route 30 and south of Lower Beckleysville Road.

A Baltimore County man who wants to build a private school in Finksburg has asked Carroll County Circuit Court to reconsider a recent decision that set back his plans.Frederick G. Smith, a dentist and a vice president of Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., wants to build Gerstell Academy, a nonreligious, nonprofit day school for several hundred students in kindergarten through 12th grade.But his architect's design for Georgian-style brick buildings with white columns and a large gymnasium requires a change in height limits, from 35 feet to 55 feet, he said, to prevent sprawl and to preserve open space.

In the wake of public opposition and an internal squabble, the Hampstead Town Council made no decision last night on a proposed compromise with developers that would allow 66 instead of 90 condominium units to be built in the Roberts Field development.Councilman Wayne H. Thomas opposed dropping the appeal, noting that the town has invested much time and $42,000 in trying to keep builder Martin K. P. Hill and Woodhaven Building and Development Inc. from cramming 90 units into Roberts Field, the last phase of the development east of Route 30 and south of Lower Beckleysville Road.

The Baltimore City Council voted Monday to allow bars and restaurants in some of the city's trendiest neighborhoods to hire bands, singers and other performers, overturning a decades-old prohibition that City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake says has stifled nightlife in town. "This is an opportunity in lean times for establishments to expand the entertainment they are able to offer," she said after the measure passed by voice vote. "It also makes us more marketable as a city."

Gilbert Vernon Rubin, former longtime executive director of Baltimore's Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals, died of an undisclosed illness Oct. 13 at his Northwest Baltimore home. He was 89. Born in Baltimore, the son of Russian immigrants who owned and operated a Park Circle grocery store, Mr. Rubin was raised in Northwest Baltimore. He was a 1938 graduate of City College and earned a bachelor's degree from the Johns Hopkins University. During World War II, he enlisted in the Army Air Forces, where he attained the rank of captain and was a flight controller.

Maryland's second-highest court gave its go-ahead yesterday to a contested 4,300-home development on a scenic stretch of highway in mountainous Allegany County, renewing debate about whether the project represents the best or worst of the state's Smart Growth policy. The Court of Special Appeals declared that the Allegany Board of Zoning Appeals acted appropriately in approving Terrapin Run, which a Columbia-based developer wants to build on 1,000 partly wooded acres off Scenic Route 40 near Green Ridge State Forest.

A Uniontown dog kennel still has a few more hoops to jump through before getting approval to expand its business to handle up to 200 canines. Earlier this month, the Carroll County Planning and Zoning Commission raised questions about Camp Yuppie Puppy's request to construct a kennel in the 3400 block of Uniontown Road, where the dog boarding and grooming business has operated since 1994. County officials told kennel co-owner William Quinn that he would need to provide more details about the project and account for discrepancies between plans he supplied to the commission recently and those presented in 2004 to the county Board of Zoning Appeals.

Baltimore's newest strip club, Scores, is poised to expand but without the striptease acts that its owner says draw pro athletes and diplomats alike. Scores owner Brian Shulman won approval from the zoning appeals board recently to open a second-floor lounge at his Fallsway club but with the caveat that there would be no adult entertainment there. The approval has city and liquor board officials wondering, however, what the prohibition means. They say there's no way they can stop entertainers from hanging out in the upstairs lounge as long as the women are dressed and not performing.

CLARIFICATION An article in yesterday's editions might have created an erroneous impression regarding an Allegany County Circuit Court judge's order concerning Terrapin Run, a proposed development in Western Maryland. The judge ordered the county Board of Zoning Appeals to reconsider Terrapin Run, using a tougher standard for deciding whether the project is consistent with the county's comprehensive plan. Opponents of the project have appealed, saying the judge did not insist on a tough enough standard.

Tomorrow Board of Zoning Appeals -- The hearing examiner will hear cases BA 06-032V (Richard Strauss) at 3 p.m. and BA 06-001S (Savage Stone LLC) at 4 p.m., both in the Ellicott Room, George Howard Building, 3430 Court House Drive, Ellicott City. Social Services Executive Board -- Will meet at 4 p.m. at the Department of Social Services, 7121 Columbia Gateway Drive, Columbia. Commission on Disability Issues -- Will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the second-floor conference room of the Gateway Building, 6751 Columbia Gateway Drive, Columbia.

The fight against sprawl in Maryland is so uphill that any victory deserves to be heralded. Such is the case with the decision last week of an Allegany County Circuit Court judge to send approval of the Terrapin Run project back to the county for reconsideration. Terrapin Run would put 4,300 homes for long-distance commuters on 935 acres by the Green Ridge State Forest 50 miles west of Hagerstown. As we noted last week, the project was approved by a split vote of Allegany's Board of Zoning Appeals, despite its land being zoned for agriculture and conservation.

Opponents of a proposed 4,300-home community near Green Ridge State Forest in Allegany County say they are heartened by a judge's ruling that sent the project back to the county Board of Zoning Appeals for reconsideration. In a decision issued late last week, Allegany Circuit Judge Gary G. Leasure found that the appeals board erred in declaring the Terrapin Run project "in harmony with" the county's comprehensive plan, said William C. Wantz, a lawyer for opponents of the development. The judge ruled that the three-member board should have weighed whether the project was "consistent with" the county master plan, a more rigorous standard, the opponents' lawyer said.

TOMORROW Carroll County Planning -- 6:30 p.m. meeting of the Grassroots Gathering in Room 003 of the County Office Building, 225 N. Center St., Westminster. The meeting will cover the main information provided as part of the fall 2005 Grassroots Gatherings. 410-386- 2145. Sykesville Town Council -- 7 p.m. meeting in the Town House meeting room at 7547 Main St. 410- 795-6390. Westminster Common Council -- 7 p.m. meeting at City Hall, 1838 Emerald Hill Lane. 410-848- 9000. Union Bridge Town Council -- 7 p.m. meeting at Town Hall, 104 W. Locust St. 410-775-2711.