NEWS
By Mike Farabaugh | July 21, 1999
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.
NEWS
By John Murphy | June 23, 1999
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.
NEWS
By Sheridan Lyons | July 20, 1999
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.
NEWS
By John Murphy | December 21, 1999
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.
NEWS
By Mary Gail Hare | October 6, 1999
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."
NEWS
By Sheridan Lyons | December 29, 1999
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.
NEWS
By Mike Burns | September 12, 1999
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.
NEWS
By Mike Farabaugh | February 8, 1999
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.
NEWS
By Sheridan Lyons | May 28, 1999
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.
NEWS
By Mike Farabaugh | February 10, 1999
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.