Zoning Approval

A development team planning to turn an industrial site in a corner of Little Italy into a high-end, seven-story boutique hotel won city zoning approval this week, although neighborhood residents appear divided on the project. The group, called Hotelco LLC, consists of Samuel Polakoff of Rockville-based Cormony Development and Josh Neiman of Hybrid Development Group in Baltimore, and is hoping to consolidate six properties in the 400 block of S. Central Ave. for the construction of a hotel and restaurant just a few blocks from the upscale Harbor East area.

The Baltimore City Council and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake have enacted a zoning ordinance that will allow a former Catholic school in Southwest Baltimore to be converted into a convalescent home for homeless people. Project PLASE (People Lacking Ample Shelter and Employment), a 30-year-old nonprofit based in Charles North, has offered more than $1 million for the former St. Joseph's Monastery school buildings in the 3500 block of Old Frederick Road. The school was closed by the Archdiocese of Baltimore in 2010.

A group of residents has filed an appeal in Harford Circuit Court to stop a non-profit church agency from building a $5 million complex for abused children near Harford and Reckord roads.Robert F. Kahoe Jr., of the Harford's People's Counsel, filed the appeal for the group May 6. The People's Counsel is a legal service that is usually free for county residents fighting zoning issues.The United Methodist Board of Child Care has been trying since last fall to win approval to build a foster home for up to 60 children.

A Howard County couple won zoning approval this week to hold events on their Woodbine horse farm, despite neighbors' concerns over traffic, noise and creeping commercialization. Maxine and Robert Walker can hold up to 25 events, including weddings, birthday parties and other outdoor events on a 10-acre portion of Harwood Farm, which is surrounded by land protected by agricultural preservation laws, off Jennings Chapel Road. The county Board of Appeals approved the conditional use, which also allows the Walkers to have up to 150 people attending with additional requirements to limit traffic, provide access for the disabled and follow an alcohol policy.

Stable owners are being asked to seek zoning approval to board horses in the heart of horse country as Baltimore County officials crack down on unlicensed animal "holding facilities.""It's ridiculous," said Patricia Burton-Bowden, part-owner of Rainbow View Farm in Parkton, which already holds a state license for what she describes as a small boarding operation. Burton-Bowden is one of at least 10 owners who were told recently that they must not only be licensed, but also must obtain zoning approval for their boarding facilities -- an exercise that probably would cost hundreds of dollars.

The fate of a proposed $23 million public school paid for by a private developer in western Anne Arundel County appears at an impasse, frustrating some Laurel-area parents eager to see the new school built. County Councilman Jamie Benoit and developer Andrew P. Zois disagree about whether it is legal for the council to review the lease agreement between Zois' Severna Park-based Polm Cos. and the Imagine Global Village Academy, which would operate the contract school. Polm has offered to build the school in exchange for zoning approval to construct a 1,000-home development called RiverWood.

The county Board of Zoning Appeals unanimously approved a proposed 265-unit retirement community in Eldersburg yesterday, after finding the project would not detract from the character of the neighborhood. "I don't think this development will create problems, and the demand is obvious," said board member Howard B. Kramer, a senior citizen who has looked in several states for a similar community. "This project will be upscale and an asset to the area. Any negative impact was not proven."

Six 350-foot radio towers could soon rise above a South Carroll cornfield if WCBM-AM wins county zoning approval to build on a 55-acre parcel near Sykesville.Nicholas Mangione, owner of the Owings Mills station, has submitted plans to buy all but five of the 389 acres that 60-year-old Harold Mercer has farmed on Hoods Mill Road for tTC most of his life. Mr. Mercer and his wife will continue living in the 200-year-old home on the property.Mr. Mangione must win conditional use approval to construct the towers on agriculture land.

After being caught in a bureaucratic thicket for nearly a year, Howard County's fox hunters are finally breaking into the clear. The county Planning Board recommended yesterday zoning approval for the Howard County-Iron Bridge Hounds, a 70-year-old fox-hunting club based on a 100-acre parcel in the western part of the county. The vote helped put to rest the club's run-in with county officials who discovered last summer that the club had built a clubhouse without the required permits. Club officials initially argued that they didn't need formal approval for the clubhouse - which includes a full bar and kitchen - because it was incidental to the "farming operation" at the Windsor Forest Road property.

Anne Arundel County Council members have received a copy of the lease agreement between the Imagine Global Village Academy and the developer who is offering to build a school in exchange for zoning approval to build a 1,000-home development in Laurel, ending a potential standoff between the developer who balked at providing it and the council member representing the area. The council started to review the Severna Park-based Polm Cos.' thick document last week. The proposed RiverWood project and K-8 school — a public school that would alleviate crowding and be privately operated — are included in the comprehensive zoning bill pending before the council.

Baltimore County officials expect tax credit incentives to spur redevelopment and job creation at the newly designated Federal Center in Woodlawn. The 395-acre, industrially zoned parcel near the Beltway and Dogwood Road has won state approval as an enterprise zone, making its development eligible for substantial savings on state and county property taxes. A qualifying company that makes a $5 million investment could realize a tax savings of nearly $375,000 over 10 years, according to a county release.

Anne Arundel County Council members have received a copy of the lease agreement between the Imagine Global Village Academy and the developer who is offering to build a school in exchange for zoning approval to build a 1,000-home development in Laurel, ending a potential standoff between the developer who balked at providing it and the council member representing the area. The council started to review the Severna Park-based Polm Cos.' thick document last week. The proposed RiverWood project and K-8 school — a public school that would alleviate crowding and be privately operated — are included in the comprehensive zoning bill pending before the council.

The fate of a proposed $23 million public school paid for by a private developer in western Anne Arundel County appears at an impasse, frustrating some Laurel-area parents eager to see the new school built. County Councilman Jamie Benoit and developer Andrew P. Zois disagree about whether it is legal for the council to review the lease agreement between Zois' Severna Park-based Polm Cos. and the Imagine Global Village Academy, which would operate the contract school. Polm has offered to build the school in exchange for zoning approval to construct a 1,000-home development called RiverWood.

New zoning approved Wednesday night for Howard County's oldest shopping center would allow a mixture of apartments, offices and stores to replace the partly empty Normandy Center on U.S. 40 in Ellicott City. Over neighborhood objections, the county zoning board, composed of the five County Council members, unanimously approved a zoning change that will allow the dense development. Before the panel could issue that approval, members had to rule that the County Council had erred by denying "traditional neighborhood zoning" for the property during comprehensive rezoning in 2004.

A plan to remake Howard County's oldest shopping center into a mixed community of apartments, shops and offices reached a key stage Thursday night as the county zoning board began hearing the case of the half-century-old Normandy Shopping Center on U.S. 40. Cultivated as a Moxley family farm in 1893, Normandy was the first commercial development of its kind west of the Patapsco River, testified David Moxley, who told the board that three generations of...

A development team planning to turn an industrial site in a corner of Little Italy into a high-end, seven-story boutique hotel won city zoning approval this week, although neighborhood residents appear divided on the project. The group, called Hotelco LLC, consists of Samuel Polakoff of Rockville-based Cormony Development and Josh Neiman of Hybrid Development Group in Baltimore, and is hoping to consolidate six properties in the 400 block of S. Central Ave. for the construction of a hotel and restaurant just a few blocks from the upscale Harbor East area.

Reversing its ruling of three months ago, the Howard County Board of Appeals ruled last night that Frisky's Wildlife Sanctuary in Woodstock can apply for zoning approval as a charitable operation. The unanimous reversal offers a reprieve for Frisky's owner Colleen Layton, who has cared for wounded and homeless pets and wildlife, in addition to about two dozen monkeys, at her home on Old Frederick Road since 1994. In January, the board ruled that Frisky's could not apply for approval as a charitable operation, saying that the category applied only to places that served people, not animals.

Woodbine residents opposed to reopening a glider port in their neighborhood will have to wait until next month to tell their story to the Carroll County Board of Zoning Appeals.But a 21-day delay is no big deal for people who have been fighting glider port operations at the Woodbine airfield for two decades.The land in the dispute is Michael R. Harrison's farm on Gillis Falls Road. Although opponents did not testify at yesterday's six-hour hearing, real estate appraiser James H. Dulany IV gave the board a preview of the testimony expected Sept.

Howard County is preserving 662 more acres of farmland from development, including a key 500-acre chunk of historic Doughoregan Manor — the second-largest block of land to enter preservation in the history of the county's Agricultural Preservation program. Another 107-acre farm in Woodbine is set for a County Council preservation vote this month. The Doughoregan move is part of a complex deal with county officials that would allow the Carroll family, owners of the estate since Colonial times, to develop 325 new homes clustered in the northeast corner of the 892-acre estate and preserve nearly all the rest of the land.

A Howard County councilman wants to ease zoning approval for small residential and commercial wind turbines. There are now two wind turbines in the county. One is outside a recently opened Ellicott City apartment house for limited-income renters that was built for the county's Housing Commission. A second is on a farm in the western part of the county, according to Joshua Feldmark, director of the county's Office of Environmental Sustainability. Feldmark said County Executive Ken Ulman expects to support the proposal by Councilman Calvin Ball, an East Columbia Democrat.