Zoning Board

Despite neighbors' opposition, a plan to build 325 homes clustered on a portion of historic Doughoregan Manor was unanimously approved Thursday by the Howard County Planning Board. "It's one more step," said Joseph Rutter, the former county planning director who is guiding the project through the county's rezoning system for the descendants of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Some Carroll descendants still live in the mansion on the 892-acre Ellicott City property -- once a Colonial estate of more than 10,000 acres.

M aryland's county executives garner lots of public attention, both positive and negative, for good reason. The job is probably the most powerful public post in Maryland short of governor, which naturally focuses public attention on that one person who sets policy, hires and fires key players, and largely decides where the taxpayers' money should go. A young, ambitious executive like Howard's Ken Ulman seems to hold most of the cards....

Crafting plans to remake the ailing Wilde Lake Village Center and winning approval for them will "take every bit of two years," before any actual work can begin, according to Geoffrey Glazer, vice president of Kimco Realty, the center's owner. Meanwhile, he said, the planned redevelopment of Columbia's nearby Town Center area into an urbanized downtown is making it nearly impossible to attract new merchants to the town's oldest, and now partly empty, village center about a mile away.

Crafting plans to remake the ailing Wilde Lake Village Center and winning approval for them will "take every bit of two years" before any actual work can begin, according to Geoffrey Glazer, vice president of Kimco Realty, the center's owner. In the meantime, he said, the still-developing overhaul of Columbia's nearby Town Center area into an urbanized downtown is making it virtually impossible to attract new merchants to the town's oldest — and now partially empty — village center, roughly a mile away.

A decision on whether to allow a large mixed-use project near the Dorsey MARC train station along Route 100 was postponed late Thursday night by the Howard County Planning Board. Oxford Square, which could have up to 1,400 apartments, 1 million square feet of commercial space, stores, and give the county a 5-acre school site, is different from two other train station proposals in the county, because it is across Route 100 from the station. The developers say they'll gain access to the train platforms via a 1749 easement that allows extension of an existing road along the railroad tracks from the station, under the highway bridges, directly into their property.

Mayor Sheila Dixon signed a bill Monday that could drastically change the city's nightlife scene by making it easier for bars and restaurants to host live performances. Although proponents say the measure will promote a more vibrant city and generate profits for business owners, some community groups fear it will add noise and rowdy crowds. During a break in her criminal trial Monday, the mayor told reporters that the legislation "is not that good of a bill." Dixon had delayed signing the bill for nearly a month and said she would rather have waited for the overhaul to the zoning code being crafted by her planning department.