Zoning Board

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.

The Wilde Lake Village Center is the prime guinea pig for change after the Howard County Council voted this week for a new zoning process to redevelop Columbia's aging village centers, but no one knows what the result will be. The planned town's oldest retail center stands half-empty now, since a small Giant supermarket closed three years ago followed by Produce Galore and several other tenants. But Kimco Realty, the center's owner along with five others, no longer has a firm idea for what to do with it. Kimco Vice President Geoffrey Glazer made it clear after Tuesday night's County Council vote that this time he will be coming to the residents for a discussion, not presenting them with a plan.

Baltimore's zoning board could gain new authority under legislation Councilwoman Rochelle "Rikki" Spector plans to introduce Monday that supports a controversial live entertainment bill. Spector's measure would allow the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals to reverse the property-use permission known as "conditional use" that the city currently grants but can never revoke. "What is given can be taken," Spector said. The bill says that exemptions to underlying zoning rules are not "out there for perpetuity," she said.

Howard's state legislators and the Ulman administration are backing a General Assembly bill that would require people who apply for changes in county zoning laws to disclose political donations to county elected officials. It's a late addition to the list of local legislation for the 90-day session that starts this month. But the county delegation of state legislators won't vote on it until after their next public hearing Feb. 4. "It makes sense. You can't go wrong with full disclosure," said state Sen. James N. Robey, chairman of the Senate delegation.

Federal agents this week raided the offices of Milton Tillman Jr., a leading Baltimore bail bondsman who has been a repeated target of federal and state law enforcement and was convicted years ago of tax evasion and bribery. A spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein would confirm only that the federal agents raided 2332 E. Monument St., the headquarters of Tillman's 4 Aces bond company; 1101 North Point Blvd. and 1003 Greenmount Ave., both business addresses; and 3818 Kimble Road, which is in the same block where Tillman's son was wounded in a drug-related shooting.

David Hedleston Fulton, retired president and former owner of Plantabbs Corp., the Hunt Valley manufacturer of tablet plant food, and city zoning board watchdog, died Tuesday of a heart attack at his Tuscany Canterbury home. He was 82. Mr. Fulton was born in Baltimore and raised on St. Johns Road in Roland Park. His education at Severn School was interrupted during World War II, when he enlisted in the Navy in 1944. After being discharged from the service, he went to work for his father, David H. Fulton Sr., a Baltimore pharmacist who was a founder of Plantabbs.

Convenience stores, fast-food chains and other Baltimore businesses that stay open past midnight would be required to get a license from the city and address concerns raised by nearby residents under a bill introduced yesterday in the City Council. The legislation - which would not apply to bars and restaurants that sell liquor - would give the city more authority to intervene when residents complain about noise, loitering and crime taking place near late-night businesses, supporters said.

All five Howard County Council members want to limit the times county zoning regulations can be changed, even as they struggle with a difficult example of the practice they want to restrict. A bill set for introduction April 7 would restrict the introduction of Zoning Regulation Amendments, known as ZRA's, to September and March in an attempt to impose order on what chairman Courtney Watson said has become a distracting stream of proposals. A zoning regulation amendment changes the use of all land in one zoning category, a device used in the past by county zoning officials to clear up an ambiguity or alter the use of an entire zone.

A petition challenging the Wegmans grocery store planned for east Columbia will take its appeal further after losing before a Zoning Board hearing examiner this week, the attorney for the appellant said. "The Planning Board made what in essence was a zoning decision," said Susan B. Gray, a civic activist attorney from Highland, who represents Carvel "Buddy" Mays Jr., president of United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Local 27, whose members work for Giant and Safeway supermarkets.

WALKERSVILLE -- The zoning board of this Frederick County town adjourned without reaching a decision last night on a controversial proposal by a Muslim group to use a 224-acre tract of farmland as a religious retreat. Although it was clear the board was leaning toward rejection of the request by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community when deliberations resume tonight, officials of the group remained publicly optimistic. "I am hoping for the best," said Ahsanullah Zafar, president of the community, which has its headquarters in Silver Spring.