Zoning Change

Baltimore County planners want to allow hundreds of houses on waterfront conservation land along the Bird River in Middle River, over the strong objections of environmental regulators. Some county officials say a proposal for up to 400 homes where only three are now allowed would defeat the purpose of multimillion-dollar public investments in natural resource protection and would represent an unprecedented expansion into an area where the county has restricted growth since 1967. Joseph Stamato, owner of Verus Development LLC, the company that wants to develop the site, said "we're protecting the land" by using only about half of the 292 acres of woods and fields.

Baltimore County planners want to allow hundreds of houses on waterfront conservation land along the Bird River in Middle River, over the strong objections of environmental regulators. Some county officials say a proposal for up to 400 homes where only three are now allowed would defeat the purpose of multimillion-dollar public investments in natural resource protection and would represent an unprecedented expansion into an area where the county has restricted growth since 1967. Joseph Stamato, owner of Verus Development LLC, the company that wants to develop the site, said "we're protecting the land" by using only about half of the 292 acres of woods and fields.

Critics of a plan to build 325 homes on one part of historic Doughoregan Manor and preserve the rest of the Ellicott City estate attacked the complex proposal as a "manufactured artifice," as they tried this week to defeat a necessary zoning change. Opponents used the very intricacy of the multipart plan and the fact that Howard County's zoning board members also serve as County Council members as the basis for their argument. Several opponents also suggested that there might have been collusion between the estate's owners and county lawyers.

Regarding Arthur Hirsch 's thorough article ("Plans for old distillery stir controversy in Dundalk," May 3), I would submit some additional relevant information. First, the rezoning of the property as requested by developer John Vontran and the meetings that were conducted on his behalf by the Dundalk Renaissance Corp. raise concerns. One of those meetings was a private one held at the DRC. That meeting was announced in an e-mail to selected members of the community sent by Scott Holupka, a board member of the DRC and a member of the Baltimore County Planning Board.

A proposed zoning change that would alter a key tool intended to spur redevelopment of the U.S. 1 commercial corridor and allow 140 more apartments in the highway median in North Laurel was approved on a 3-2 vote Monday night by the Howard County Council. The vote allows the owners of Ashbury Courts, a 148-unit, mixed-use complex built on the site of a former trailer park, to build a planned second apartment building on the north end of the parking lot, but this time without the accompanying retail space required under the original zoning.

A bank holding company is asking county planning and zoning authorities for a fivefold increase in the number of homes it could develop on a secluded 14-acre lot on Columbia's southern edge, claiming the Zoning Board made an error in rezoning the property last year.David A. Carney, a Columbia attorney representing the ownertold the county Planning Board yesterday that the property probably would be developed with 88 apartment condominiums or townhouses selling for $120,000 to $180,000.The site, on both sides of Old Columbia Road just north of the Middle Patuxent River, was zoned office/research until last year, when the Zoning Board voted 3-2 to convert 10 acres of it to "environmental residential," which would allow a maximum of 16 units, because of its steep, wooded slopes and the streams running through it."

Supporters of a proposed Safeway supermarket in south county pressed the Anne Arundel County Council at a public hearing last night not to approve a zoning change that would virtually kill the store plans. Safeway officials insist that the proposed zoning change - which would block any structure larger than 25,000 square feet - would create a no-win situation for the national grocery chain. "One should never say never, but I doubt we would proceed with a store even if it got the C3 zoning," said Thomas D. Castleberry, vice president for real estate for Safeway Inc., referring to the zoning category the grocery store chain has requested.

After years of delay, Baltimore is moving to allow a prominent developer to build two residential towers along Key Highway - renewing community concerns about the future of the peninsula's vanishing waterfront. If the City Council approves the zoning change, HarborView developer Richard A. Swirnow would be permitted to build a 26-story tower and could also proceed on an adjacent 17-story building west of the high-rise already on the site. City officials say the proposed design is the best they have seen because it maintains better views of the water for surrounding residents and includes first-floor shopping to enliven Key Highway.

Officials from Damascus House, a Brooklyn Park substance abuse treatment center that incensed neighbors with its proposed expansion, will attend a community meeting next month to clarify their plan. Charles Mooneyhan, the center's director, said yesterday that he will bring information about the project, along with an architect and a zoning expert, to the meeting. He said he was surprised at the protest but acknowledged, "We know we can't please everyone in the community." The 17-bed treatment center in the 4200 block of Ritchie Highway wants to buy a property on nearby Edison Street and renovate a house there into a 15-bed facility.

Leaders of Ellicott City's Bethel Korean Presbyterian Church tried to persuade their neighbors last night to support a zoning change that would allow a major expansion, but it was a hard sell for the more than 100 people who attended. The Rev. Walter Lee, who conducts Bethel's English-language services, said church officials were taken aback by the community's negative reaction to their request at a Jan. 25 County Council zoning hearing and are determined to regain their trust and forge new connections with the neighbors.

No one makes whiskey any longer on Sollers Point Road in Dundalk, where the old distillery stands empty, the weeds poke through the paving and graffiti marks the brick walls. Joseph E. Seagram & Sons closed its bottling plant there in the late 1980s, and it's been empty for years, considered an eyesore by many neighbors and the scene of several recent fires. The latest owner of these desolate 14.5 acres is planning a redevelopment, and one of his ideas involves moving county-owned offices there, freeing up a nearby property for "big box" stores at one of the biggest crossroads in Dundalk.

City economic development officials will hear from the public Tuesday night on a proposal to reduce the size of a city zone in which businesses or developers get property tax breaks for making investments. The Baltimore Development Corp. has scheduled a hearing on proposed changes to the Enterprise Zone, a state tax incentive program, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Emerging Technology Center at Johns Hopkins Eastern, at 1101 33 r d St. The proposed map trims roughly one-third of the current zone, reducing the size from 22,000 acres to 14,000 acres.

The Baltimore City Council's Land Use and Transportation Committee approved a bill Wednesday that would enable sports apparel maker Under Armour to double the size of its Locust Point headquarters, hire hundreds more workers and help retain the city's last major corporate headquarters. Under Armour, which has grown in more than a decade into a $1 billion global sports apparel brand, plans to build a large new office tower and the city's first Under Armour store. It also plans to expand other buildings on the Tide Point waterfront campus in Locust Point, a converted Procter & Gamble factory.

After several months of debate, the Howard County Council agreed on a tax-relief measure for nonprofit swim clubs. The council voted Monday in favor of a bill sponsored by Councilwoman Courtney Watson, an Ellicott City Democrat, that allows pools to sell their development rights to builders to use elsewhere. Such transactions lower the pools' property taxes and also generate income. Several swim clubs approached the council last year for help, saying their pools faced mounting debt because of high property taxes, coupled with increased expenses.

Baltimore City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young on Thursday requested several city agencies prepare reports about a zoning bill introduced to the council this week that would allow a former Catholic school to be turned into a convalescent home for homeless people. Project PLASE (People Lacking Ample Shelter and Employment), a 30-year-old nonprofit headquartered in Charles North, has offered $1.4 million for the former St. Joseph's Monastery school buildings in the 3500 block of Old Frederick Road in Southwest Baltimore.

When he started a veterinary hospital along Generals Highway on the outskirts of Annapolis in 1974, Harrison Monk says, he was promised his business would be linked to Anne Arundel County's water and sewer services in about a decade. Greater Annapolis Animal Hospital, which now is home to 15 veterinarians, still is without those services. Now drawing water from its second well, the practice also relies on its own septic system. And because it's a business, state regulations require Monk to be certified in water inspection, which calls for him to take continuing-education classes when he says he'd rather be studying animal medicine.

It has been a long slow decline for Harold's Market since former owner Ronnal Simpson moved to Florida. Today, Harold's has been reduced to rubble, and it is uncertain what will happen to the property it occupied now that the new owners are seeking a zoning change through Baltimore County's Comprehensive Zoning Map Process. Located at 1750 E. Joppa Road for nearly 40 years, it had been the place to pick up fresh fruits and vegetables for those who didn't want to bother with the parking and check out lines of a large supermarket.

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.