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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Opponents of a controversial Anne Arundel County zoning change filed suit Thursday in county Circuit Court, seeking to overturn the legislation that could intensify growth in some of the county's most rural areas. The suit alleges that the County Council violated state law in passing several amendments to the bill because the changes would allow development that opponents believe is prohibited by long-established land-use principles. It asks the court to throw out all or part of the bill and force the council to restart the zoning process.