Zoning Law

The way Ed Primoff sees it, he's doing Carroll County a favor by developing his 190-acre property under a contentious new zoning law that will afford him a few extra lots. The math is simple, Primoff said last month on a drive around his heavily wooded property in Woodbine. Under the old law, he would have developed between 34 and 37 homes across about 100 acres. Under the new law, he will develop 40 homes on 40 to 50 acres, leaving an extra 50 acres of woods and farmland untouched. Better still for the county, he argued, the law will require him to keep the remaining 150 acres of his property undeveloped forever.

WHAT'S to dislike about a law that seems to increase open space in housing developments and to promote the higher-density housing that Smart Growth advocates love? Plenty, since the new zoning ordinance adopted by Carroll County commissioners aims to increase the number of new houses that can be built and encourages costly leap-frog development. This in a county hard-pressed to provide adequate public services for existing housing. Plus, Commissioners Donald Dell and Robin Frazier sneaked through the measure with scant public input after a panel of landowners and real estate people concocted the ambiguously worded scheme.

A Halethorpe adult video store faces $68,200 in fines from Baltimore County for allegedly violating zoning laws aimed at restricting such outlets from residential neighborhoods. Operators of Southwest Video, 5648 Southwestern Blvd., claim the law is an unconstitutional infringement on free speech. The two-year battle between the store and the county has made its way through federal court, where U.S. District Judge Frederic N. Smalkin ruled last year that the county law is constitutional.

A new Carroll County zoning law that seems likely to spur residential development on farmland throughout the county "strikes at the heart of Smart Growth by encouraging the development of agricultural land," and the state is considering "appropriate action," a spokeswoman for Gov. Parris N. Glendening said yesterday. Since the Carroll commissioners enacted the ordinance less than three weeks ago, county staff members have fielded numerous inquiries about the new law. It has received one application for a 40-lot subdivision from Edward Primoff, who helped write the law as a member of the Zoning Ordinance Review Committee.

A new zoning law could change stretches of Carroll County's pastoral countryside by allowing small subdivisions to be built on land long set aside for farming. Few people, including some Carroll officials, seem to know what the law means or how great its impact will be. But Commissioner Julia Walsh Gouge said she has no doubt the measure was designed to open more farmland to development. "The reality is that you can take land you could never develop and use [the ordinance] to develop agricultural land," said Gouge, who voted against it. "We could be making agricultural land wide open to development."

WALKING down New Market's quaint Main Street is like a stroll back in time - except for the thoroughly modern prices of its antiques. The half-mile stretch of antique shops not only divides this Frederick County town physically, but also philosophically and politically. Antique-collector tourism is flagging. But a 1972 town zoning law virtually prohibits other types of business in the historic district. New Market naturally wants to preserve its antiques center reputation, as well as the proud blocks of 18th- and 19th-century homes.

NEW MARKET - In this petite Frederick County town, an astonishing array of antiques are for sale: 19th-century ornate stoneware beer steins etched with gymnasts, fencers and lions; $3,950 one-of-a-kind tiger oak rolltop desks; and quack medical devices such as the "Columbia Medical Battery," designed to harness the "curative powers" of electric shock. The town, which dubbed itself the antiques capital of Maryland decades ago, features several dozen antiques shops set in pristine 18th- and 19th-century homes along a half-mile of Main Street that's seen little change since New Market was established in 1793.

About 65 attend council hearing on school budget This year's amiable school budget process continued through another important step May 5 -- the Howard County Council's hearing on school funding and needs. The annual hearing, often called a "beg-a-thon," has for several years been characterized by spirited demonstrations, passionate pleas for money and long lines of parents and community members waiting to give council members what-for about potential cuts to the schools' budget. Last year's hearing, for example, lasted more than six hours, as more than 200 people filed to the microphone to speak.

Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, one of Baltimore's most prominent congregations, won a major victory yesterday in its three-year quest to build a 3,000-seat church in rural Granite, a project that drew stiff opposition from neighbors. The approval by Zoning Commissioner Lawrence E. Schmidt was a setback for residents of the small community in western Baltimore County, who fear the church -- which will be larger than Meyerhoff Symphony Hall -- will snarl traffic on Sundays and forever change their quality of life.

A series of zoning law changes that would make it easier for Howard County's citizens to gain equal footing with developers may have died an ugly death at Monday night's County Council meeting, but reincarnation appears imminent. Despite the partisan bickering during this week's voting session on 45 amendments to a long zoning revision bill, a bipartisan trio of councilmen plan to craft the measures into a new bill. The new measure would be reviewed by the Planning Board before a council vote in several months.