Zoning Officials

"Dutch" Holland wants to be your "heavy."The councilman urged about 50 District 3 community leaders Wednesday night to bring their zoning problems to him so he can lean on public officials and obtain quick results."If the complaint comes from me (to the zoning enforcement office), believe me, that works," he said.Citizens don't even have to give their names if they're worried about irritating their neighbors, he said."If (offenders) want to argue, they can come up and arguewith me. We'll be the heavy," he said.

Betrayed At Stoney BeachBecause I live in the Stoney Beach Condominium Community, I have been attending the Zoning Appeals Board hearings in Annapolis. This letter concerns the developer's (Sterling Homes Corp.) proposal to build a commercial marina on a parcel of land . . . reserved for just such a purpose. I have attended all four sessions thus far, which have been ongoing since Oct. 1.On the evening of Nov. 30, I was highly offended and outraged when one of our elected officials testified on behalf of a small group of his constituents, opposing the marina.

Like many residents, Judy Blomquist is concerned about the future of Harford County as a place to live. More specifically, she is concerned about the potential loss of farmland that provides the beautiful vistas, rolling fields of corn and open space that add to the quality of life. That's why she has been paying close attention to the county's first comprehensive rezoning process since 1997. "If all the requests to change the zoning of agriculture to residential or commercial development are approved, we would lose our agriculture industry," said Blomquist, president of Friends of Harford, a citizen organization that monitors growth issues.

Worthington Way residents were supposed to make their case last night to the Howard County Board of Appeals for preserving a 10-acre lot in Ellicott City.Instead, residents and board members debated whether the community was adequately informed about how to challenge a decision by the Department of Planning and Zoning, and the case was postponed until Sept. 22.Neighbors planned to appeal the department's decision to allow the lot to be developed, arguing that the site is an environmentally fragile one that is not appropriate for development.

Responding to the outcry of Poplar Point residents over a cell-phone tower they say has destroyed the character of their Edgewater community, County Executive Janet S. Owens ordered planning and permits officials yesterday to review the laws governing tower location and recommend changes within 60 days. Owens said she is particularly concerned that county laws do not require cellular carriers or county zoning officials to notify owners of adjoining property when cell towers are built on commercially zoned land.

Nearly a year after a law designed to force adult video and bookstores into out-of-the-way places took effect, none of the four operating in the county have moved because zoning officials have failed to enforce the law.The law, which gave the stores a year to move, went into effect last Nov. 21.Residents near a store in Glen Burnie thought sure their unwanted neighbor would be gone by Nov. 21 this year.But county planning officials never sent the letters that would start the legal process of forcing the stores to move until last week, said Richard Josephson, zoning administrator.

A Baltimore man convicted of helping to plan the ambush of a Dunbar armored truck last year was sentenced yesterday in federal court to 11 years in prison.Dana M. Jackson, 29, of the 4000 block of Sinclair Lane was one of five people arrested after the attempted theft of $460,000 from the armored truck that was hijacked as it was making a pickup at the McDonald's restaurant at 29th Street and Greenmount Avenue on March 20.Jackson, who was a Dunbar driver, had taken the day off to help stage the robbery.

A task force targeting makeshift used-car lots is taking its first steps toward devising strategies to quash the illegal sales while continuing a crackdown on the lots. The fledgling group of Anne Arundel County and state officials and legitimate automobile dealers is preparing complaint forms for dealers and community groups to help identify lot locations and cars while looking at the possibility of changes in the law. It is also working on making consumers aware through a mix of police and zoning action and buyer education.

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.

Tied on fences, stapled to poles, propped atop pumps and plastered on walls, cigarette posters and banners grow like kudzu at many gas stations and convenience stores.The signs are evidently effective, because such shops account for the majority of cigarette sales in the United States, tobacco companies say. And with the Marlboro Man and his cigarette-selling sidekicks scheduled to be booted off billboards and taxis in April under the states' tobacco settlement, such signs will soon become the most visible remaining outdoor tobacco advertising.