Zoning Officials

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.

On a quiet street in a modest Pikesville neighborhood, Nai Manle's blighted vacant house has been partially hidden for years by weeds that top 6 feet.Next door, 72-year-old Bessie Edelen warns her grandchildren to stay away from the fire-damaged cottage, frequented by vagrants and raccoons, marked by an abandoned Honda Accord -- and the subject of $128,400 in fines levied by county zoning officials.From Pikesville to Owings Mills, Dundalk to the wealthy Green Spring Valley, unresolved zoning cases are roiling Baltimore County communities, sometimes taking years to work their way through a bureaucracy fettered by appeals, hearings and court challenges.

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.

The Baltimore County zoning commissioner yesterday rejected Mount Vista Golf Course's request to expand into a country club, but stopped short of ordering the golf course's owners to knock down their illegally built clubhouse.In a 22-page opinion -- the latest turn in a decade-long controversy -- zoning Commissioner Lawrence E. Schmidt granted some of the northeast Baltimore County golf course's requests, such as the right to remain open year-round and serve food at golf tournaments.However, Schmidt rejected requests to allow lights at the course's driving range and to use the clubhouse as a catering hall -- and he sharply criticized golf course owners for showing "little regard" for their neighbors and for county zoning regulations.

The county Planning Board unanimously recommended allowing additional uses in planned employment center zoning two months after sending a similar proposal back for reworking.County planning officials say they proposed the changes because the original PEC concept -- designed for businesses that fell in between retail and industrial zones -- has not attracted developers to the sites. But residents testifying at the initial hearing said that some of the proposed uses would have generated traffic, noise and other problems.

The president of the Carroll County Landowners Association yesterday urged County Commissioners to fire Grant S. Dannelly from the Planning and Zoning Commission for allegedly slurring Asians and those suffering from Alzheimer's disease during a planning conference Saturday.Dannelly insulted "the entire Asian community by complaining that the 'Orientals' -- his word -- were taking our water from the [public] spring on Henryton Road and he now has to wait in line," said Edward Primoff, president of the property rights lobby.

A Baltimore County zoning official has rejected plans for a private, for-profit methadone clinic in rural Loreley, agreeing with residents and politicians who said it would draw crime to the lightly patrolled area near the Harford County line."

The Howard County Circuit Court has upheld a 1996 Zoning Board decision that rejected a Montgomery County man's proposal to build a Columbia-style blend of houses and businesses on a 31-acre site in Fulton.Judge James B. Dudley ruled that the board had enough information to deny Willard H. Marlow permission to develop a mixed-use community with 94 housing units -- 60 single-family detached homes and 34 townhouses -- on 12 acres and a commercial area on an additional 4.7 acres.Marlow still has the right to develop his property as single-family detached homes on 3-acre lots.

For want of a stream, a multimillion-dollar development plan went down the drain yesterday.And Green Spring Valley neighbors couldn't be happier.The controversial Bridle Ridge development, proposed for 90 acres of the St. Timothy's School campus in Stevenson, was rejected by a Baltimore County official because a small stream and some wetlands did not appear on the plan, which details homesites, roads and landscaping.In making his ruling, Deputy Zoning Commissioner Timothy Kotroco ended the hearing on the plan, which has been vehemently opposed by the community during the past 18 months.

For want of a stream, a multimillion-dollar development plan went down the drain yesterday.And Green Spring Valley neighbors couldn't be happier.The controversial Bridle Ridge development, proposed for 90 acres of the St. Timothy's School campus in Stevenson, was rejected by a Baltimore County official because a small stream and some wetlands did not appear on the plan, which details homesites, roads and landscaping.In making his ruling, deputy zoning commissioner Timothy Kotroco ended the hearing on the plan, which has been vehemently opposed by the community for 18 months.