Zoning Ordinance

With a growing number of developers looking to build assisted-living housing in Carroll County, the county commissioners decided yesterday to take the first step toward regulating such facilities.Acting on a suggestion by county planning Director Philip J. Rovang, the commissioners directed the planning staff to draft a zoning ordinance amendment that would address issues such as parking and setback requirements for assisted-living facilities."The current zoning ordinance talks about terms we've been familiar with for 20 years, things like nursing homes and senior housing.

A committee charged with reviewing Carroll County's zoning ordinance dropped plans last night to overhaul the entire law in favor of updating only the sections regulating light industrial and commercial use.After struggling in recent months to define the scope of the review, the six-member committee agreed that a full scale update of zoning laws would be too complicated.The committee will focus on sections in the zoning ordinance defining light industrial and commercial sites.The goal of the committee's update is to identify potential industrial sites that will attract business to the county.

Allegheny Power System doesn't have to enclose with walls a planned substation near Mount Airy, the Frederick County Board of Zoning Appeals has decided.But the board's decision this week may not have settled the issue of how to screen the 34.5-kilovolt substation from traffic on nearby Interstate 70 and homes in the Mill Bottom and Penn Shop Road areas.The utility plans to build the substation on Parr's Ridge, the highest point between the Catoctin Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay."I don't see what brick walls are going to solve in this particular site," said John R. Lovell Jr., appeals board chairman, before voting to approve a slatted fence and tree screening that Allegheny Power had agreed to earlier.

DETOUR -- Occasional floods have become a way of life in this low-lying village along Double Pipe Creek, but residents here say recent floods -- including the one a week ago -- have been made worse by floating debris from a junkyard upstream from the Route 77 bridge."

As a housing lawyer on leave from my public-interest practice in Johannesburg, I came to Baltimore last October, enthusiastic to learn how to ''undo'' racial segregation. I was anxious for lessons about integrated neighborhoods, the constitutional right to choose where to live and the role of government in ensuring equal opportunities and fair housing practices.My own Afrikaner ancestors, after all, had developed a national social system -- apartheid -- upon the foundation of racial residential segregation.

A court may have to decide whether the building permit for West Shore Communications' cellular telephone tower in Sykesville was properly issued, but it should be very clear to the company that it is fighting a losing political battle. Rather than continue the increasingly expensive effort to construct this 200-foot tower, West Shore would be better off looking for an alternative site.Construction of the tower began on the afternoon of Friday, Oct. 28, almost before the ink was dry on the building permit.

Hampstead's Planning and Zoning Commission voted last night to recommend that town officials revise the ordinance governing general business zoning.Under the revised ordinance, Hampstead's Board of Zoning Appeals would have the final say over whether some property uses, such as truck terminals or golf driving ranges, would be allowed in general business zones.Concerns about the zoning -- which is the town's most liberal type of business zoning -- arose when plans for a tract of Roberts Field Business Center came before the commission.

Bea Gaddy is now on track to get the zoning needed to run her West Baltimore homeless shelter. But that doesn't change a quirk in the city's zoning law -- one that imposes a more rigorous review on shelters than it does on atomic reactors.Last night, City Councilman Melvin L. Stukes introduced zoning legislation for Ms. Gaddy's shelter. This has been the process in Baltimore for more than 30 years, with homeless shelters subjected to a case-by-case legislative approval that few other establishments face.

Piotr Obraniak and Jerzy Lutomski stood outside the hangar at the Carroll County Regional Airport yesterday and surveyed the surrounding factories, office buildings and restaurant. They liked what they saw."We have factories right in our downtown," said Mr. Obraniak, a consultant who is helping the Polish city of Lodz develop a master plan. "It causes a lot of problems. People have concerns about pollution. I think we should divide industry and business from residential areas."Mr. Obraniak and Mr. Lutomski, deputy director in the Lodz planning department, toured Carroll's business park near Westminster and the Roberts Field subdivision in Hampstead to learn more about zoning and land use.They are in the midst of a monthlong visit to Baltimore as part of an exchange program between Poland and Maryland.

New subdivisions in Union Bridge may have a more unusual look if the town planning commission is successful in its bid to amend the town's zoning ordinance.The amendment is aimed at providing construction diversity in new subdivisions, such as the community of more than 400 units being planned for the 171-acre Phillips property on Route 75."There is a need to update the Union Bridge Zoning Ordinance so as to eliminate planned unit development and replace it with a more flexible option for residential development," the planning commission said in a resolution drafted by John T. Maguire II, the town attorney.

It's time to put up a fight. Baltimore is right to defend its existing zoning code against a Department of Justice lawsuit concerning the placement of group homes in residential neighborhoods. The suit, filed last week in the U.S. District Court, seeks an unspecified amount of money for three organizations and seeks to compel the city to allow residential treatment facilities housing up to eight addicts in any neighborhood. It would invalidate sections of the city zoning code that require City Council approval for the placement of such facilities.

The Carroll County commissioners unanimously voted yesterday to allow the installation of small wind turbines. The amendment to the zoning ordinance, believed to be the first of its kind in Maryland, limits properties to no more than two "small wind energy systems" each consisting of a single tower not to exceed 150 feet in height, County Attorney Kim Millender said. County officials said they began pursuing the policy when several residents called toward the end of last year and inquired about installing them.

A Glen Burnie charter school's plans to open next month may be in jeopardy after the Anne Arundel County Council passed a zoning ordinance restricting charter schools in residential neighborhoods. The legislation, which will take effect once County Executive Janet S. Owens signs it, permits charter schools as a "conditional use" on residentially zoned land. To open there, schools must meet certain requirements, such as resting on a lot 3 acres or larger. But organizers of Chesapeake Science Point, a math, science and technology charter, have begun renovations of a building leased from the Glen Burnie Korean Presbyterian Church to meet county and school system requirements.

A Glen Burnie charter school's plans to open next month may be in jeopardy after the Anne Arundel County Council passed a zoning ordinance restricting charter schools in residential neighborhoods. The legislation, which will take effect once County Executive Janet S. Owens signs it, permits charter schools as a "conditional use" on residentially zoned land. To open there, schools must meet certain requirements, such as resting on a lot 3 acres or larger. But organizers of Chesapeake Science Point, a math, science and technology charter, have begun renovations of a building leased from the Glen Burnie Korean Presbyterian Church in order to meet county and school system requirements.

Westminster's plans to annex and rezone the Roop's Mill property - for a subdivision with up to 200 homes - has taken a major step forward with the county commissioners' approval of a zoning waiver. The commissioners' decision to grant the waiver expedites the development process for Westminster. Without the waiver, the city would have had to wait five years to rezone all of the property for residential use. The three-member board's action occurred a month after two commissioners raised concerns about how development on the 93-acre site would affect efforts to control growth.

After months of contentious debate, the Carroll commissioners passed a significantly amended zoning ordinance yesterday that will allow landowners to transfer development rights to agricultural areas. However, the revisions require developers to cluster the lots to preserve as much agricultural land as possible - a change that appeased the ordinance's opponents, including the state. The board voted 2-0 with Commissioner Julia Walsh Gouge abstaining. Her colleagues refused her request to defer the vote until the revised ordinance could be posted on the county's Web site.

Intelligent planning essential for growth The idea that Carroll County is, in fact, located in the State of Maryland is an essential concept that, we as citizens of the county, must imposed upon all of the elected officials of the county. Uncontrolled growth will render the County the same fate of those counties that surround us. I do not hold the position of no growth; I do not hold the position of slow growth. I do hold the position of intelligent growth. In order for Carroll County citizens to protect those assets, we must recognize the fact that no politician ever won a war, built a city, provided for the needs of its citizens in an effective manner, without the consent of the people, the support of the people and the participation of the people.

A simple solution to Gouge's worries In response to the letter to the editor ("County Zoning Plan's future is cause for worry," Nov. 11), from Commissioner Julia Gouge, there are clearly some facts Mrs. Gouge seemed to overlook. There are currently 191,000 acres of agriculturally zoned land in Carroll County and 54,000 acres of conservation zone land (of which 12,000 acres are currently governmentally owned). Under the county's current subdivision regulations and zoning ordinance, including recent amendments, 95 percent, or 181,450 of the agricultural acres, are non-buildable.

County Zoning Plan's future is cause for worry Much has recently been written and discussed in the press concerning the Zoning Ordinance Review Committee's first phase of amendments to the Carroll County Zoning Ordinance that were adopted by two of the three County Commissioners on Sept. 17. While the Phase I amendments addressed a number of issues, including time extensions for nonconforming uses, Declaratory Rulings by the Zoning Administrator, and outdoor storage of unlicensed vehicles, the provisions that have generated the most controversy are those dealing with clustering of residential lots in the Agricultural and Conservation Districts.

The Court of Special Appeals ruled yesterday that a huge painting on a downtown building that featured Cal Ripken Jr. and a Nike logo violated the city's zoning ordinance, finding that the image was an advertisement, not art. The ruling came in an appeal brought by Eller Media Co., which was cited for violating the city zoning ordinance after it put up a Volkswagen advertisement in the same space that had been home to the Ripken image. The city Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals had reasoned in 1993 that the 1,472-square-foot Ripken picture on the side of 28 Light St. was art, but later found the Volkswagen sign, erected in 1999, to be an advertisement.