Zoning Variance

Hampstead Town Manager John A. Riley proposed a zoning ordinance change at Monday night's Town Council meeting that would allow larger decks in Hampstead -- and legalize many oversize decks already built.Under the town's current zoning ordinance, decks may extend into 25 percent of the minimum required depth of the yard.For example, a house with a 36-foot back yard may have a 9-foot deck, Arthur Moler, chairman of the town's Planning and Zoning Commission, said yesterday.Residents who want to build larger decks are supposed to apply for a zoning variance, at a cost of $190, said Councilman Wayne Thomas.

Any attempt to relax environmental standards has to be viewed skeptically. The line against development must be held, or the day will come when there aren't bays, forests, marshes or meadows left, at least not as we know them.So it's natural to look askance at Anne Arundel County Executive John G. Gary's proposal to make it easier for some homeowners in a rigidly protected 100-foot buffer along Chesapeake Bay to add on to their houses.But Mr. Gary's idea makes sense because waterfront construction would become easier only in areas where development already has rendered tough regulations irrelevant.

In your editorial, ''UMBC Plan Must Go Forward'' (July 26), you used the hackneyed and trite buzzword, ''NIMBY-ism'' (Not In My PTC Back Yard), to describe the sentiments expressed by the residents of Catonsville, Arbutus, Halethorpe and Woodlawn who oppose the proposed UMBC Research Park.The use of this term underscores the fact that The Sun doesn't understand our concerns. It implies that we, a group of informed area residents, are instead an ignorant and irrational group of reactionaries.

The Hampstead Town Council has approved a balanced budget that will keep the property tax rate at 20 cents per $100 of assessed value next fiscal year. The only objection to the budget was the elimination of one $10,000 item: crossing guards at Spring Garden Elementary School. Before the public hearing on the $1.9 million budget Tuesday night, the council received a petition with 207 signatures asking the council to keep the crossing guards. The part-time positions were eliminated because Carroll County school officials decided to bus all elementary pupils next school year.

One day, you're admiring a wooded area near your house. The next, trees are being cut down, and bulldozers are grading the land for a new housing development you hadn't heard about.That scenario was played out many times in Harford County during the boom development years -- from 1987 to 1990, when an average of 2,801 new houses were built annually.Councilwoman Theresa M. Pierno, D-District C, thinks existing communities should have some say about new housing developments. So she's drafting legislation that would require developers to have public hearings as part of the county's approval process for new developments.

WHILE THE JURY is still out on the historical value of the Balmuckety Gardens near Pikesville, and whether it should be protected, Baltimore County officialdom is rightly moving cautiously in its deliberations.A zoning hearing on a housing development proposal that would destroy the neglected remains of that floricultural site was postponed last month until the county landmarks commission can decide whether to list the grounds for historic preservation. That commission meets tomorrow.Recent county political history probably played as much a role in the zoning hearing delay as did the history of pioneer landscape architect Thomas Warren Sears, who designed the gardens 70 years ago.Last month, controversy erupted over the abrupt demolition of the 18th century Samuel Owings House in a deal sealed by Baltimore County Executive Dutch Ruppersberger and County Councilman T. Bryan McIntire.

A plan to add as many as six businesses to Loch Raven's Ravenwood Shopping Center is back for approval from Baltimore County officials -- this time without the formal community input that impeded the expansion two months ago.Saul Centers Inc., owner of the Ravenwood center, received an exemption from the county's development review committee that would allow the owner to resubmit plans for the 7-acre site.A review of the plans by county agencies is needed, but no community hearings are required under the exemption.

The ever tightening squeeze on Carroll County's limited recreational facilities was underlined again this month with public squabbles over a proposed private indoor pistol range in Westminster and the disputed use of Mount Airy school ball fields.The separate cases reflect the need for more comprehensive recreational planning in Carroll. The answers are not simple: the conflict between recreation needs and other public rights requires carefully studied case-by-case resolution.In the case of a proposed shooting range on Westminster Pike near Md. 97, the demand for a firearms training facility clashes with the rights of nearby residents to safety and tranquility.

An Anne Arundel County official has denied a Baltimore corporation's request to convert part of its Pasadena convenience store into a 24-hour self-service gasoline station.Administrative Hearing Officer Robert C. Wilcox ruled Thursday that Cloverland Farms Dairy Inc. cannot install a two-pump island at its Royal Farms store on Fort Smallwood Road.Neighbors of the convenience store applauded the decision."We're very pleased with it," said Thomas LaMartina, who lives behind the site. "It's too commercial here now. We're pleased to see that someone's listening to us."