Zoning Variance

If any development proposal appeared to be a sure thing, it was the University of Maryland Baltimore County's plan to build a research park on the school's Catonsville campus.Government and community officials alike have touted the project as a source of good jobs and tax revenues for the county. They also have claimed it would enhance UMBC's reputation among professors and students of the sciences. When a county zoning commissioner endorsed the proposal last May, he did so with unusual gusto.

For nearly 50 years, Windy Valley Restaurant at Falls and West Joppa roads has cornered the local market on remedies to hot summer evenings with its made-on-the premises ice cream.But a real estate executive and his family want to offer a cooling alternative in a time-honored Baltimore entrepreneurial fashion -- a corner snowball stand.Donald R. Grempler, president of Coldwell Banker Grempler Realty Inc., said his wife, Marci, and their three children -- twin 10-year-old girls, and a boy nearly 12 -- would operate the snowball stand with others to be hired.

The county Board of Appeals is preparing to fight for turf threatened by new comprehensive rezoning regulations.Board members have come out against proposed zoning rules that would give the county Department of Planning and Zoning the power to grant zoning variances without the board's approval.The change is intended to save time and money for property owners by cutting the review process and fees nearly in half, said Joseph Rutter, county planning and zoning director. The new regulations would have to be approved by the County Council, sitting as the Zoning Board.

The County Council has denied permission for the county's only shelter for homeless and abused women to accept male residents.Sittingas the Board of Zoning Appeals, the council voted 5-0 Tuesday with two abstentions to uphold a county hearing examiner's March 15 opinionthat Forward Step Inc. would dramatically change the original concept of the facility if it began housing men.The board voted with no discussion among members on the issue.John Gessner, a lawyer with the firm of Venable, Baetjer & Howard inBel Air who represents Edgewood-based Forward Step, said Wednesday he would file an appeal to the Circuit Court within the next 30 days.

The Marston farmers who late last year denied operating a slaughterhouse will this week appear in front of the County Board of Zoning Appeals for permission to operate a slaughterhouse.Carroll Lynn Schisler, 44, and his brother August "Fred" Schisler, 38, are expected torequest a zoning variance Thursday afternoon to operate a commercialslaughterhouse on their 112-acre farm on Marston Road.County zoning laws allow farmers to operate slaughterhouses for their own use but require zoning approval for commercial slaughterhouses.

MOUNT AIRY - After being bandied about for six years, the growth tool known as the "performance option" came to the brink of reality Monday night.Since the early 1980s, town administrators have considered the concept, which would allow developers to build homes in greater density than zoning allows in exchange for preserving natural features at a site.The Town Council introduced a measure Monday that would amend the Mount Airy zoning ordinance to include the performance option.The council scheduled a vote on the measure at its Jan. 7 meeting.

Martin Day cringes every time he looks across the street at his grandmother's old home.His automatic response is not prompted by the peeling paint or sagging door frame. Nor does Day have any painful childhood memories that cause him to flinch when he glances out the window at the family homestead.A large, white sign posted to the right of the ramshackle house in Glen Burnie is the source of the 34-year-old's daily irritation.The placard informs neighbors and passersby that the property owners, Alexander and Eldora Graboski, are seeking a zoning variance to build clustered town houses on the 1.38-acre site off Glen Oak Lane, an extremely narrow, short street between Lee's Oldsmobile and Maple Lane.

The Trammell Crow Co. has received the zoning variance it was seeking to build the city's tallest building, a 44-story office tower called One Light Street on the current site of the vacant Southern Hotel.Gilbert Rubin, executive director of Baltimore's Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals, said his office notified the developers this week that their request for a zoning variance had been granted.The decision was based primarily on the belief that the $180 million to $190 million building "would be an asset to the downtown community and would add to the tax base," Mr. Rubin said.