Smart Growth News

Maryland

Opinion: New Home Construction No Longer Equals Progress

Homebuilders acquired construction permits for almost 1,900 units in the Baltimore metropolitan area over the first four months of this year – 70 percent more than in the same period of last year. This fact left Baltimore Sun columnist Dan Rodricks asking ''Is growth always good?''

''This is the way we do things – we measure progress in permits for new housing. That's how we define growth, and growth is always considered good, especially as the region and the nation try to emerge from the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression,'' he writes. ''Foreclosures continue, and many of the people who for a time owned a home have returned, perhaps permanently, to the ranks of renters. But we still look to new housing for evidence of recovery.''

This old habit misses not only new socioeconomic realities but also environmental challenges, largely related to energy supply and population growth. The columnist acknowledges some Maryland progress ''in restricting development with the Smart Growth initiative” and the O'Malley administration's purchase of ''some major tracts of Chesapeake land for preservation,'' but regrets that ''growth still wins the day around here and open spaces disappear'' despite sustainability concepts.

''But we need a real turn toward sustainability: finding ways to use and reuse resources to meet human needs without destroying the environment,'' he points out, finding many concerned people ''profoundly pessimistic'' about the future, but including himself among the optimists. ''A new generation, more wired than any before it, and primed to live more holistically, is being profoundly influenced by the realities of economic collapse and environmental disaster. We are entering an age when societal survival, and not mere consumerism, becomes the dominant influence, and public policy moves toward sustaining resources, not merely exploiting them,'' he writes, stressing, ''Humans are survivors and innovators; there are too many people at work on developing a green economy and fighting other battles for a sustainable future for me to believe that we'll remain a nation that measures progress in the number of new houses we can build on open land.''   7/11/2010

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Baltimore’s New Zoning Will Bring Back Walking, Gardening and Better Living

Under the first zoning code rewrite since 1971, Baltimore will be transformed from ''a car-centric concrete desert to an oasis of walkability,'' writes Baltimore Sun reporter Tim Wheeler, quoting Comprehensive Planning Division Chief Laurie Feinberg, who said the combined goal is overall sustainability, with social equity, smart growth and economic success.

Department of Planning Director Thomas J. Stosur is confident the new zoning code, its first draft posted online for public input, will make the city more livable and help residents live healthier. ''In 1971, the world was very much automobile-dominated, the suburbs were exploding and state-of-the-art zoning sought to mimic suburbs,'' he recently told Sun writer Julie Scharper. ''This is almost taking us back to the roots of development in the city in the teens and 1920s and 1930s, when neighborhoods were more dense.''

Accordingly, the draft code envisions small businesses and services in residential neighborhoods, transit-oriented development districts, industrial areas, living quarters over some small shops and workplaces, elimination of downtown parking to encourage biking and transit use, new development rules for college campuses and hospitals, and restoration of community gardens and urban farms to popularize fresh greens and other healthy food.

''There are very few gardeners out there who don’t eat fruits and vegetables,'' pointed out Department of Planning Food Policy Director Holly Freishtat, hoping to turn some of the city’s numerous vacant lots into community gardens, which can also serve neighbors as open-air social centers. She would like the six-acre Real Food Farm in Lake Clifton Park, run by the Civic Works and Safe Healing nonprofit, to become a model for urban agriculture entrepreneurs, noting that farm manager Tyler Brown and several students and volunteers sell its products in farmers' markets at a school and a nearby community.

In addition, the new zoning code would allow small wind turbines in yards or on roofs, with roof solar panels also possible. Access the code through http://www.transformbaltimore.net/portal   6/22/2010

Resource(s): http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/features/green/2010/06/zoning_toward_a_greener_baltim.html

Gov. O'Malley Designates 14 Maryland Transit Stations for Priority Development Focus

Demonstrating his commitment to reducing sprawl and increasing transit ridership, Governor Martin O'Malley recently designated 14 Maryland transit stations as sites for transit-oriented development (TOD). Seven stations are in the Baltimore region and seven are in the Washington region. Appearing at the Naylor Road Metro Station in Prince George's County with Lt. Governor Anthony G. Brown, Congresswoman Donna F. Edwards and County Executive Jack B. Johnson, Governor O'Malley outlined the importance of the TOD designation and the fact that these stations will be priorities for state development assistance.

''By formally designating these 14 transit stations as TOD sites, the resources of the Maryland Department of Transportation and other State agencies can be used to assist in the development and construction of a project, where appropriate,'' said Governor O'Malley. ''Focusing future growth around our existing transit stations will contribute to our goal of creating walkable, sustainable communities while preserving our open space.''

''It is a pleasure to help Governor O'Malley bring his vision of leveraging our investment in transit in a way that is good for the environment and that is key to maintaining future economic growth statewide,'' Lt. Governor Brown said. ''As a proud Prince Georgian, it is great to see a focus on projects in my home county that has more than 2,500 acres of undeveloped land surrounding the county's Metro Stations.''

The specific benefits of the TOD designation include:

• Financing opportunities through the Maryland Economic Development Corporation;
• Prioritization of State assistance by the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) and other agencies on the Governor's Smart Growth Subcabinet, including housing and economic development;
• Predevelopment planning and feasibility analysis funded by MDOT; and
• Priority consideration for the location of State offices and laboratories.

In April 2008, working with the legislature, Governor O'Malley signed into law legislation that put transit communities on equal footing with other transportation funding priorities and removed roadblocks to the use of state resources and land for transit-oriented development. It also cleared the way for the State to designate TOD projects and to use MDOT's property and resources to support mixed-use and pedestrian-friendly development around existing and future transit stations.

The TOD designation also positions Maryland projects so that they can benefit from the federal government's new policy emphasis on sustainability. Transit-oriented development creates retail, residential, office and entertainment space within a one-half-mile distance of a transit center. This creates vibrant, walkable communities that have convenient access to transit. Recent research from across the country has shown people, who live or work in a transit-oriented development, are three to five times more likely to use transit and to reduce the number of trips taken by automobile.

The financial benefits of transit use versus driving a car are outlined in a recent report by the American Public Transportation Association. When factoring in the cost of gas, car ownership and parking, the report states the average savings for an individual using transit in the Washington region are $9,087 or $757 per month.

''As a long-time advocate for transit-oriented development, I am pleased that Governor O'Malley is making state resources available to establish transit communities,'' said Congresswoman Donna F. Edwards. ''Encouraging economic development around our metro transit stations is smart growth that will preserve our environment and help build healthy communities where people can live, work, and play.''

As part of today's announcement, Governor O'Malley outlined the vision for development around the Naylor Road Metro Station. Prince George's County, along with local citizens and organizations, has developed a vision for a safe, vibrant and attractive community adjacent to the Metro station. It is a place where people will feel comfortable walking along Branch Avenue and Naylor Road to and from offices, stores, restaurants and the Metro Station. The County has also identified this station area as a place where they want to attract federal offices and jobs.

To make the community's vision happen, improvements must be made to Branch Avenue and Naylor Road to calm the traffic and make the area a safer and more attractive place to walk and bike. As a first step toward reaching this goal, Governor O'Malley announced the state's initial investment in the development around the Naylor Road Metro Station TOD will be $800,000 in funds for station planning and for constructing new sidewalks and developing traffic calming strategies for Branch Avenue and Naylor Road, adjacent to the station. The intent of the project is to develop a concept for a ''Complete Streets'' environment that supports and encourages all modes of transportation, including bicycling, walking and transit.   6/18/2010

Resource(s): www.mdot.maryland.gov/

Maryland Governor Signs Sustainable Communities Act of 2010

BALTIMORE (May 20, 2010) - Governor Martin O'Malley today signed House Bill 475, the Sustainable Communities Act of 2010. The legislation, a major addition to the Governor's Smart, Green and Growing program, provides $10 million for the Sustainable Communities Tax Credit. It replaces the former Maryland Heritage Structure Rehabilitation Tax Credit. Its primary objective is to support existing communities as desirable places to live and do business and to reduce outward pressure for sprawl development.

The tax credit joins other programs that have advanced the state's approach to Smart Growth during the past year, including creation of a Sustainable Communities commission, broadening the membership of the Governor's Smart Growth Subcabinet, securing the investment in local comprehensive plans and furthering the training of representatives on local planning and appeals boards.

''The investments we make in our existing communities, towns and cities today significantly influence economic prosperity and sustainability in those places tomorrow,'' Governor O'Malley said. ''The broad coalition of Maryland advocates and the lawmakers who supported and made the Sustainable Communities Act of 2010 happen have contributed greatly toward a sustainable and prosperous future for our state.''

The Governor had urged a revitalized, modern version of the Heritage Structure Rehabilitation Tax Credit, whose $347 million in state investment during the past 14 years had leveraged more than $1.5 billion in rehabilitation spending by property owners and developers. Coupled with wages, both in construction and new jobs, and State and local revenues generated, that equated to more than $8.50 in economic output for every $1 invested by State government. A report last year by the non-profit Abell Foundatio concluded that commercial projects over the life of the program have employed roughly 15,120 people, earning $673.1 million in 2009 dollars. The report stated further that the total economic impact of completed projects on the Maryland economy between 1996 and 2009 totaled $2.1 billion. The state's tax credit investment in labor-intensive building renovation generated 1,850 more jobs than would have been created had the same funds been used for new construction, the foundation reported.

''The purpose of the Sustainable Communities Tax Credit is to spark economic stability and neighborhood and town center revitalization in Maryland's existing communities,'' said Richard E. Hall, AICP, secretary of the Maryland Department of Planning. ''These communities will form the foundation for the future of smart, sustainable growth and development of our state.''

The new credit expands the existing program beyond historic building renovations to broader areas of revitalization, including properties in Main Street business districts and zones targeted for growth from Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) and the Base Realignment and Closure Act (BRAC).

The new program will also create a common geography for targeting revitalization resources. It will combine and streamline several existing revitalization strategies, including the Community Legacy and Neighborhood Business Development programs. They will be redesignated as Sustainable Communities and approved by the Governor's Smart Growth Subcabinet.

In a new initiative to spur growth in the designated areas, non-historic commercial rehabilitations can receive up to 10 percent of the total tax credit allocation. Individually, the credit for non-historic commercial projects is 10 percent of rehabilitation costs and 20 percent for projects that meet eligibility for historic rehabilitations. The tax credit, which had been due to expire on June 30, 2010, was for four years by the General Assembly.   5/20/2010

Resource(s): http://www.mdp.state.md.us/

Prince George's County Considering Mixed-Use Development Near Metro Station

Following three years of planning, the Prince George District Council has approved a plan for a mixed-use development project around the New Carrollton Metro Station. According to the Gazette, the New Carrollton Transit District Development Plan and Transit District Overlay Zone, a document created by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and calling for ''high-density, mixed-use residential and office space and improved pedestrian and bicycle linkage near the New Carrollton Metro and Route 450.''

''We look forward to working with all the key players - local, federal and state government as well as the private sector - to help that vision to come about in the next 20 to 25 years,'' said Park and Planning project manager William Washburn. ''We think the plan has potential to create a real downtown for Prince George's County.''   5/13/2010

Resource(s): www.gazette.net/

Maryland Launching Effort to Write Statewide Growth Plan

State officials in Maryland are launching a year-long effort to write a statewide growth plan with the intent of planning how Maryland can prevent sprawl while accommodating for an additional one million people over the next 20 years. According to this article in the Baltimore Sun, planners will be holding workshops throughout the state focusing on how to balance population and economic growth with environmental protection and quality of life.

''It's the first time the state has ever done anything like this,'' Richard Josephson, director of planning services said. State planners have had the authority to draw up a statewide development plan since the 1970s, he said, but have never acted on it. Local and state officials have debated at times over the state's role in guiding development. Officials make it clear that the state does not intend to usurp local government’s traditional role in land-use decisions--the aim is lay out shared goals and strategies for achieving them, such as making communities more walkable and increasing housing affordability.   3/8/2010

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

New Restrictions on Impervious Surface Runoff under Industry and Local Assault

Slated to go into effect on March 4, tougher development runoff rules to protect streams, rivers and the Chesapeake Bay face a backlash from builders and some local officials who believe the rules are likely to induce sprawl rather than smart growth.

Called for by the state’s Stormwater Management Act of 2007, writes Baltimore Sun reporter Timothy B. Wheeler, the rules require ''environmental site design'' for new development in order to minimize impervious surfaces and let soil and vegetation absorb most stormwater instead of collecting it in tanks for subsequent piping to local creeks. There are somewhat eased standards for redevelopment projects.

Opponents want the state to change or delay the rules. ''For redevelopment, it’s going to be so expensive that it’s a whole lot better to go (build in) a cornfield somewhere,'' argued Maryland State Builders Association lawyer Michael C. Powell at a crowded MDE meeting, attended also by lawmakers and gubernatorial aides. He and others asked that projects already in the pipeline be exempt and that the redevelopment definition be widened, as some some urban-type projects are now excluded.

''In my opinion, no growth is not Smart Growth,'' said Kensington Mayor Peter C. Fosselman, complaining that he and other local officials would have to rewrite local laws and conduct more reviews and inspections while they struggle to balance their budgets. Environmentalists countered the arguments, pointing out that development is responsible for about a forth of Chesapeake Bay pollution, and that some governments elsewhere, including Philadelphia, have enacted similar or even stronger rules to reduce impervious-surface runoff.

MDE Deputy Secretary Robert M. Summers said department staff is reviewing the rules and House Environmental Matters Committee Democratic Chair Maggie McIntosh felt the General Assembly would make sure the stormwater runoff measure has no unintended side effects. ''We do not want to make it prohibitive or too costly to do urban or infill development,'' she stressed. ''That will not provide smart growth. It will do just the opposite.''

In a letter to the Sun, an MDE meeting participant, South River Federation Executive Director Erik Michelsen, rebuked developers for willful misrepresentation of the runoff requirements. ''In almost every case study presented, developers claimed the new regulations would cut into the density of their development,'' he wrote. ''What they failed to acknowledge is that the new regulations have a flexibility that allows for off-site mitigation or for the developer to pay a ‘fee-in-lieu’ if stormwater management can’t reasonably be handled on the site. Density can still be achieved, smart growth can be preserved, but dollars will be passed to the local governments to assist with targeted restoration of degraded creeks and streams.''

See the 2007 law details at www.mde.state.md.us/Programs/WaterPrograms/SedimentandStormwater/swm2007.asp.   1/18/2010

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Baltimore Launches Free Bus Circulator Program

Baltimore has launched a bus circulator program though its downtown area that is completely free. The Charm City Circulator consists of 21 hybrid electric buses operating seven days a week connecting major landmarks like the Inner Harbor and John Hopkins University.

The system comes at a time when many municipalities are cutting or reducing free service in downtown areas. For example, Portland, Oregon, had to start charging on its Fareless Square system to save money, while Seattle has cut back on offering free rides downtown to only rush hour.

The Charm City Circulator is financed by a 16 percent tax on parking. The city hopes by offering free service, it will break down the psychological barrier of spending hard cash on transportation, even if mass-transit is the cheaper option. The project has had strong support from the business and political community in Baltimore.   1/18/2010

Resource(s): www.wired.com/

Montgomery County Planning Board Lifts Building Ban in Two Dense Urban Areas

Given the Montgomery County Council’s tentative approval last November of a $27.5-million allocation for additional classrooms in the crowded Bethesda and Germantown school zones, the County Planning Board unanimously lifted their six-month development moratorium, criticized by some for undercutting smart growth.

Required by county law when school enrollment reaches a tipping point, reports the Washington Post, the moratorium was seen by opponents as being at odds with the county’s image, efforts to attract businesses and jobs, and the push for dense development near Bethesda metro stations. Though moratorium results are unclear, because the recession stymied the construction industry and its permit applications on its own, incoming Bethesda-Chevy Chase Chamber of Commerce Chairman Patrick O’Neil blamed officials for ''a bad message'' anyway. ''It really was elevating by law one public policy over another, school capacity over smart growth and transit-oriented development,'' he said, now happy about their review of the school funding question and the end of the moratorium.

Still, County Board of Education President Patricia O’Neil cautioned that the issue is far from settled. ''We have submitted a robust capital improvement budget that meets the schools’ needs, not just the paper needs for the purpose of lifting the moratorium,'' she said about the requested $1.5 billion over six years. ''We can’t be playing games. We want it fully funded to take care of the children’s needs, not the developers’ needs.''   1/14/2010

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/

Online Smart Growth Course Required for Maryland Commissioners

An online course focusing on smart growth and planning is intended to help newly elected commissioners throughout the state gain a better understanding of smart growth and comprehensive planning, says the Cumberland Times-News. The education course is part of the Smart and Sustainable Growth Act of 2009, which lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to approve in March. The course is mandatory and can typically be completed in about 6 hours and is free for counties.

It is hoped that the course will help commissioners make better decisions about permitting development. Well-trained volunteer commissioners are seen as the front line in implementing smart growth principles on a local level. The course is not pass or fail but does allow for extensive review. In addition, the general public can access the complete course material at www.planning.maryland.gov.   1/3/2010

Resource(s): www.times-news.com/

Revitalized Maryland 'Green City' Could Create 1,000 Jobs

A Charles County, Maryland, developer’s plan for a ‘green city’ earned praise from Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley. The revitalization of St. Charles will serve as a model of a modern city while also creating some 1,000 jobs. According to this report in the Washington Post, plans announced by American Community Properties Trust call for revitalization of St. Charles, a planned community of 12,000 homes and 5 million square feet of commercial and retail space in Waldorf. By incorporating green design, the project will double St. Charles’s size while reducing its carbon footprint. The project “embodies the vital connection between our twin goals of a greener, healthier planet and a stronger, more vibrant and innovative economy,” said O'Malley, who has pledged to create and preserve 100,000 green jobs by 2015.   12/1/2009

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/

Edmonston, Maryland, Will Retrofit Street as ''Green'' Thoroughfare

The small Maryland community of Edmonston is 'greening' its main street, and at the same time serving as a role model regarding what actions Baltimore and other cities in the region could undertake to help save the Chesapeake Bay. According to this report in the Baltimore Sun, Edmonston’s $1.1 million revamp of its Decatur Street will narrow the two-lane road ''to make room for pollution-absorbing trees and grasses, a bike lane and energy-efficient, classic-looking street lamps to be run on wind power purchased from out of state.''

The town has endured flooding, and officials ''realized that much of the water inundating the town's streets came not from the river but from storm water washing off all the parking lots, streets and rooftops of all the communities that had built up in the area over the years.'' Using a federal economic stimulus grant, the street project will help remedy this runoff.   11/25/2009

Resource(s): http://www.baltimoresun.com/

Montgomery County Approves Fee Discount for Projects Near Metro Stations

To decrease car dependency and save this suburban metro area just north of Washington, D.C., from even worse road congestion as another 200,000 residents raise its population above a million within 20 years, the Montgomery County Council unanimously approved a 25-percent discount in traffic impact fees for high-density, mixed-use development near Capital Metro stations, provided that developers also use green construction methods, build bike paths and walkways, and add other amenities. Council President Phil Andrews told TV NewsChannel 8 there is space for residential towers since ''(t)he strip malls and surface parking areas would be redeveloped.''

At the same time, the proposed bus rapid transit, the Metrorail Bethesda-New Carrolton line and perhaps light rail in I-270’s 14-mile Corridor Cities Transitway between Shady Grove and Clarksburg would take more vehicles from roads, reports Washington Post writer Miranda S. Spivack, quoting Montgomery County Planning Board Chairman Royce Hanson. ''I think that is where ultimately things have to go,'' he commented, on the need for more transit and high-rises up to 300 feet. ''What is painful is to tell people that, yes, in a county of a million people, traffic is likely to be slower.''

Smart growth advocates welcome the county’s updated policy—reviewed every two years—as long overdue. Still, Silver Spring resident Bruce N. Shulman, a supporter of turning Wheaton, Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Silver Spring and other suburban localities ''into mini-cities with greater numbers of people,'' denies Montgomery officials credit for taking cars from the road. ''Over the past 10 years, whenever new housing has been erected in these areas, the first things that have been constructed are massive garages for residents’ automobiles,'' he writes in a letter to the Washington Post editor, commenting on the writer’s story.''Even Metro has gotten on board in Wheaton, with such a development over the station there. How this policy encourages people to use mass transit or move to areas where they will work and shop is beyond me.''   11/11/2009

Resource(s): www.news8.net/ ; www.washingtonpost.com/

Planning Director: Maryland Still Committed to Smart Growth

According to Maryland’s Planning Director Richard E. Hall, Maryland’s commitment to smart growth remains strong, despite a recent study that concludes the state’s smart growth policies enacted in 1997 haven’t been effective.

Hall says the state has revived land preservation programs, community development programs, and mass transit programs. He acknowledges that sprawl is a problem in the state but said officials are working to develop “a state growth plan to better align governmental policies and plans toward the objective of sustainable development.”

Hall’s statements were made in response to a recent Baltimore Sun article titled ''Smart Growth incentives fail to rein in suburban sprawl,'' which summarizes conclusions of the smart growth study conducted by the University of Maryland’s National Center for Smart Growth and Research and Education. The center was created by former governor Parris Glendening to promote her smart growth policies.

Read a related article here.   11/11/2009

Resource(s): http://www.baltimoresun.com/

Former Maryland Governor Clarifies Conclusions of Smart Growth Study

According to recent article in The Washington Post, smart growth policies enacted by former Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening more than a decade ago were “a flop.” This conclusion, says writer Lisa Rein, comes from a study by University of Maryland scholars who lead the institute founded by Glendening to promote the smart growth policy.” Those scholars, says the article, “found that…smart growth has not made a dent in Maryland’s war on sprawl” and that “there is no evidence after ten years that [smart growth laws] have had any effect on development patterns.”

Responding through a letter to the editor, Glendening clarifies by saying “What the study really found is that the policies I enacted as governor haven’t been enough…Maryland’s work is not done. Our laws and programs should be updated as we learn what works best. But the study doesn’t call the Maryland programs a ‘flop.’”

“Despite the need to improve and strengthen the policies, smart growth has done a great deal for Maryland,” Glendening adds, citing instances of efforts to revitalize downtown Easton, Hagerstown, Silver Spring, Hyattsville, and Baltimore; and the addition of “thousands of homes to transit-accessible neighborhoods.''

Glendening currently is president of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute.   11/8/2009

Resource(s): http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Report Examines Maryland’s Priority Funding Areas for Managing Growth

After more than 10 years of the state’s efforts to rein in sprawl through the nation’s first Priority Funding Areas (PFA) policy, enacted by then-Governor Paris N. Glendening in fall 1997 as part of the five-bill Smart Growth and Neighborhood Conservation Initiative, “it is clear that PFAs have not produced the intended effects,” write University of Maryland National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education (NCSGRE) Executive Director Gerrit-Jan Knaap, Researcher Rebecca Lewis and Seoul National University Geography Assistant Professor Jungyul Sohn in their seminal “Managing Growth with Priority Funding Areas: A Good Idea Whose Time Has Yet to Come” study in the Journal of the American Planning Association (JAPA), albeit noting that the data are incomplete and that it is hard to ascertain how the state would have fared had the policy not been adopted.

“We think the research is important because the state of Maryland, and its incentive approach to managing urban growth, has been hailed as a model for the rest of the nation,” said lead study author Director Knaap. “Before other states and local governments adopt similar approaches it is important to know both the strategies and limitations of that approach.”

The study, reports Washington Post writer Lisa Rein, attributes the PFA law’s ineffectiveness largely to its lack of teeth for ensuring local compliance and to insufficient builder incentives for redeveloping older urban neighborhoods. Finding three-quarters of single-family homes built on pastures and woodlands outside locally designated smart-growth areas between 1998 and 2006, a pattern little changed despite the 1997 law, the study puts the onus on the state for not prodding local governments to approve dense projects in these areas, for excepting at least 62 outlying projects, and for exempting toll-road corridors from smart-growth restrictions.

The state money earmarked in those nine years for projects within PFAs “is a relatively small portion of overall state budget appropriations, and consists mostly of spending on transportation projects,” averaging about 5 percent of the budget, or $1.1 billion per year, the study reveals, with the Department of Transportation, which distributed some 85 percent of it, investing 60 percent of its growth-related funds in specific PFA projects. In amount and percentage, this incentive money was obviously not enough, especially in a state with strong local decision-making habits.

“What makes incentives so politically attractive is that governments and individuals can choose to ignore them if they wish,” commented Director Knaap. “Unfortunately, in Maryland over the last decade, that’s exactly what many have been doing.” The law’s champion, former Governor Glendening, now Smart Growth Leadership Institute President, agreed that Maryland incentives are not strong enough. Still, “property rights are a heated issue,” he pointed out, doubtful “the political realities allow you to go to a (stronger) system.”

Indeed, the writer observes, neighbors of smart-growth projects “often oppose them as being too big or too dense,” while the state can’t stop developers if they pay for roads and sewer lines to their outer subdivisions. “We’re still paving over the state at a very, very disheartening rate,” said 1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins, concerned that if the state continues “to allow low-density sprawling development,” developers will be ignoring smart growth potential as complicated and costly and banking on its antithesis as lucrative.

The NCSGRE study drives home the same point. “Targeting state funds to promote compact growth is a conceptually sound approach to urban growth containment, as land is less likely to be developed if it is not served by public infrastructure,” the authors conclude. “But, as with other planning tools, the key is effective implementation. If states want to contain growth by targeting state spending, they must change budgeting processes to ensure that funds are spent appropriately and that the level of state spending is large enough to make a difference.” Link within text:

Read the study at www.informaworld.com/smpp/section??bios=true&content=a915602672&db=all&fulltext=713240928#b915602672.   11/2/2009

Resource(s): http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Montgomery County Planning Official Proposes Update of Growth Policy

''We really have an opportunity to build the kind of communities that serve both the creative class and the ordinary working people in the county and to create the kind of communities that are walkable, bikeable and transit-oriented, and eventually can actually have the effect of reducing congestion,'' said Montgomery County Planning Board Chairman Royce. Hanson, wishing fervently the solidly Democratic nine-member County Council would pass his proposed biennial smart-growth update of the Annual Growth Policy by the November 15 deadline, to make such development easier in strategic areas where residents could live near work and drive less.

With the county's population ever closer to a million, but land for development almost gone, reports Washington Post writer Miranda S. Spivack, Chairman Hanson would like to transform selected shopping centers near transit, in areas now hard to build in because of congestion, into mixed-use villages by offering developers discounts and dropping the usual road improvement requirements. ''Knowing that the population and tastes are changing in terms of what people want in living style,'' he explained, ''we think it makes a lot of sense to move from a system that has been historically based on what you can't do, based on capacity of mainly roads, to a system that focuses on what you ought to do and where you ought to do it.''

The council's Planning, Housing, and Economic Development Committee Chair Michael Knapp said the Planning Board ''is moving in the right direction'' though it's ''very challenging'' to propound the concept. ''I am not sure that people who already live in the county have come to the reality that the Planning Board has come, saying, 'Yes, we are an urban county,''' he told the writer, assuring alarmed residents from single-family-home neighborhoods that the county won't become Manhattan. Still, the public concerns weigh heavily on Council President Phil Andrews and County Democratic Executive Isiah Legget. ''For the foreseeable future, most people in Montgomery County will continue to drive,'' said the former, convinced that many residents see it as ''a critical measure'' of their quality of life.

Similarly, in a letter to the council, the executive wrote, ''The proposed 2009 Growth Policy includes assumptions and directions that I believe could significantly impair the quality of life in Montgomery County.'' On the other hand, Silver Spring-based Action Committee for Transit (ACT) President Ben Ross thought the Planning Board was just ''tinkering'' rather than going farther, and Council Vice President Roger Berliner sought to bridge the gap on the always progressive council. Since constituents ''feel threatened by this county's embrace of smart growth and new urbanism,'' because they are ''fed by a belief'' that their suburban lifestyle is neither respected nor viewed as deserving respect, he said, Chairman Hanson should make it clear that his proposals would help replicate Bethesda and Silver Spring successes, without affecting the thousands of single-family houses throughout the county. Indeed, the writer notes, the chairman said his focus is on areas such as White Flint and a future ''science city'' west of I-270, modeled after Palo Alto, California, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Surprised that some would attribute their quality of life to long commutes, his top aide Rollin Stanley stressed, ''We should give people other options.''

See also www.montgomerycountymd.gov and www.actfortransit.org.   10/25/2009

Resource(s): http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Smart Growth Project Could Be a Boon for Howard County, Maryland

Backed by smart-growth and economic experts in video messages, reports Columbia Flier writer Sarah Breitenbach, Dallas, Texas-based General Growth Properties (GGP) Vice President Greg Hamm told the Howard County Council that his company’s 30-year plan for stagnant downtown Columbia, the 1960s-era’s ten-village model of urban renewal, would revive the community with 5,500 housing units, 5 million square feet of offices, 1.25 million square feet of retail, and local infrastructure upgrades, making it a magnet for the young.

“We’re lacking a place that’s attractive to young people who wish to make their careers, build their careers in and around Columbia,” he said. “I think it’s essential, not only to Columbia, but to Howard County to make sure that demographic has a home for us to be competitive in the work force.”

At a related meeting a day later, Howard County Economic Development Authority (HCEDA) CEO Richard Story estimated the smart-growth plan’s tax benefits for the state and the county at a total of more than $300 million a year. Over the next 30 years, he said, the GGP plan could generate some $4.8 billion for the county, while creating 30,000 jobs, with another $5.7 million in its annual income tax revenue. Some at the meeting, reports Baltimore Sun writer Don Marcus, feared such a dense development would increase road congestion and strain public services, while others noted that GGP is in bankruptcy protection and questioned whether it would be able to pursue the projects.

The GGP vice president pointed out that the development would be phased in during three decades, promising to make roads more pedestrian-friendly, help improve bus service and perhaps bring light rail downtown, and contribute $5 million to affordable housing.   10/14/2009

Resource(s): http://www.explorehoward.com/ ; http://www.baltimoresun.com/

Maryland Schools Are ''Going Green Big-Time''

Aimed at profound attitudinal and behavioral changes, this century's conservation-focused and climate-minded environmentalism looks to engage education, make schools a model of frugal land and energy use, and shape the character of new generations for their own good, with Maryland schools ''going green big-time,'' writes Baltimore Sun reporter Timothy B. Wheeler, a move led by Montgomery County, which has built or rebuilt four schools to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold standard since 2006, and now joined by St. Mary's County, which has opened its new 600-student Evergreen Elementary in a designated growth area and also seeks the LEED gold.

''This is more than just a school. It's a full immersion in the energy conservation issues (students) are going to experience as adults,'' said county School Superintendent Michael Martirano. ''We've added all of the most recent energy-efficient items that could possibly go into it, from the positioning of the building on the site to exposure to sunlight.''

Built on part of a 54-acre woodsy tract, most of which will remain untouched to preclude impact on adjacent wetlands and their species, the reporter notes, the $20-million, two-story brick school in the Wildewood subdivision of the county's California area, at the Patuxent River outflow into the Chesapeake Bay, will capture 90 percent of rainfall and require 20 percent less electric power.

Its green features include diversified vegetation -- on the entrance canopy, flat parts of the roof and walkout patio of the science laboratory -- to absorb some rain and minimize runoff, with two large ground cisterns storing most rainwater for use in bathrooms.

An energy-efficient geothermal heating and cooling system is augmented by white coating on other flat sections of the roof, to reflect sun heat and cut on seasonal air conditioning, while its sloped segment hosts a bank of photovoltaic cells and a small wind turbine, both also serving as teaching tools.

High clerestory windows ensure ample natural light for the cafeteria, gymnasium and second-story classrooms, while ''light tubes'' from the roof let the sun light some first-floor classes.

''But in a planning breakdown that's all too typical in siting new schools in the suburbs, there's no sidewalk along the parkway that connects the school to the neighboring houses -- though there are marked bicycle lanes,'' the reporter writes, a ''glitch'' that ''doesn't seem to faze the students, faculty or staff.''

Noting that St. Mary's County officials thought Evergreen's features would raise its cost by $1.5 million, but ultimately found it $1.3 million under budget, and now consider it a model for their future schools, the reporter adds that effective this year, a state law requires all new schools built with state funds to qualify for the LEED silver rating, a minimum already exceeded by Montgomery and St. Mary's counties.

''It's easy being green. It's not an add-on, not a concept. It's a way of thinking, of acting,'' concluded Superintendent Martirano. ''At the end of the day, for all of us, it's about changing behavior for our kids.'' -- Baltimore Sun   9/7/2009

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Debate Heats Up Over I-270 Expansion Plans

''It's never too early to smother a really, really bad transportation project,'' points out Baltimore Sun reporter Michael Dresser as a debate heats up over $4.6-billion plans to widen a 31-mile I-270 stretch through Montgomery and Frederick counties despite a less costly and more farsighted option that includes the so-called Corridor Cities Transitway (CCT), with the Montgomery County Council ready for a September vote on the highway expansion project, and the reporter additionally alarmed by its recently calculated displacement of 251 households.

That's ''just one more reason to raise questions about the most expensive transportation project in Maryland history,'' he observes, glad that officials ''are beginning to hear from regular folks who are concerned about this boondoggle.''

Since such ''a mighty project deserves a mighty name,'' the reporter suggests ''Maryland Sprawlway,'' noting that its ''bads'' seem endless.

''It's bad for Smart Growth,'' he writes, ''bad for the 268.6 acres of trees it would obliterate, bad for Baltimore, bad for Prince George's County, bad for much of Montgomery County, bad for people in Frederick County who don't want it to be the next Montgomery County, bad for the rational distribution of growth in our state, bad for Maryland toll facility customers if they aren't vigilant, bad for the state's transit future, bad for highway projects in other corners of the state and bad for the poor slobs whose homes lie in its path.''

Suggesting a multi-jurisdictional ''loving intervention to help Montgomery County get the asphalt monkey off its back,'' he stresses: ''Let's let the Montgomery Council (240-777-7900) know we're happy to help them with well-thought-out transit projects because we have similar needs here in Baltimore and a common interest in a healthy (Chesapeake) bay. Kindly explain that friends don't let friends blow $4.6 billion on an exercise in futility.''

For ideas on rail-based I-270 traffic flow improvements and for details on the area's other road and transit projects, the reporter directs readers to Action Committee for Transit President Ben Ross' proposals and the group's findings at www.actfortransit.org. -- Baltimore Sun   8/24/2009

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Gov. O'Malley Endorses Metro D.C., Baltimore Light-Rail Projects

With road gridlock and public frustration increasing for years across the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. metro suburbs, Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley committed the state to two light-rail projects at once -- a 14.5-mile Red Line from Woodlawn east under central Baltimore to its Canton area and the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center; and a 16-mile Purple Line from Bethesda east around northern D.C. to the New Carrollton transit hub -- both alignments opposed in some neighborhoods, but backed by almost everybody else, including Baltimore Sun and Washington Post editors, and former two-term Governor Parris N. Glendening, Smart Growth Leadership Institute President. Calling the push for both projects, estimated to cost roughly $1.6 billion each, ''exactly the right decision,'' reports Gaithersburg Gazette writer Daniel Valentine, the former governor advised Governor O'Malley to be optimistic about federal aid.

''This national administration is committed to transit. I think you'll be seeing a significant shift (in federal funding) from roads to transit,'' he said. ''There's been thinking for years that you can only do one of these lines at a time. But we've never done that for roads.''

The federal government, the writer notes, has already authorized $4 million apiece for each line's preliminary engineering and environmental analysis in the upcoming fiscal year, which begins October 1, while the state budgeted their planning throughout 2014.

''I don't believe we have any choice but to push for both,'' said state Acting Transportation Secretary Beverley K. Swaim-Staley. ''We have to be proactive. Each of these projects is vital to their region.''

Chosen by Governor O'Malley over several rapid bus options, reports Baltimore Sun writer Michael Dresser, the light-rail Red Line (Alternative 4C) will run almost 3 miles in a two-track tunnel under downtown, Inner Harbor East, and Fells Point and another mile on one track under the Cooks Lane section, a savings measure necessitated under federal cost-benefit guidelines.

The opposition comes mostly from residential streets along its surface segments, even if the electric rail cars would be quiet and low to the ground.

The Purple Line through the northern D.C. suburbs, its alignment described by Governor O'Malley as ''the product of a consensus through disagreement,'' report Washington Post writers Lisa Rein and James Hohmann, would be ''the first major east-west transit route to directly connect Maryland spokes of the Metrorail system,'' without carrying passengers back and forth under central D.C.

Operated by the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA), the line would link dense neighborhoods with surface tracks, since underground construction would be too disruptive and more costly.

If the federal government ensures its expected 50-percent share of the cost for both lines, construction could begin by 2013 and service start by 2016.

Calling light rail ''the future of Baltimore transit,'' Governor O'Malley wrote in The Baltimore Sun that state, city and county officials ''are working closely with our Congressional delegation and the Obama administration because we think this project meets multiple goals in evolving federal policies and funding sources that support a green, energy-independent nation.'' -- Baltimore Sun, Washington Post, Gaithersburg Gazette   8/13/2009

Resource(s): www.gazette.net/ ; www.baltimoresun.com/

Editorials Applaud ''Sensible'' Plans for Maryland Light Rail Projects

Welcoming Governor Martin O'Malley's endorsement of light rail for the 14.5-mile Red Line from the west of Baltimore to its east and for the 16-mile west-east Purple Line through dense suburbs just north of Washington, D.C., both The Baltimore Sun and The Washington Post applaud his choice as ''the most sensible'' options for these crowded corridors -- a Sun editorial convinced light rail ''is likely to attract the most riders, operate the fastest and produce the biggest boost for the city's economy; and a Post editorial sure light rail will run ''from Bethesda to New Carrollton in just under an hour, including stops at 21 street-level platforms.''

In response to some Baltimore residents, who ''unfairly'' view tracks on their streets ''as a monstrous development on a par with the urban interstate plans of a generation ago,'' the Sun editorial says, ''That has not been the case in other cities and it need not be here.''

What's more, area Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings noted that the Red Line cannot displace any city or county resident, the editorial observes, considering it ''an extraordinary achievement for so large a construction project'' and urging the governor to focus now on its funding.

''Not everyone is bound to be pleased by the prospect of trains running in front of their homes. But the need for greater transit options is clear enough,'' the Sun editorial concludes. ''Baltimore traffic congestion can't be relieved by building more roads, adding more cars and burning more imported oil. Neither the nation's economy and security nor the world's environment can tolerate it.''

Equally upbeat about its area's Purple Line light rail ''that would connect Bethesda, Silver Spring, Takoma Park, the University of Maryland's College Park campus, Langley Park and Adelphi, as well as Metro's Orange, Red and Green lines,'' the Washington Post editorial seconds the Sun's call for state efforts to secure construction funds.

''Federal money plays a large part in funding most new transit projects. And there is reason to think Washington's commitment to mass transit should and will grow in the coming years, given the heightened national focus on environmental sustainability, climate change, the price of gasoline and the cost of sprawl associated with commuting by car,'' the editorial says, but it also tells state lawmakers to ''think hard about possible sources of money to supplement aid from the feds.''

Noting that the long-proposed 23-mile extension of the Metrorail Orange Line from East Falls Church west to Dulles International Airport and Loudoun County, Virginia got $900,000 this March, or just 17 percent of its $5.2 billion cost, the editorial suggests Maryland state and local leaders should look at the tax surcharge their Virginia counterparts levied ''on commercial land owners and developers'' seen to gain from the Dulles corridor line.

Perhaps a portion of Maryland's cost of the Purple Line, ''which is likely to spur redevelopment along its route, could be borne by businesses and developers,'' too, the editorial adds, stressing, ''Better to hedge the funding than rely exclusively on federal largess.'' -- Baltimore Sun, Washington Post   8/5/2009

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/ ; www.washingtonpost.com/

I-270 Expansion Plans Criticized for Cost, Lack of Transit Elements

Just north of Washington, D.C., Montgomery County has used Transferable Development Rights to save farmland since 1980, turned many Metro station areas into dense pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods, and otherwise solidified its progressive credentials, but hasn't avoided occasional traps of ''incredibly damaging and outdated'' project proposals as it strives to absorb growth and ease congestion, observes Streetsblog Capital Hill contributor Ryan Avent, citing the recurrent debate over state plans to widen I-270 again and perhaps one day relieve its worst segment through a roughly parallel Corridor Cities Transitway, with light rail or bus rapid transit.

Repeatedly widened and 12 lanes wide on some stretches between the Capital Beltway and Rockville, about 15 miles from downtown Washington, I-270 may get several additional lanes, some with tolls, along another 31 miles to the northwest, at a projected cost of around $4 billion, a price for which the county could have an extension of a state commuter rail system, new Metro stations and the envisioned 14-mile Corridor Cities Transitway, with the cost for the light-rail line estimated at under $778 million, and for bus rapid transit at $450 million.

The writer shares the public ''outrage,'' signaled by The Baltimore Sun and The Washington Post, over the road-widening price and the lack of an adequate transit solution, as well as hope in the legislative skepticism about the expansion project.

Transportation planning and land use are connected, but ''many citizens and planning officials still fail to consider that connection,'' he writes, pointing out that transit expansion would bring in development and more residents, but the growth would be focused ''around transit nodes,'' with centrally located transit stations helping the areas and ''encouraging infill and density,'' while more lane pavement, ''by contrast, means that no particular location is advantaged by new transportation capacity; one suburban spot ten miles away from the freeway is as good as another.''

A recent Baltimore Sun editorial also stressed that the state ''should relieve I-270 congestion with more mass transit options,'' with Washington Post writer Katherine Shaver reporting a week earlier that the Montgomery County chapter of the Sierra Club criticized the state plans in a letter to the Montgomery County Council, which was to decide whether to support or oppose the plans, but postponed the vote until September.

The Sierra Club letter said, ''The plans for widening I-270 reflect a business-as-usual philosophy, a throwback to a 1950s 'roads first' approach rather than a forward looking one that emphasizes transit and smart growth.''

With the time for public input expiring July 31, the Streetsblog Capitol Hill contributor elaborates on this approach and on a task for its opponents.

''In part, this is due to the signal that Washington has sent for decades -- build highways. Developers know how to work around them and the feds will give you plenty of money,'' he concludes. ''Until that is no longer the default position, the burden will be on smart growth advocates to explain, in each case, why what's proposed won't work.''

More on the I-270 plans at www.i270multimodalstudy.com. -- Streetsblog Capital Hill, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post   7/30/2009

Resource(s): http://dc.streetsblog.org/ ; www.baltimoresun.com/

Terrapin Run Project Backers File Suit Against Maryland Agencies

Initially proposed in 2005 with up to 4,300 residential units, the Terrapin Run project on 935 acres near Green Ridge State Forest in Allegany County ''has been a lightning rod for debate over the state's Smart Growth policies,'' writes Baltimore Sun reporter Timothy B. Wheeler, and after the state Court of Appeals last year upheld the county's decision to grant the developer a special exception from its long-term development plan but the state still saw no reason to allow inclusion of the project in a local water and sewer plan, Terrapin Run LLC and county commissioners have now gone to court again, seeking $16 million in damages and an order for project approval, respectively.

With the project's scope now limited to 360 units in the first 10 years and a total of about 900 in the first 20 years, notes Cumberland Times-News reporter Kevin Spradlin, the plaintiffs sued the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) and the Maryland Department of Planning (MDP), along with their Secretaries Shari Wilson and Richard Hall as individual defendants, in Allegany Circuit Court.

Terrapin Run LLC argues it ''has suffered loss of all development rights and rights of use of property,'' calling it tantamount to a ''taking of its property.''

The Board of Allegany County Commissioners claims MDE ''has abused the powers vested in it'' and followed ''erroneous, arbitrary and capricious'' MDP advice, the remedy for which should be approval of the county's water and sewer plan.

The board also wants the court to declare an MDE requirement for a related anti-degradation creek study ''unauthorized, unlawful and unconstitutional.''

DEP Secretary Hall told the Baltimore Sun reporter, ''We're sticking to our guns on this.''

He pointed out that the state rejected the county request for its water and sewer plan approval in late 2007, which was before the Court of Appeals ruling, and that a new state law, sought by Governor Martin O'Malley, passed by General Assembly, and effective since July 1, requires local development decisions to be consistent with community growth plans, a requirement that reverses the ruling in question. -- Baltimore Sun, Times-News   7/2/2009

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/ ; www.times-news.com/

Former Gov. Glendening Addresses Maryland Municipal League

''Economic competitiveness, energy sustainability, climate change, are the issues rising to the top of the concerns of this country today, and all can -- in fact, all must -- be addressed at least in part through Smart Growth,'' said Smart Growth Leadership Institute President Parris N. Glendening at the Maryland Municipal League's conference in Ocean City, pleased to feel a different ''sense of urgency'' about smart-growth policies he championed as a two-term Maryland governor until mid-January 2003 and to see the movement now at its due place in political culture.

''The cutting edge of anything is an uncomfortable place to be, and I'm sure those of you who lived through the first decade of Smart Growth can attest to that,'' he observed, recalling the time when the only politician alarmed by environmental risks was Vice President Al Gore and gas prices hovered at $1.10 a gallon.

A professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland for 27 years, who combined teaching with public service first as a Hyattsville City councilman, then Prince George's County councilman and finally the county's three-term executive before taking the state helm in 1995, reports Salisbury Daily Times writer Brian Shane, Governor Glendening initiated Smart Growth legislatively ''as a broad urban planning'' program to help curb urban sprawl, create more green space, alleviate traffic, improve public transit, and address other development issues.

Now, the challenges have become even more complex and more than half of the states have worked out their own versions of Smart Growth, often ''doing better'' than Maryland initially did, Governor Glendening said, mentioning California and Delaware.

And with higher sea levels, global warming, volatile gas prices and a troubled housing market, ''the need for aggressive action is urgent'' and ''all roads lead to Smart Growth,'' he told the audience, advising a holistic view of the challenges.

''No matter how many light bulbs we change, no matter how many hybrid cars we put on the road, we cannot significantly reduce energy use and carbon emissions without changing development patterns,'' he stressed. ''We can make a building as efficient as we need it to be, but if we still have to drive 40 miles to get there, we're missing the larger point.'' -- Daily Times   7/2/2009

Resource(s): www.delmarvanow.com/

''Smart Sites'' Focus Investments in Maryland Neighborhoods and Communities

''Focusing investment in Maryland's great neighborhoods and existing communities is critical to achieving smarter growth,'' said Governor Martin O'Malley at a public event in Cambridge, Hartford County, announcing 15 Smart Site designations statewide, along with state funds for the city's Smart Site project -- the Green Workforce Housing Initiative, which will showcase green practices both in rehabilitating and making homes of low-to-moderate income residents more energy efficient and in construction of additional affordable dwellings.

''Even in difficult economic times, and perhaps most especially,'' the governor stressed, ''it is important that we and our local partners focus on the best projects that can revitalize business districts, enhance transit hubs and encourage private investment in those communities that need it the most.''

The Smart Sites program, says a state press release, is part of ''the O'Malley-Brown Administration's Smart, Green, and Growing initiative which aims to create a more sustainable future for Maryland by involving every citizen in reducing our carbon footprint, preserving our most valuable resource lands and restoring the health of the Chesapeake Bay.''

The designation of a Smart Site in Cambridge reflects its residents' commitment to improvements throughout the city, said Cambridge Mayor Victoria Jackson-Stanley, echoing the governor's statement.

''Focusing investment in these areas, particularly with an ecologically friendly approach to development, truly illustrates the value of good working relationships on the local, county and state levels.''

Read more on Maryland's Smart Sites at www.green.maryland.gov/smartsites.html. -- Maryland Office of the Governor   6/28/2009

Resource(s): www.maryland.gov/

Montgomery County Planners Recommend Incentives for Infill Projects

''There is no room left for large single-family home tracts, nor is the market for such growth the same as it was just two years ago,'' state Montgomery County planners in their 2009-2011 Growth Policy draft, recommending incentives for dense infill projects within a half-mile of transit stations or 10 basic services -- such as groceries and libraries -- to accommodate 195,000 more residents by 2030, writes Washington Business Journal reporter Sarah Krouse, finding reaction split along ''the traditional fault lines'' as the county Planning Board began consideration of the policy, which would go into effect in July 2010.

''Big developers and smart growthers love it. Single-family home builders and suburbanites are not so sure,'' she observes, a difference expected by Planning Board Chairman Royce Hanson.

''Developers will generally like the idea of increasing densities around transit, but there are members of that industry that don't develop in those kinds of areas and they will be less enthusiastic,'' he said ahead of a public hearing scheduled for June 22.

With only 4 percent of land zoned for development left, county planners point to successful smart growth implementation in Silver Spring and Bethesda, envisioning 80 percent of housing built over the next 20 years as multifamily units, which use about 40 percent less energy than single-family houses.

Under the new policy, the reporter notes, all new residential projects would reach at least 75 percent of maximum zoning density, provide a minimum of half of the floor space for residential use, include affordable and work force units, and meet higher energy efficiency standards both for construction and renovation.

The incentives for infill near transit and services would help reduce car dependency and foster walking, with the proposed increase in residential high-rise units expected to alleviate road traffic further.

The county, the reporter adds, released the new policy draft the day the Planning Board announced it wouldn't approve new subdivisions in Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Clarksburg, and Seneca Valley, because projections of 2014 school enrollment show it would exceed the 120 percent classroom capacity cap set by county law. -- Washington Business Journal   6/12/2009

Resource(s): http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/

Worcester County Code Update Would Allow More Waterfront Development

In Worcester County, the state's only one along the Atlantic Ocean, ''up-zoning arrives in disguise,'' with a single public hearing set for June 2 and county commissioners poised to approve new regulations as warranted by the 2006 Comprehensive Plan for the next 20 years, although the proposed code, writes Assateague Costal Trust Board of Directors member Ken MacMullin in a Salisbury Daily Times guest column, increases safeguards for just 1,450 acres, but opens about 6,340 acres in oceanic bay areas to more intense residential or commercial development.

Residents between Berlin and coastal Route 611 will now find this farmland and forested wetlands area of the Herring, Ayers and Trappe creek headwaters ''up-zoned to the new A-2 District,'' which permits marine yards, commercial marinas, storage facilities, racetracks, and prisons.

A-2 zoning has benefits when properly applied, since it takes racetracks, golf courses or campground ''out of the more pure A-1 agricultural zones,'' but it's detrimental to rural neighborhoods east of Berlin, to the flood-prone Route 611 corridor, and to already impaired waterways such as Newport Bay, which hardly needs more polluted runoff from new roads, streets, rooftops and lawns.

''If you can keep your eyes open long enough to really get into the language of the new zoning code,'' he writes, ''you'll find yourself asking questions like: 'If the Resource Protection (RP) zone is supposed to be more restrictive than the A-1 agricultural zone, why are country clubs, golf courses, marinas and public swimming pools allowed in the RP zone?' Or: 'Why is a smart growth concept like Conservation Subdivision Design mentioned in the code, but not required?'''

Urging residents to review the new zoning maps and read parts of the code, the concerned writer offers them the documents at the Assateague Coastal Trust online site www.ActForBays.org. -- Daily Times   5/12/2009

Resource(s): www.delmarvanow.com/

Legislators Weaken Maryland Smart Growth Bill

Made stronger in the state House just a week earlier and approved by a 95-42 vote, the amended O'Malley administration bill (HB295) that would have required local governments to locate 80 percent of development in designated growth areas or risk other project denial, writes Baltimore Sun reporter Tim Wheeler, lost its ''lone tooth'' in negotiations between state and Maryland Association of Counties (MACo) officials and passed the Senate as SB276 on a 45-2 vote, now requiring localities to ''set goals for curbing sprawl,'' but specifying neither targets nor consequences for failure.

In language ''only slightly more specific than the original O'Malley administration bill,'' he observes, ''the de-fanged Senate version'' simply requires counties and municipalities to report each year on their growth locations and types, with the Maryland Department of Planning (MDP), in consultation with the University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education relaying the results to the governor.

1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins told the Sun reporter that county officials had opposed even the original bill as demanding too much too fast, and disliked the tougher House version still more.

''It is a disappointment, but I think we knew all along that this wasn't a one-year effort,'' she said about removal of the House amendment in the Senate and about her and other conservationists' lobbying efforts. ''We are in desperate need of more efficient growth patterns in this state, and we need to look ahead to how we're going to get them.'' -- Baltimore Sun   4/7/2009

Resource(s): http://baltimoresun.com/

Legislators Rise to Challenge, Add ''Tooth'' to Maryland Smart Growth Bill

Receptive to arguments that in the face of mounting environmental and fiscal treats the state needs to strengthen its 1997 Smart Growth laws more and faster than Governor Martin O'Malley thought politically viable, the House voted 95-42 to do just that in the administration's House Bill 295 (HB295), which originally required local officials only to track and report growth data, but now also requires them to heed the ''statewide land use goal'' of locating 80 percent of residential growth within priority funding areas or set ''a percentage goal for incremental progress'' in that direction by 2012 and every three years thereafter if they want to get related state funds and avoid Department of Environment permit denial for projects in rural areas.

''The bill is smart, fair and flexible. Only if a county makes no progress toward goals can sanctions be applied,'' said 1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins, with Chesapeake Bay Foundation Maryland Director Kim Coble stressing, ''This bill gives us a means to make actual progress.''

Prior to amendment, observes Baltimore Sun environmental reporter Timothy Wheeler, the bill had little local support; now it upsets county officials even more, while an exemption for municipalities mollifies their leaders.

Without a clue from the Senate about whether the bill's ''tooth will stay or get yanked,'' the reporter asks, ''Will the O'Malley administration fight for a bill that developed an unintended bite?''

Its new language also authorizes the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education at the University of Maryland, College Park to collect specific local data in seven categories.

They are: housing choices, including affordability; the impact of growth on the environment, including land, air, and water; the fiscal cost of growth; the job and housing balance; the impact of transportation on growth; the impact of growth on business, including job creation, fiscal impact, agribusiness, tourism, and forestry; and the impact of growth on cultural and historic resources.

In consultation with the state Department of Planning, the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education will be posting the data on its Smart Growth Measures and Indicators website.

See the ''tooth'' amendment at http://mlis.state.md.us/2009rs/billfile/HB0295.htm . -- Baltimore Sun   3/30/2009

Resource(s): http://baltimoresun.com/

More Specifics Sought in Maryland Smart Growth Bills

''Visions are great; let's update them, but they're not going to mean anything unless we back them up with other actions,'' said 1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins at a recent state Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee hearing on Governor Martin O'Malley's legislative Smart Growth advancement package, wishing some of its bills were stronger, more like Senate Bill (SB) 878, which would tie state development funds and permits to local smart-growth policies.

The bill most discussed at the committee hearing, SB 276, would bring the state the additional data it needs to ''gauge how effective its planning process is,'' reports Baltimore Daily Record business writer Andy Rosen, quoting Republican Senator Richard F. Colburn, who wanted details on data collection, because now it seems to him ''a case of making the law through the regulatory process'' due to a lack of specific indicators.

SB 273, which would include housing, economic development, and sustainability issues in the state planning process, faced little opposition, the writer notes, with SB 280, which would require local governments to abide strictly by their land use plans, also eliciting few objections.

Drafted in response to last year's state Court of Appeals 4-3 ruling that Allegany County can divert from its comprehensive plan and allow a proposed 4,300-home Terrapin Run development on 935 rural acres along the Green Ridge State Forest, SB 280 is a ''critical fix,'' said Maryland Planning Secretary Richard E. Hall, stressing, ''It's the wrong time to weaken the status of these plans.''

Another key provision in the governor's package, the writer observes, is a proposal ''to extend the Maryland Heritage Structure Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program,'' which can pay up to 20 percent of historic building renovation costs. -- Daily Record   2/25/2009

Resource(s): www.mddailyrecord.com/

Performance Standards Bill Would Tie State Funds to Better Local Development Planning

''It's time to hold our public officials accountable for decisions about development,'' said 1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins of Governor Martin O'Malley's legislative proposal to make local governments keep track of various growth indicators, telling Baltimore Sun reporter Tim Wheeler that smart-growth and environmental groups are readying their own bill that would set ''performance standards'' for local development planning and tie distribution of state funds for counties and municipalities to their compliance with those standards.

The groups simply want to ''complete'' the governor's ideas from his several imminent land-use and development bills, she explained, with Natural Resources Defense Council's Smart Growth Program Director Kaid Benfield commending them last month as ''a start, and perhaps an important one,'' but calling for much more.

''Of course,'' the reporter observes, ''greens and growth activists will have to contend with some significant pushback from the Maryland Association of Counties and Maryland Municipal League, who are already antsy about the governor's proposal to make them even collect and report data on development trends -- never mind being held accountable for it by losing out in the jockeying for limited state funding. Administration officials, for their part, say the information by itself will lead to better decision making.'' -- Baltimore Sun   2/4/2009

Resource(s): http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com ; www.nrdc.org/

Editorial: Gov. O'Malley Needs to Emphasize Land Use Planning

Two years in office, Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley ''may have established his green credentials, but on the vital issue of land use planning, his proposals fall short of his goals,'' says a Baltimore Sun editorial after his 2009 State of the State speech, expecting Maryland ''to do a better job of gathering data, updating 'visions' for its Smart Growth program and making sure local comprehensive plans are relevant in legal proceedings -- all of which the governor has proposed,'' but which also needs enforcement.

The daily credits Governor O'Malley for his ''decision to fully fund Program Open Space next year,'' and for his ''effort to reduce greenhouse gases.''

It notes that in contrast to Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who treated the open space money as a ''kind of overdraft protection'' for the general fund, Governor O'Malley kept it untouched, which has let the state protect nearly 21,000 acres since he took office, over five times more than in his predecessor's first two years.

The daily also notes that it opposed the governor's greenhouse gas cut proposal last year, uncertain of the impact on manufacturing jobs, but that issue has now been addressed and upon legislative approval, ''Maryland will set some of the most ambitious climate change goals in the nation.''

Having acknowledged progress in these areas, the Sun is restating its land use concern.

Although the governor called the Chesapeake Bay the ''natural soul of our state'' and worried about the effect of development on the bay's health, ''his proposals aren't likely to reverse local governments' continued failure to prevent sprawl and direct growth toward urban centers.''

To make that happen, the Smart Growth program needs strict local accountability, even if such an approach wouldn't make the governor more popular at Maryland Association of Counties meetings, the Sun points out, concluding, ''Taxpayer dollars are too precious to waste on accommodating development that destroys wetlands, endangers threatened species or otherwise degrades our air, land and water.'' -- Baltimore Sun   2/2/2009

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Gov. O'Malley Working to ''Make Smart Growth Smarter'' for Maryland

Governor Martin O'Malley's administration is already working very hard to ''make Smart Growth smarter,'' writes Maryland Department of Planning (MPD) Secretary Richard Hall to the Baltimore Sun editor in response to a recent op-ed column by former Charles County planning director Jaquelyn Magness Seneschal and former MPD local assistance director James Noonan, who argued for strengthening the program with more infrastructure investment in urban areas, as certain to increase their attractiveness and contain sprawl better than does land acquisition.

''Protecting areas we don't want to grow from sprawl development and creating compact, attractive development in areas we do want to grow'' are two sides of the same coin and it's a mistake to view them separately, he observes, stressing that ''spending more public money on infrastructure alone will not address our Smart Growth challenges.''

The O'Malley administration ''is targeting existing resources to more strategically protect rural lands and focusing the state's multiple redevelopment and revitalization programs to achieve the greatest impact,'' he writes, citing last year's creation of Military Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) zones as an example.

''This unique program will channel BRAC-related growth to Smart Growth communities through redevelopment and revitalization incentives,'' Secretary Hall points out, seeing it as ''the yin and yang of Smart Growth'' and the quintessence of ''a balanced approach.'' -- Baltimore Sun   1/13/2009

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Six Sustainability Bills Proposed by Gov. O'Malley for Maryland's 2009 Legislative Session

Pressed by conservationists to stop sprawl and equally keen himself to recharge the state's 1997 Smart Growth program, but heedful of deeply ingrained local concerns over land-use control, Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley drew on recommendations from its Task Force on Future Growth and Development in his six sustainability bills proposed for the just opened 2009 legislative session, saying at a news conference that it's time to really ensure cleaner water and better growth.

''Our Smart, Green and Growing legislative agenda is focused on protecting Maryland's precious, yet limited, land resources in every region of the state,'' he said, flanked by Planning Secretary Richard E. Hall and Task Force Chair Jon Laria, ''so that our families and children will someday be able to share these natural treasures with their own kids in the same way that our parents and grandparents shared them with us.''

The first of the bills aims to strengthen local comprehensive plans by overturning a Court of Appeals decision last March to uphold Allegany County approval of the controversial 4,300-unit Terrapin Run project on 985 countryside acres along Green Ridge State Forest, despite its clear departure from the county plan.

The other bills, say a press release, would modernize and expand the state's 12 planning visions to include and promote economic development, housing, public participation and other growth priorities; track development data with Smart Growth Measures, or Markers, and provide the information to local, regional and state planners; reauthorize, ''green,'' and enhance the Maryland Heritage Structure Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program; broaden public revenue sources for Tax Increment Financing (TIF) in Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) projects; and provide regulatory authority to create Aquaculture Enterprise Zones, while revising shellfish lease terms and streamlining the aquaculture business approval process.

''These legislative initiatives represent responsible steps the O'Malley-Brown administration can take toward a sustainable future,'' said Secretary Hall, with Task Force Chair Laria noting that ''expected population growth promises increased pressure on farmlands, forests, and waterways, including our precious Chesapeake Bay, and the window of opportunity to confront and solve these challenges is shrinking.''

After an earlier briefing for local officials, reports Baltimore Sun writer Timothy B. Wheeler, Secretary Hall told him that although the bills include no mandates and might be seen by some as ''fairly modest,'' they set a framework for better planning within the realm of current political possibility.

''Will this matter for the bay? Yes,'' he said. ''If we don't do what we're trying to do, trying to grow smart is going to become even more challenging.''

A Baltimore Sun editorial backs greater state assertiveness on smart growth.

''It's time to put teeth in the law and impose statewide standards that limit sprawl and encourage urban redevelopment,'' it stresses. ''State law ought to be made clear: county comprehensive plans should matter despite the unfortunate precedent set by last year's court ruling favoring the planned Terrapin Run mega-development in Western Maryland.'' -- Baltimore Sun   1/12/2009

Resource(s): www.governor.maryland.gov/index.asp ; www.baltimoresun.com/

Commentary: ''What Works Best'' Should Be Focus of Revised Maryland Smart Growth Program

With most Marylanders ''blissfully unaware'' of how development happens or affects their daily choices, and with legislators ready to ''revise and re-energize'' the state's 1997 Smart Growth program this year, the attention should focus on what works best, write former Charles County planning director Jaquelyn Magness Seneschal and former Maryland Department of Planning (MDP) local assistance director James Noonan in a Baltimore Sun op-ed column, convinced that increased investment in towns and older communities would be the most cost-effective, and would help improve quality of life and contain sprawl better than would land purchases.

Citing a study presented at the 2007 conference of University of Maryland Center for Smart Growth, they write that each state dollar spent by the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) on its Community Legacy or Neighborhood Works programs between 1997 and 2007 leveraged $5-$5.50 in local or private investment, while each dollar in historic building tax credits leveraged $4 from business owners, investors and residents.

Consequently, they argue that instead of ''top-down oversight over local planning and zoning,'' the state should take an approach less driven ''by artificial statistics -- such as land 'consumption' numbers or statewide goals for land preservation'' and concentrate on ''making existing communities more attractive places to live, work and play.''

Noting a recent $72 million outlay for additional open space acquisition, they ask, ''How much private investment might Maryland cities and towns attract by spending even half that sum on revitalizing parks, improving water lines, sewer and storm drains, building sidewalks or investing in landscaping to create more livable and walkable downtowns and neighborhoods?''

Besides calling for larger outlays on urban improvements, the two former planners advise the state to implement its planning statement that ''economic growth is encouraged and regulatory mechanisms are streamlined'' -- the one ''most often ignored'' among its eight policy visions -- and to ''build administrative and planning capacity in local communities.''

And they conclude with three more questions.

''Shouldn't we direct state funds and planning programs into communities we want to make more attractive, so that more people want to live and work there? Shouldn't we invest public money in a way that creates jobs and attracts private investments? Isn't that the real meaning of 'smart growth'?'' -- Baltimore Sun   1/1/2009

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Editorial Urges Renewed Push for Smart Growth in Maryland

Despite prospective population growth, budget problems and local opposition, Governor Martin O'Malley ''still has a chance to halt sprawl and spare the Chesapeake Bay,'' says a Baltimore Sun editorial about his new Web-based interactive GreenPrint land conservation map and his readiness to spend $72 million on related efforts in a time of economic hardship, but concerned over ''the amount of land lost to inefficient, unsustainable and short-sighted development each day,'' it echoes environmental advocates who call for a ''revised and re-energized'' Smart Growth program.

''Growth can be accommodated; sprawl cannot,'' the editorial observes, pointing out that polluted runoff from roofs, streets, parking lots and other impermeable surfaces contaminates streams, rivers and eventually the Chesapeake Bay.

With another million residents expected in the bay's watershed within the next two decades, continuation of past development patterns would be ''catastrophic'' to water quality, especially since the Smart Growth program ''has proved relatively toothless'' in channeling development into urban areas and preserving countryside -- its incentives ''too modest and restrictions too easily sidestepped'' to suffice.

''That has to change,'' the editorial says. ''Counties that don't stick to their comprehensive plans ought to forfeit state funding for transportation, schools and other public works. And those plans need to be more rigorous, with clearly defined areas reserved for future growth. Developments that don't comply ought not be allowed.''

And though the editorial foresees ''stiff resistance from local governments,'' with planning and zoning decisions being ''their bread-and-butter'' and most political campaigns depending on developer contributions, it tells the governor that he shouldn't hesitate to push for serious Smart Growth revision when the General Assembly reconvenes in January.

''Public support for growth limits has never been higher,'' the editorial states. ''With a faltering economy, tax dollars have become too precious to waste subsidizing sprawl.'' -- Baltimore Sun   12/7/2008

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Maryland Launches GreenPrint Land Conservation Map

Having 21 percent of land already developed and another 21 percent protected, Maryland cannot perpetuate mistakes of the past 30 years when its population grew by 30 percent but land consumption by 100 percent, said Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley at the recent launch of an online interactive GreenPrint land conservation map, part of his multi-agency Maryland: Smart, Green & Growing sustainability initiative, also proposing purchase of 9,242 acres of ecologically and historically vital forests, farms and shorelines and a $13.5 million increase in 2009 Rural Legacy Grants.

''Using the latest technology and harnessing the achievable hope of our great state's potential for a more sustainable, healthy environment and economy, we've designed GreenPrint to help escalate smart growth and maximize our resources,'' Governor O'Malley said, confident that the tool ''will revolutionize the way we make our land use decisions,'' by allowing Marylanders to work together, manage resources more efficiently, and assess ''our landscape on parcel, block, neighborhood, watershed and ecosystem levels.''

Calling these goals urgent, the governor pointed out that purchase of the 9,242 acres, which requires approval from the three-member Board of Public Works, would increase the land his administration preserved in its first two years to more than 17,000 acres, in comparison to just 2,461 acres protected over four years by his Republican predecessor.

The proposed purchase targets the state's largest private forest tract, the 4,769-acre Foster property at the border of the Pocomoke and Chesapeake State Forests, a deal helped by the Nature Conservancy, and the 4,473-acre so-called Maryland Properties along the Potomac River, an acquisition brokered by the Conservation Fund.

GreenPrint and other details at www.greenprint.maryland.gov.   12/3/2008

Resource(s): www.governor.maryland.gov/index.asp

Senators Seek Input on Prince George's County School Construction Priorities

With school construction always the top community concern and a frequent subject of ''turf battles among local leaders, school officials and lawmakers,'' Prince George's County state Democratic Senators Douglas J.J. Peters and C. Anthony Muse proposed legislation that would require approval from the school board and the chairs of the state House and Senate for the county's annual requests of state school-construction funds, reports Gaithersburg Gazette writer Daniel Valentine, noting that the county has received $170.7 million for schools since 2004 and calling these commitments ''a valued prize'' in local politics.

Currently, the writer observes, the County Council and the county executive are basing the requests on school board recommendations, usually adjusting them to their views of project priorities, while a state committee evaluates each request and recommends related budgetary outlays for each General Assembly session.

''What we're trying to do is get everyone around the table,'' said Senator Peters. ''(The state) has to fund it, and we rely on the school board to tell us what they need. There should be much more consensus.''

The county has often shifted priorities around, but public recriminations target mostly lawmakers, explained Senator Muse.

''There's hardly a meeting where school funding is not discussed. These things have been battled around, taken off the table, put back on the table and taken off again,'' he pointed out. ''Our constituents are holding us accountable. To be totally out of the loop on the decision-making process and to still be held accountable doesn't seem to be the fair thing to do.''

Whether the county school board will back the legislation, the writer adds, remains to be seen.

Getting lawmakers involved could turn into ''too many cooks in the kitchen,'' said Board Member Donna Hathaway Beck at a recent board meeting, an objection to which Chairwoman Verjeana M. Jacobs responded, ''I think the cooks are already in the kitchen; we have different menus.'' -- Gazette   11/20/2008

Resource(s): www.gazette.net/

Maryland's Rural Mountain Leaders Want Input in State Planning Guidelines

Some 60 to 100 miles northwest from the traffic-choked Baltimore-Washington metropolitan region, their valleys and ridges jutting between Delaware and West Virginia, Allegany and Garrett counties' officials expect the Maryland Department of Planning and the state Task Force on the Future for Growth and Development to get a better feel for this rural mountain area after a listening session in Frostburg early next month, easing local concerns that downstate lawmakers may exert undue influence over its future.

While Maryland Planning Secretary Richard E. Hall called the report Governor Martin O'Malley expects by December 1 a ''sketch plan'' rather then a complete state document, notes Cumberland Times-News writer Kevin Spradlin, state Republican Senator George Edwards told the Allegany County Chamber of Commerce legislative committee that Western Maryland needs to follow Smart Growth to obtain much-needed state funds for infrastructure improvements, but that he doesn't see the need for a greater state planning role.

''We need to speak up,'' he stressed. ''I support local land-use. I don't think we want someone sitting down there in Baltimore or Annapolis telling us how to do things.''

Committee member Bill Valentine wasn't impressed with a task force listening session he attended six weeks earlier in Hagerstown. He thought a series of various development pictures given participants to choose from as best types for their area didn't allow much flexibility.

''They were guiding your choices,'' he said. ''I'd like to see the one in Frostburg be more open.''

And Greater Cumberland Committee official Colleen Peterson advised local ''full-court pressure'' on state planners.

In Hagerstown ''the business voice'' was missing, she complained, pointing out that 47 of about 50 attendees of the subsequent listening session in Frederick came from non-rural areas, but even they held ''alternate views of what shouldn't happen'' in the state's rural west.

''I think,'' she said about the task force's local listening session, ''this is an opportunity for Mountain Maryland to say you can't paint the state with the same brush.''

The task force, the writer adds, will serve as an advisory board to the governor's Smart Growth Subcabinet until December 31, 2010.

Details, including a resident survey form, at www.mdp.state.md.us/listeningsessions.htm. -- Cumberland Times-News   11/17/2008

Resource(s): www.times-news.com/

Maryland's Purple Line Clears Impact Hurdles; Editorial Backs Light Rail for Route Through Northern D.C. Suburbs

The long-proposed 16-mile east-west Purple Line light rail or bus rapid transit throughout the northern D.C. suburbs, from Bethesda in Montgomery County to New Carrollton in Prince George's County, meets federal funding requirements in several state-studied variations, none with much effect on the environment or nearby homeowners, reports a Washington Post editorial, agreeing that a bus system would be cheaper in the short term, but backing light rail as faster, certain to attract more riders, and better for smart growth.

With ''near-universal'' support for the line in Prince George's County and only ''small but vocal pockets of resistance'' in Montgomery County, the editorial counters objections from Montgomery County Councilman Marc Elrich, who thinks a $600-million busway would have the same ridership as light rail for half the price, and the federal government is unlikely to fund the costlier option when jurisdictions nationwide vie for scarce transportation dollars.

''Light rail requires a bigger capital investment initially but is sturdier and, in many cases, more cost-effective in the long run,'' it points out. ''If Metro, which has operated for more than 30 years, is any indication, the Purple Line is likely to operate far beyond 2030.''

Seeing the Purple Line as ''a one-time opportunity to connect Prince George's and Montgomery and spur smart growth in the region's suburbs,'' the editorial expresses confidence that once the state chooses light rail, local leaders who have been cautious so far ''will use their considerable influence to champion the project,'' which will also need ''strong and unified support from the community to bolster the state's case for federal dollars.''

See details, including a project area map, at www.mdot.state.md.us/News/2008/October2008/Purple%20Line%20DEIS.htm and www.purplelinemd.com/our-study. -- Washington Post   11/16/2008

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/

Clarksburg Town Center Design Stalled as County, Developer Work Out Pedestrian, Parking Details

Increasingly across the nation communities focus on questions about ''how car-dependent suburbs can be made more hospitable to pedestrian and cyclists,'' but they often see ''there is no simple answer,'' especially in places miles away from trains or subways and unlikely to gain mass transit soon, reports Washington Post writer Miranda S. Spivack, illustrating the point with the latest snag in a four-year debate over the design of 1,200-dwelling Clarksburg Town Center being built by Newland Communities on 260 acres in northern Montgomery County, some 30 miles north of Washington, D.C.

In result of the earliest local objections to building heights and setbacks, the company reworked its residential plan and the Montgomery County Planning Board tightened its oversight over the development; now community activists and the board want changes for the still-unbuilt retail section, to ensure a pedestrian-friendly downtown.

''We are trying to get our heads around this so that it is just and fair and workable,'' stressed Board Chairman Royce Hanson, ready to hold another meeting in 10 days to resolve the issues of downtown parking and types.

This, the writer observes, involves questions of garage or surface parking, nose-in or curb parking, and ''perhaps the most important, how far are shoppers and residents willing to walk to get to a store or back to their cars?''

Board staffers, including development revive chief Rose Krasnow and planner Robert Kronenberg said the company had cut the number of small recreation pockets from six to three and now is reducing shop widths and parking, the latter making some shoppers park too far from the retail area.

Newland attorney Todd Brown didn't think the company must provide 840 parking spaces instead of just 563, expecting the area eventually to get light rail or bus rapid transit. -- Washington Post   11/7/2008

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/ ; www.clarksburgmaryland.com

1,000 Friends of Maryland Preparing for 2009 Smart Growth Legislative Campaign

''Current land-use laws are not working for anybody,'' said 1,000 Friends of Maryland development and communications director Douglas Stewart, as his nonprofit's volunteers talked to voters at polling locations to enlist support for a legislative push next January to strengthen state Smart Growth measures and ensure enforcement of local broad-based land-use plans.

Alarmed by a recent Maryland Court of Appeals decision to allow construction of a huge Terrapin Run project -- with 4,300-housing units and a commercial center -- on a 600-acre portion of a 935-acre forest tract along Scenic Route 40 in remote Allegany County, reports Maryland Community Newspapers writer Margie Hyslop, 1,000 Friends of Maryland has involved home builders, affordable housing advocates and social justice activists for its 2009 smart growth legislative campaign.

Developers know it's in their interest to avoid the risk of lengthy and costly litigation, such as in the Terrapin Run case, said director Stewart, with Homebuilders Association of Maryland CEO John Kortecamp confirming his group's focus on more predictability in comprehensive planning when the market recovers.

Noting that Smart Growth implementation depends largely on officials who decide whether a project qualifies for state help in infrastructure improvements or for other compliance benefits, the writer quotes Montgomery County Democratic Delegate Tom Hucker.

''I think,'' he said, ''that people understand that with a million people projected to come to Maryland in 20 years, we need Smart Growth like never before.''

More on the Terrapin Run project at http://acgrowth.org/whatisterrapinrun.php. -- Gazette   11/5/2008

Resource(s): www.gazette.net/

State Planner Provides Frank Analysis of What It May Take to Save the Bay

To stop the continuous Chesapeake Bay decline, ''tinkering around the edges of the issue with minor changes to laws and regulations will no longer be enough,'' writes Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) planner Roy Gothie in a direct and deeply personal Baltimore Sun oped column, stressing that since much of the deterioration stems from rampant land use practices long enshrined in the property rights concept, ''(o)nly a societal decision to redefine an individual's rights regarding property can restore the bay and other critical ecosystems.''

Holder of advanced degrees in fields ranging from environmental policy and science to urban design and wildlife resources, the planner points out that the common view of property rights as existing solely to benefit property owners misses the overriding public goal.

''Property rights are the creation of the state, designed to ensure stable, civil society and a functioning economy,'' he writes. ''Thus, any property rights a land owner possesses exist mainly to serve the greater public good.''

Historically, he continues, economic growth often depended on intensive, extractive land use, and property owners acquired statutory privileges, with restrictions on ''interfering in the use of 'their' land,'' a principle oblivious of ''the almost unimaginable sensitivity and complexity of multiple ecosystems'' and careless of the society's future needs, but now undercut by its ecological results.

Consequently, the current property rights model ''must yield to an insistence that one landowner may not so damage the land he or she owns that it interferes with the reasonable use, by neighbors or society, of the ecosystem they all share,'' he writes, listing a number of steps in that direction.

''Place more emphasis on Smart Growth and new urbanism initiatives that support dense, walkable communities,'' he begins.

''Increase demand for environmentally sustainable products through intense consumer awareness programs; (r)equire students at all levels to take part in science and math instruction that emphasizes ecological restoration and supports long-term involvement with local communities; (e)ncourage the use of nuisance laws to prevent environmental damage and revitalize the common law to reflect modern science and cultural values; (r)educe commodification of nature through less support for industrial agriculture and more for small community farms; (b)etter protect crucial ecosystems through regional planning and mandated standards for local zoning regulations; (a)pply tax breaks for nonextractive land uses such as solar, tidal and wind power; (s)upport the development of carbon taxes and carbon trading markets;'' and ''(b)etter educate local officials and court officers regarding environmental issues.''

These steps ''would initiate a substantial shift in the role of property rights while demanding difficult and long-overdue cultural, legal and scientific conversations within this country regarding our social responsibilities,'' he concludes. ''It's worth remembering that our laws reflect our culture, and the condition of the Chesapeake bay reflects the value our culture has placed on its future.'' -- Baltimore Sun   10/17/2008

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Editorial: Maryland Needs Strong Smart Growth Program to Halt Bay Pollution

Despite decades of efforts to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, its health remains precarious and another million residents along its coasts in the next 20 years can make it even worse unless ''the various sources of pollution, from failing septic tanks to storm-water runoff and excessive shoreline development'' are finally curbed through ''more stringent land-use planning,'' says a Baltimore Sun editorial, stressing the need for ''a Smart Growth program that transcends the modest efforts of a decade ago,'' has teeth, and perhaps offers counties ''bigger carrots'' in road, utility and other infrastructure money ''to concentrate growth and redevelop urban areas.''

The editorial suggests four steps to strengthen the Smart Growth program.

Since too many counties allow too much development outside their state-targeted ''priority funding areas,'' eligible for program funds, the state should require making such areas ''a part of every county's comprehensive plan.''

Next, it should make sure that the comprehensive plans are backed by county and municipal zoning laws, and that local decisions ''comply with growth criteria.''

Further, it should set specific goals and accomplishment measures, with policymakers having ''a chance to tighten growth controls, if necessary.''

And finally, it should expand Smart Growth grants and ''attach more strings'' to their allocation, because ''local governments need to make infrastructure decisions based, at least in part, on their environmental impact and not merely to accommodate developers or a favored project.''

With increased public concerns ''over global warming and energy costs,'' the editorial concludes, ''the case for Smart Growth has never been more compelling.'' -- Baltimore Sun   9/30/2008

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Climate Action Plan Would Employ Smart Growth Strategies to Limit Maryland Losses

Created by Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley in April 2007, the Maryland Commission on Climate Change, led by Department of the Environment Secretary Shari T. Wilson, released its science-based, mitigation-oriented, and response-rich Climate Action Plan, under which the state could reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 10 percent from their 2006 level by 2012 and 90 percent by 2050, thanks to 42 interlinked strategies, including integrated planning, revision of building codes and infrastructure standards, and implementation of other tenets of smart growth.

With an average global temperature and sea level increases projected to continue throughout the century at rates ultimately dependent on total GHG emissions, the governor's commission reports, Maryland's 3,000-mile coastline makes it dangerously vulnerable to climate change, especially in the Chesapeake Bay region, where a two-to-three-feet higher sea level ''will result in a dramatic intensification of coastal flood events, increase shore erosion, cause the intrusion of salt-water into fresh aquifers, and submerge thousands of acres of tidal wetlands, low-lying lands and the Chesapeake's last inhabited island community, Smith Island.''

Planners and legislators must realize that a ''do nothing'' approach will only increase the risk to ''Maryland's people, property, natural resources, and public investments,'' the report points out, calling for policy and legislative countermeasures before the remedial costs become prohibitive.

First and foremost, the state should avoid and reduce the impact of built environment, present and future; advance sustainable economies and investments, without the financial risk of development and redevelopment in highly hazardous coastal areas; enhance preparedness and planning to protect human health, safety and welfare; and protect and restore the natural shoreline and its resources.

The state can meet these goals ''by requiring that public and private structures be elevated and designed to reduce damage; and to avoid future impact, by directing new growth and development away from vulnerable coastal areas,'' offering similarly detailed recommendations on all related subjects.

Its preliminary analysis indicates that implementation of recommended strategies could yield roughly a $2-billion net economic benefit for the state by 2020.

''We can chart a future that includes economic growth and lower greenhouse gas emissions,'' commented Secretary Wilson. ''Our study shows that not only our goals are achievable, they will also help Maryland create jobs and reduce energy costs to consumers.''

Department of Natural Resources Secretary John R. Griffin stressed the urgency of the Climate Action Plan.

''We do not have time to wait as we are already experiencing damaging impacts of sea level rise and intensified storms along Maryland's coast,'' he said. ''Harnessing nature's ability to adapt and heal itself, we will plant more trees to help capture excessive carbon pollution, restore more wetlands and living shorelines to help shield us from flooding and coastal storms, and plan ahead to reduce the vulnerability of Maryland's people, homes, investments, and wildlife.''

See the report at www.mde.state.md.us/Air/climatechange/index.asp. -- State of Maryland, Baltimore Sun   8/27/2008

Resource(s): www.mde.state.md.us/index.asp ; www.baltimoresun.com/

Financial Incentives, Stricter Definitions for Growth Areas Needed to Preserve Maryland's Green Space

Passed in 1997, the state's Smart Growth law offered infrastructure aid for development in and near established communities, yet developers put 75 percent of their projects outside those areas, said Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) advocacy manager Terry Cummings at a Smarter Growth forum in Bel Air, Harford County, telling area officials, planners and civic activists, ''We need to pass meaningful growth management reform, and we need a lot of people involved in the effort.''

Just as at an earlier such forum in Frederick, Frederick County, notes Baltimore Sun reporter Mary Hail Hare, presenters showed the audience a series of periodic state planning maps, on which the ever larger red-colored development areas since the 1970s indicate that should the expansion rate continue, it would almost eliminate green space in central Maryland and along the Chesapeake Bay by 2030.

To avert the threat, state lawmakers must define growth areas more precisely, provide funds for their infrastructure, and use significant ''financial disincentives to direct growth away from rural areas,'' said CBF senior land-use policy manager Alan Girard, promising to work during the 2009 legislative session for such legislation and for the enforceability of local comprehensive plans.

Bel Air-based Frederick Ward Associates (FWA) President Craig Ward, his firm involved in planning, engineering and architectural design across the mid-Atlantic region, also advised public action to change law, mentioning such barriers to development in growth areas as moratoria because of crowded schools, with Homebuilders Association of Maryland director of government affairs Susan A.M. Stroud praising county efforts to concentrate growth near its three municipalities, but adding, ''Don't make growth areas dysfunctional with adequate-public-facilities regulations that don't work.''

The county's officials have been rewriting its 25-year-old zoning code, the reporter notes, and the county Council will soon get the 400-page rewrite, helped by agricultural, environmental, historic preservation and planning advisory boards, but many at the Smarter Growth forum thought the revisions didn't go far enough.

The Friends of Harford nonprofit group called for more transit instead of highway construction, schools designed to conserve land, and revitalization of neighborhoods affected by blight. -- Baltimore Sun   8/3/2008

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

''Skinny'' Infill Homes Create Controversy in Baltimore Region

As long as they meet height and setback requirements or obtain variances, ''skinny'' 12-foot-wide infill houses are legal in Anne Arundel County and Baltimore, offer low-income buyers an affordable choice and help the smart-growth density goal, but they antagonize neighbors in Brooklyn Park, a World-War-II-era-worker community across the county-city jurisdictional line, reports Karen Shih of The Baltimore Sun, quoting Arundel Neighborhoods Association board member Gary O'Neill.

''What used to be somebody's yard is now turning into a building lot,'' he said, voicing the area's concern about its identity and property value loss and calling a 12-foot-wide house ''without a doubt the most ridiculous thing we've ever seen.''

His group can't do anything about that house, on the market for under $240,000 -- in comparison to the neighborhood's average price of $271,181 and the county's $427,655 -- but it is fighting a variance for a proposed two-story, 18 x 40-square-foot home.

''I'm going to be staring right into the window of the other house,'' neighbor Robert Cook told the reporter.

Although he and others worry that more tiny lots will be sold soon, especially since the county's ''small area plan'' for Brooklyn Park envisions an additional 1,600 townhouses and older residents are hard pressed for money during the economic downturn, the writer notes, real estate agent Diane Kenworthy sees remarkable interest in the 12-foot-wide house she is advertising.

''Everybody loves that house,'' she said, stressing there are many people ''who want to live in that area who need affordable housing.'' -- The Baltimore Sun   7/17/2008

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Maryland Task Force Working on First Statewide Comprehensive Plan

As Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley's low-profile Task Force on the Future for Growth and Development lays the foundation for the state's first 20-year comprehensive plan, reports Washington Post writer Miranda S. Spivack, his Secretary of Planning Richard E. Hall is assuring county and municipal officials, vested in and insistent on local land-use control, that the state doesn't intend to dictate anything, but simply to set guiding principles that would discourage sprawl and promote denser development near transit, schools, water supplies and other amenities.

''One of the problems we have had in Maryland is getting the growth to go where we want it to go,'' said Secretary Hall. ''Just because we have mapped smart-growth areas and identified them doesn't mean there is as much growth there as we would like to see.''

Therefore, he pointed out, ''(w)e want to articulate state policy, how it manifests itself on the landscape and how it all comes together.''

State planners, the writer continues, expected more and faster development along portions of the I-95 corridor between Baltimore and Washington, because of its bus and train links with both cities, and along Metro's Red Line in southern Montgomery County, just north of the capital.

Although sensitive about their prerogatives, local officials and industry professionals sound receptive.

''Traditionally in Maryland, local land-use decisions have been made at the local level,'' observed Maryland Association of Counties (MACo) Associate Director Les Knapp. ''That's not to say we don't want a state plan, we just don't want one that usurps our authority.''

A task force member, Laurel Department of Development Management Director Karl Brendle, whose city is ''in the throes'' of several redevelopment plans to absorb some of the residential influx expected during the military Base Relocation and Closure (BRAC) placement of 22,000 jobs at nearby Fort Meade, told the writer, ''We are trying to grow from within.''

With Maryland's population of roughly 5.7 million projected to grow by another million over the next two decades, the challenge is to find places for a lot of new homes, he said. ''If the state continues the way it is going, you are going to continue to allow development of farmland. That's senseless.''

He and another task force member, Morris & Ritchie Associates President Frank Hertsc,h agreed the state should provide aid to fund transit, developer incentives to build bike and walking paths, and subsidies to encourage less car-dependent and more energy-efficient development, or smart growth.

Government should move quickly, the latter noted, stressing, ''You can't direct people to live in an area unless you meet the infrastructure needs.''

And Home Builders Association of Maryland (HBAM) Executive Vice President John Kortecamp said the group is looking forward to the plan.

''In concept,'' he added, ''as long as you have a state policy that is supposed to guide growth, it helps to have some architecture that helps articulate what path that should take.'' -- Washington Post   7/5/2008

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/?nav=globaltop

Twenty Maryland Communities to Receive $300,000 in Downtown Grants

Having prompted legislation that eased state budget woes last year and now able to focus on infrastructure investments, Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley announced $300,000 in Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) grants for communities in the 1998 Main Street Maryland program -- augmented by his Maple Street housing enhancement plan and just expanded to another five municipalities -- saying the expansion ''recognizes the 'smart growth' value of revitalizing existing communities (and) building both individual and community wealth, and strengthens the economic potential of Maryland's traditional main streets and neighborhoods.''

Accompanying the governor on a visit in Berlin, near Ocean City, DHCD Secretary Raymond Skinner said, ''With these Maple Street projects, we will apply Main Street principles to residential initiatives and foster a holistic approach to community revitalization.''

In this latest round of DHCD funding, 20 communities -- including newly accepted Berlin, Annapolis, Chestertown, Middletown and Princess Anne -- received $12,000 each for downtown upgrades, with Cambridge, Cumberland, Dundalk and Westminster also awarded $15,000 grants to ''encourage residential revitalization projects'' near their business districts.

While it follows the National Trust for Historic Preservation Main Street Center's aggregate guidelines for commercial district design, organization, promotion, and economic restructuring, the Main Street Maryland program has incorporated a fifth broad goal since the beginning of this year, collectively named ''Clean, Safe, and Green'' -- with energy efficiency, stormwater management and similar objectives -- as also necessary for smart growth and sustainability.

Berlin Mayor William G. ''Gee'' Williams, notes Baltimore Sun reporter Laura Smitherman, said the $12,000 Main Street grant will help him to install bike racks, add signs and put cloth shopping bags in stores.

''Berlin has come a long way on its own, but we understand our town cannot achieve its full potential alone,'' he pointed out. ''We know we will need the partnership and support of the state.'' -- Baltimore Sun   6/25/2008

Resource(s): www.governor.maryland.gov/index.asp ; www.baltimoresun.com/

High Fuel Prices Forcing School Districts to Revise Bus Service

With schools systems hurt even more than the general public by high fuel costs, since school buses average about eight miles per gallon and diesel prices have jumped from $1.50 or $1.75 in 2005 into the high $4 range, many systems have cut idling time and empty bus travel, combined routes, eliminated stops and otherwise saved fuel, notes Washington Post writer Daniel de Vise, reporting that the Montgomery County Public Schools board approved a carefully-worded transportation policy change, under which students would have to walk to school from farther away if a further diesel price spiral left the district in fiscal distress.

County officials expect their diesel cost to increase from $3.6 million in fiscal 2005 to $7.9 million in 2009, which begins in July, the writer observes, finding that the district is now busing students if they live more than a mile from an elementary school, 1.5 miles from a middle school, and 2 miles from a high school.

To increase the distance, Superintendent Jerry D. Weast, who sought the policy change, would need to apply for a board waiver for a temporary adjustment, and the board could act on the request after at least 21 days of public comments or decide immediately if it unanimously ''deems an emergency exists.''

County Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) President Kay Romero said her group opposes anything that could preclude its input, and parent Kim Donohue ironized in an e-mail that if students are required to walk farther, more parents might drive them to school and consequently increase the area's carbon footprint, asking, ''Isn't this a politically correct county?''

Superintendent Weast understands parental concerns, but fears other options, such as saving on textbooks or teachers.

''I know people are upset. I know people are worried about losing their current walking distances,'' he said, glad ''that the board had the courage to put this on the table.'' At a previous board meeting, the writer adds, he estimated that a million-dollar rise in fuel costs would roughly equal funding for 15 teachers. -- Washington Post   6/24/2008

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/

Planning Board Rejects Proposal for 16-Story Office Project at Bethesda's Metro Center

After a seven-hour hearing, sometimes resembling more a legal clash than a land-use debate, reports Washington Post writer Miranda S. Spivack, the Montgomery County Planning Board confirmed the improvement need for the Bethesda Metro center plaza and subway station, but turned down the Meridian Group's proposal to replace a shuttered food court with a 16-story office project -- considered by some good for smart growth -- as divergent from the county's local plan and not considerate enough of the neighbors.

The neighbors, in the towers of Chevy Chase Bank, Chevy Chase Land Co. and Clark Enterprises, argued a Meridian tower would take land supposed to be reserved for public use and violate county rules they had observed in their office construction.

They also offered expert testimony from nationally-known planner John Westbrook, who helped the county envision its downtown Bethesda design.

Without the originally required revision of the plan, he cautioned the Planning Board before the vote, ''(y)ou will drive a stake in the heart of Bethesda.''

In contrast, former Maryland Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening, now the president of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute and also a ''green'' developer, supported the project.

In his testimony, he recommended the Meridian proposal as ''an exemplary redevelopment of an underutilized parcel that will significantly advance 'smart growth' practices.''

The board, the writer adds, left Meridian the possibility of returning with another proposal for the Bethesda Metro center area. -- Washington Post   6/13/2008

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/?nav=globaltop

Timing Is Perfect for Real Estate Development Program Graduates

After two years in the University of Maryland's Masters in Real Estate Development (MRED) program -- teaching all aspects of ''green'' solutions, including energy efficiency, adaptive reuse, affordable housing, transit-oriented development and smart growth -- its first six graduates ''hit the street at a moment of great opportunity,'' said Program Director Margaret McFarland, ''just as the private sector is beginning to embrace the imperatives of sustainable development.''

Based at the university's School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, in its Colvin Institute of Real Estate Development, the MRED program reaches beyond the realm of project finances and profitability, fostering in participants a sense of social and environmental responsibility and beautiful design.

''These graduates have an orientation that meshes with changes in the industry,'' Director McFarland observed. ''There's a growing recognition that development needs to get smarter and greener. As our graduates move up in the field, they will hasten the changes.''

The six graduates, including four ''early or mid-career professionals with real-world experience,'' are ready for the challenge.

''I knew relatively little of development, other than the fact that developers were the ones ultimately calling the shots, and that architects were essentially hired help,'' said Tyler Abrams, who worked briefly in a small Washington D.C. residential architecture firm. ''The MRED program has exposed me to development on so many more levels, from the social aspects, to political and financial considerations.''

A former title insurance processor, now a legal assistant in a development firm, Jennifer Portillo, feels the same.

''The MRED program has done wonders for my vision of the real estate industry, especially in Washington, D.C.,'' she stressed. ''In the beginning of the program, I thought it was about making money and finding the perfect piece of land. But that isn't the case; a successful developer works with the existing communities to better their neighborhoods economically and aesthetically. . . . A developer has a huge responsibility to society -- to develop the land for the future strategically by understanding it and the community around it.'' -- Newswise   5/19/2008

Resource(s): www.newswise.com/ ; www.arch.umd.edu/

Maryland Could Direct Expected Growth to Transit Station Neighborhoods

''There is enough land available for transit-oriented development within a half mile of our state's 112 transit stations to theoretically absorb all the new residents Maryland is expected to gain in the next two decades -- all 1.1 million of them,'' said Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley at a Prince George's Chamber of Commerce annual luncheon. ''In Prince George's County alone, 14 of our 15 Metro Station properties have ample room for development. There are nearly 2,800 acres of land available for true smart growth within walking distance to these stations, and we're working with the County to harness this potential.''

As an example of smart growth, reports Examiner writer Freeman Klopott, the governor cited University of Maryland College Park's plan to redevelop the East Campus along Route 1, with easy access to Metro's future Purple Line between Prince George's and Montgomery counties.

Known for their commitment to transit-oriented development along capital Metro's Red Line, Montgomery County officials currently plan to build several thousand housing units within walking distance of the end-of-the-line Shady Grove station, some 15 miles northwest of downtown Washington, D.C.

Under a bill Governor O'Malley signed a day earlier, they may qualify for state financial aid to jurisdictions affected by the military Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process.

''The BRAC bill is a major win for sustainable and smart growth in Maryland,'' said Secretary of Planning Richard Hall. ''It will help the state focus investment into existing communities that possess the facilities and amenities best suited for growth.''

The bill, notes Washington Business Journal senior reporter Joe Coombs, authorizes creation of ''BRAC zones,'' which would get matching funds for infrastructure upgrades to absorb the influx of military employees -- perhaps as many as 60,000 by 2011 -- and their families. So far, Montgomery County found it would need at least $70 million to improve access to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, targeted for 2,500 jobs from military relocation.

Anne Arundel County, which expects 5,700 such jobs in Fort Meade, estimated the cost of area improvements at $5 billion.

The BRAC zone program allows jurisdictions to sell infrastructure bonds, with the related residential and commercial development generating higher state tax revenue and the state returning half of it to the respective community.

''These will be finite areas,'' said Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development Secretary David Edgerley about the BRAC zones, ''most likely areas that are close to mass transit.'' -- Examiner, Washington Business Journal   5/13/2008

Resource(s): www.gov.state.md.us/ ; www.examiner.com/

Cross-Town Transportation Options Discussed at Baltimore Summit

In a densely populated region, ''you can't just rely on highways'' or ''wait until transportation becomes a crisis,'' commented Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC) President Donald Fry on Mayor Sheila Dixon's Red Line Summit, which brought together more than 300 officials, residents and national experts to discuss options for the city's planned 12-mile east-west transit route, with the Maryland Transit Administration officially narrowing the best choices to light rail and bus rapid transit, though not excluding the possibility of heavier trains.

''The Red Line is critical to the future of our city for so many reasons,'' said Mayor Dixon. ''It's not every day that a billion-dollar project comes to East and West Baltimore. The opportunity is there, and we have to seize it.''

Pending review and approval by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and a financial plan endorsed by state and federal government, writes Baltimore Sun reporter June Arney, construction could begin in 2012.

Invited to outline related local concerns and priorities, to ensure that the chosen system best serves the city and its more than 40 neighborhoods, the reporter notes, the forum's work groups addressed everything from monitoring construction noise and other nuisances to equipping stations with WiFi links and bike racks to protecting historic areas.

''We are going to make sure this system is built into the fabric of the community,'' promised Maryland Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari, pointing to advances in light-rail design since Baltimore's system opened 12 years ago, with cars now sleeker and set closer to the ground.

Residents near the prospective line, the reporter observes, looked forward to increased property values; others thought of business opportunities in transit-oriented development (TOD) areas around stops.

A guest speaker, Denver's Regional Transit District Board Chairman Lee Kemp, confirmed transit advantages, saying expansion of the Denver system, which now carries 97 million passengers a year, created jobs, reduced traffic and otherwise helped improve local quality of life.

''The community is an important part of making this all happen,'' he told the audience. ''If we don't address the transportation needs today, it's going to be miserable in the future.'' -- Baltimore Sun   5/11/2008

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Charles County Connector Road Would Endanger Vital Chesapeake Bay Tributary, Say Environmental Groups

Long troubled by Charles County's constant encouragement of ever more subdivisions in the northern part of Mattawoman Creek watershed, the state cautioned the county against seriously polluting the creek -- a Potomac River tributary and one of the Chesapeake Bay region's most fertile fish hatcheries -- by running over it the planned four-lane Cross County Connector from the Bryans Road area to Mall Circle in Waldorf roughly eight miles west, a $60-million highway the county considers necessary for the corridor's some 8,000 homes either proposed, under construction or already built and an envisioned 250-acre high-tech business park nearby.

County officials, writes Baltimore Sun reporter Tom Pelton in the paper and on its environmental blog page, describe development concentrated in the county's northern section, some 15 miles from Washington, D.C., as ''Smart Growth'' that keeps most of the other two-thirds rural, but conservationists call it ''just politically correct happy talk meant to mask the county's real intention: to bring in as much business and money as possible by turning forest into subdivisions.''

Real ''Smart Growth,'' they say, would keep the forest and rural areas untouched, while concentrating development around the towns of Waldorf and LaPlata.

In a letter to the state and federal regulators, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and other groups, said Foundation Executive Director Kim Coble, asked for a comprehensive environmental study, which would also look at transit options, before issuing any road construction approval.

According to a 2003 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers planning branch report, the proposed development in the Mattawoman watershed, with its ''obvious increases in impervious surfaces, phosphorus, nitrogen and sediment loads,'' would have a ''severe'' impact on the creek, including more than 50 percent higher pollution within 20 years.

Calling the prospective consequences to the stream's quality ''dire,'' Corps transportation program manager Paul Wettlaufer told the reporter that he will examine the 2003 report, newer data and input from other sources before deciding whether the county can destroy seven acres of wetlands along the creek to build a key six-mile segment of the connector, which would also claim 74 acres of forest.

The county also needs the same permit from the Maryland Department of the Environment to proceed, which means the project is far from certain.

Between 1975 and 1997, the reporter observes, the state purchased 2,509 acres along the stream to save it from nearby development and protect wildlife.

In 1998, Governor Parris N. Glendening approved $25 million for another 2,225 forest acres to stop a proposed 4,600-home Chapman's Landing subdivision north of Mattawoman Creek.

Governor Glendening, now Washington-based Smart Growth Leadership Institute President, said the constant development in the creak watershed illustrates the need for strengthening state power under his 1997 ''Smart Growth'' law.

''The danger is we're going to lose these areas for all future generations,'' he stressed. ''The state is buying up land to preserve it, but it doesn't work unless the local government enters into the same philosophy.'' -- Baltimore Sun   4/7/2008

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Governor O'Malley Outlines Vision for Transit Communities in Maryland

''We know the challenges our state faces in regards to sustainability, with our population expected to grow by 1.1 million and 725,000 jobs expected in the next 20 years,'' said Governor Martin O'Malley at a luncheon of state officials, business leaders, builders and conservationists, promoting his transit-oriented development legislation, HB 373/SB 204.

''With thousands of acres of undeveloped and underdeveloped land within a half mile of Maryland's 112 transit stations, theoretically a network of transit communities can absorb all 1.1 million new residents. It gives you an idea of the existing potential for smart growth.''

Noting that the national and state transportation system has for decades just ''followed land use,'' the governor stressed, ''Now, we must focus our land-use where our transportation system can best support growth. We need to maximize the benefit of that investment by creating new communities of jobs, housing and retail in walking distance of transit stations, taking advantage of the infrastructure that is in place today.''

While some communities in the Baltimore area have benefited from growth around its metro stations and many in Montgomery County, adjacent to Washington, D.C., have seized the same opportunities at the capitol Metro lines, Prince George's County lags behind, the governor observed, with development at only one capitol Metro station and a total of 2,531 acres around 14 others untouched.

With research showing that residents near transit stations typically reduce their driving by 40 percent and a recent Washington Council of Governments study estimating that concentration of future growth around Metro stations could boost transit use by nearly 8 percent and decrease road congestion by 4.6 percent, reports Gaithersburg Gazette writer Sonny Goldreich, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority decided last month to follow the Maryland governor's push for transit-oriented development throughout its region.

The problems are often obsolete local rules and inadequate developer commitment.

Nothing in the Maryland bill, the writer quotes, ''is to be construed to limit the authority of local governments to govern land use or grant the State or a department of the State additional authority to supersede local land use and planning authority.''

On the other hand, an initial plan for the mixed-use West Hyattsville Commons project in Prince George's County was delayed for more than a year by the County Council until the developers redrew the blueprint for expanded retail, denser housing and direct pedestrian access to the Metro station. -- Gazette   3/27/2008

Resource(s): www.governor.maryland.gov/index.asp ; www.gazette.net/

Editorial: Terrapin Run Ruling a ''Dangerous Blow'' to Growth Management

The Maryland Court of Appeals' 4-3 vote to uphold Allegany County's special zoning exception for the proposed 4,330-home Terrapin Run development in its mountainous countryside ''dealt a dangerous blow to citizens' efforts to manage growth'' and offered ''frightening evidence of the need for new legislation'' to make such efforts really effective,'' says a Baltimore Sun editorial, expecting a current review of land-use practices by a state task force to prepare ground for stronger smart growth rules and guidance on a local level.

Working to recommend ''statewide development, transportation and housing plans'' by December, the task force has the opportunity to help repair the ''clearly broken'' current planning process, the editorial observes, pointing out that the state's appeals courts ''have upheld the right of local officials to ignore citizen-framed master plans'' four times in recent years.

The conflict is likely to intensify since the state is expecting another 1.25 million residents over the next 25 years and absorbing this influx ''without significant damage to the environment will be a daunting challenge,'' the editorial predicts.

''The answer is to aggressively pursue Smart Growth -- focusing development in ways that revitalize older urban areas, provide easy access to transportation and make best use of existing infrastructure,'' the editorial says, stressing also the need for ''a real partnership between local and state officials'' in implementation of comprehensive plans and for ''sharp limits'' on local zoning exceptions. -- Baltimore Sun   3/13/2008

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Maryland Court Upholds Zoning Exception for Terrapin Run Project

In the final round of a nearly three-year battle over Columbia-based PDC Inc.'s plan for 3,400 housing units and a number of stores, stables and trails in its projected ''active adult'' Terrapin Run community on 935 partly wooded acres off scenic Route 40 near Green Ridge State Forest in Allegany County, the Maryland Court of Appeals -- the state's highest -- voted 4-3 to uphold the county's special zoning exception for the project, with Judge Dale R. Cathell writing for the majority that ''local planning processes or decisions are governed by the local visions, not the state policies, and are subject to local, not state, regulation,'' but smart growth advocates and conservationists promising to seek a legislative remedy.

''The idea of building 4,300 homes in an area that is desperately pressed for jobs makes no sense whatsoever,'' commented former Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening, now president of the national Smart Growth Leadership Institute, foreseeing ''immense pressure'' on the state to tighten considerably its Smart Growth law ''to prevent this type of subsidized sprawl.''

University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education Associate Director John Frece stressed that since Terrapin Run ''isn't close to anything,'' some of its residents would drive to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania -- some 80 miles northwest -- and ''who knows where else,'' which shouldn't be encouraged because ''(g)asoline is $3.30 a gallon, and we're burning this planet.''

Although lawyers for the development company consider the matter closed, with attorney Bob Paye noting that ''no federal issue has been involved'' and calling criticism of the project ''a mischaracterization,'' Citizens for Smart Growth in Allegany County also count on legislative vindication.

''If the court's decision is permitted to stand, it undermines two decades of smart-growth advocacy and leadership on the part of the state of Maryland,'' said the group's founder, Cumberland resident Dale Sams, confident of the validity of its legal arguments as reflected by the court's narrow 4-3 ruling for the project.

Equally important for its prospects, he pointed out, is the company's need to allay several other state and local concerns, with the Maryland Department of the Environment having barred the county's move to include Terrapin Run in its water and sewer plan, and told the company to prove that the project would not degrade a nearby creek.

With 1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins and Chesapeake Bay Foundation Maryland Director Kim Coble echoing the calls for state action, Maryland Secretary of Planning Richard E. Hall said, ''We think this is a time when we need more smart, sustainable growth, not less.'' -- Baltimore Sun, Times-News, Maryland Daily Record   3/11/2008

Resource(s): www.mddailyrecord.com/ ; www.times-news.com/

Six Baltimore Jurisdictions Swap Highway Funds for Regional Transit

Under an $8.7 billion long-range transportation improvement plan passed by the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board (BRTB)last November, each of its six jurisdictions gave up on one local highway project ''to put another $250 million in mass transit,'' writes Baltimore Sun reporter Larry Carson, exemplifying this new spirit of cooperation with a two-county agreement, under which traditionally conservative Carroll County will widen only four miles of Route 26 instead of eight and save the money for regional transit, while largely liberal Howard County will double a four-mile Route 32 stretch to a prospective smart-growth office complex in Sykesville -- just across the county line -- by 2015 instead of 2030, but postpone widening of a three-mile section of U.S. 29 near Ellicott City to supplement the common transit fund.

Having annexed an adjacent 100-acre hospital center eight years ago, Sykesville expects its transformation into the planned Warfield Complex to create nearly local 1,000 jobs.

The complex ''should ultimately reduce traffic going down Route 32,'' said Mayor Jonathan S. Herman. ''The idea was to keep people in Carroll County instead of commuting into Baltimore. It's really a model for Smart Growth, and it makes us economically vital.''

The county shift toward regional transit planning, the reporter observes, makes its leaders proud and heartens environmentalists.

''Thirty years ago, you would get lynched right outside the building (for mentioning mass transit),'' said County Commissioner Dean L Minnich.

He still sees such ''an antipathy,'' but predicts ''a day when there are better ways to move people'' than cars, stressing, ''We have to be supportive of any efforts to improve public transportation in the state.''

1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins is impressed by the change in the county's stance on planning and transit.

''We have great concerns about widening roads endlessly without good regional planning thought. Generally, widening roads means more people living farther away from jobs,'' she commented. ''Once you shorten people's commute, quality of life goes way up.'' -- Baltimore Sun   3/3/2008

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Gov. O'Malley Moves to Strengthen Chesapeake Bay Protections

His concerns over the health of the Chesapeake Bay mounting, Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley introduced legislation to strengthen the 2002 Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Coastal Bays Critical Area Act -- which established special protection for all land within 1,000 feet of tidal waters or wetlands, with different stipulations for designated Resource Conservation Areas (RCAs), Limited Development Areas (LDAs) and Intensely Developed Areas (IDAs) in 16 target counties and 48 municipalities -- by requiring 300-foot setbacks for new RCA subdivisions and authorizing the Critical Area Commission to consider Smart Growth standards in any new growth allocations.

''We all recognize that the health of our Bay is at a critical crossroads. In its annual report last year, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation gave the health of the Bay a score of 28 out of 100. Over the last five years before that the average score was 27,'' the governor said, determined to induce change.

Accordingly, says a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) press release, his legislation (SB 844 and HB 1253) would restore the regulatory authority of the Critical Area Commission as a state government agency, bolster enforcement, provide stronger safeguards for water quality and wildlife habitat, establish new procedures for processing variances, and require updating of the Critical Area boundary, unadjusted since 1972.

Listing Governor O'Malley's multi-prong environmental efforts in his first year, including legislation that would help the state ''aggressively promote transit-oriented development (TOD) as a smart growth tool to revitalize communities and curb sprawl,'' the press release quotes environmental leaders.

Chesapeake Bay Foundation Executive Director Kim Coble said in acknowledgment of his agenda, ''Critical Area reform, Energy Efficiency, the Bay Trust Fund, and the Global Warming Solutions Act, together they create the most forward thinking agenda we have seen in the last 20 years.''

Environment Maryland State Director Brad Heavner added, ''We need to get serious about protecting the Bay and fix the laws that are good in theory but poor in practice. The governor is showing strong leadership on this issue, and I hope legislators are equally up to the task.'' -- Maryland Department of Natural Resources   3/3/2008

Resource(s): www.dnr.state.md.us/sw_index_flash.asp

BRAC Community Enhancement Act Would Help Maryland Towns Fund Base-Related Infrastructure Development

After nine months of work with local governments in the Fort Meade and Aberdeen Proving Ground vicinities -- where the military Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process will inject some 28,000 residents and 60,000 jobs by 2011 -- Democratic Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown, Planning Secretary Richard E. Hall and Housing and Community Development Secretary Ray Skinner urged lawmakers to pass the state-proposed BRAC Community Enhancement Act, under which localities would designate ''BRAC zones'' in smart growth areas, the state would help them fund zone infrastructure upgrades by rebating half of the tax revenue from zone development, and on-base developers would help offset their projects' wide-area impact on roads, schools and other services by paying negotiated sums in lieu of taxes for 10 years.

''There are tremendous opportunities that come along with that decision,'' said the lieutenant governor at a joint hearing of the House Economic Matters Committee and Ways and Means Committee, ''and there are tremendous challenges -- challenges in the area of infrastructure, developing mass transit, roads, water and sewage treatment plants.''

By steering base-related development to the most suitable areas, the act would prevent additional sprawl, Secretary Hall pointed out, while Secretary Skinner stressed the opportunity to link military base expansion and community revitalization.

The bill's zone provisions drew broad support.

''This will help ensure we are using our dollars -- our scarce dollars -- as wisely as possible,'' said 1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins, with Chesapeake Bay Foundation senior land-use policy manager Alan Girard seeking even stronger assurances that base development will help BRAC zones and resource preservation by also meeting walkers' and cyclists' needs, and with Citizens Planning and Housing Association Acting Executive Director Dan Pontious hoping for a greater focus on adequate affordable housing.

On the other hand, the proposal to make on-base developers offset some public costs of additional infrastructure and services near the bases made Army and construction-firm representatives uneasy.

Mediator Tom Kretszchmar, who helps the Army Corps of Engineers negotiate private development leases, testified that such projects usually pay taxes only for local services they use, while helping bases pay maintenance and personnel service costs underfunded by the Pentagon.

Therefore, he thought, anything on-base developers would pay for outside improvements would reduce their contributions to military base funds, and, in the worst cases, ''it would kill'' their projects.

Texas-based Trammell Crow Co. Senior Vice President Mark Corneal echoed the concern, noting that his company will pay for those road improvements around Fort Mead clearly necessitated by traffic caused by its $700 million office-park project on the base, and objecting to additional payments.

In a comment after the hearing, the lieutenant governor confirmed the administration's willingness to discuss bill provisions, but remained firm on payments from on-base developers.

''We cannot ask Maryland taxpayers,'' he said, ''to subsidize private development on a military installation.'' -- Baltimore Sun, WBAL-TV11, Southern Maryland Online   2/21/2008

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/ ; www.wbaltv.com/

Smart Growth Measures Part of Strategy Endorsed in Maryland's Global Warming Solutions Act

With 3,100 miles of shoreline making Maryland ''the fourth-most-vulnerable state to the effects of global warming,'' the lead sponsors of its Global Warming Solutions Act, Senate Environment Subcommittee Democratic Chairman Paul. G. Pinsky and House of Delegates Democratic Majority Leader Kumar Barve, urge the General Assembly ''to take real action on global warming'' this session and pass the act that would cut greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2020 and 90 percent by 2050, through new statewide efficiency and resource-management programs, including Smart Growth measures.

''Why now? Because we can't continue to wait and debate,'' they write in a Baltimore Sun oped column, warning that delay would damage Maryland's economy and environment, particularly the Chesapeake Bay.

In contrast, they stress, ''the Global Warming Solutions Act would mean significant investment in renewable energy, energy efficiency and green buildings, creating 'green collar' jobs for Marylanders and saving taxpayers money in the long run, while reversing an environmentally destructive trend.''

With the White House failing to join international accords on climate change, ''(w)e no longer can wait for the federal government to act,'' they write. ''Even if voters elect a pro-environment president in November, there is still a long battle ahead in Congress.''

But if Maryland ''joins other states -- California, New Jersey and Hawaii -- that have adopted legislation to fight global warming,'' they point out, ''it can only hasten Congress, and the White House, to approve a national policy.'' -- Baltimore Sun   1/30/2008

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Carroll County to Address Land Preservation Concerns in Updated Comprehensive Plan

In little known or perhaps forgotten actions from the early 1960s, Maryland distributed some planning money among jurisdictions, and Carroll County moved to keep its rural heritage by choosing the Westminster and Freedom areas for most development, limiting outside land to one home per acre in 1964, but to one per 20 acres in 1978, and investing $10 million annually over the last 25 years in permanent preservation of about 50,000 acres so far -- half of the current goal, with county Planning Director Steven Horn remarking, ''We like to say in Carroll we've been practicing a version of Smart Growth since the original master plan was adopted in the mid-1960s.''

Once the state passed the 1997 Smart Growth laws, he told Carroll County Times writer Beth Ward, the county began to reassess its growth management, focusing on two major problems.

One was the lack of water, in combination with stricter capacity regulations in growth-designated areas and relatively easy permits for private well and septic systems elsewhere; the other, gradual relaxation of rural zoning from one home per 20 acres to one per 17 or 15 acres, due to off-conveyance and approvals for family lots.

''There's a conflict between the ideals of Smart Growth and the restriction we face with water capacity and availability for the planned growth areas,'' and, ''Through the years, the off-conveyance process slowly undermined the intent of the 1-to-20 zoning district,'' he observed, also worried about ever higher land prices and their impact on rural land preservation.

''We're running out of time and property values are escalating,'' he pointed out. ''The reality is we will be paying more money for fewer acres every year from here on out.''

According to his estimates, the county may spend $300 million and need 25 years to preserve another 50,000 acres, a task additionally complicated by its present zoning for 30,000 to 35,000 new homes.

The current work on an updated comprehensive plan, expected to come up for adoption in spring or early summer, addresses those budgetary, timetable, and zoning challenges, the writer reports, with related papers discussing the benefits of pedestrian-friendly communities, the correlation between sprawl, obesity, asthma and other illnesses, and the need for economic development in small cities.

''There's no reason you can't have eight vibrant small communities in Carroll County and still preserve the scenic beauty,'' commented University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education Associate Director John Frece. ''The problem facing Carroll County is not a big enough job base so people can live where they work.'' -- Carroll County Times   12/22/2007

Resource(s): www.carrollcountytimes.com/

Transit Centers, Schools to Benefit from New Montgomery County Growth Policy

In stepped-up efforts to ease gridlock, limit school overcrowding and make new growth pay its own cost in this heavily congested northern suburb of Washington, D.C., the all-Democratic Montgomery County Council approved Growth Policy revisions for 2007-09 by a 7-1 vote, significantly widening developer responsibility for added traffic and over-capacity school enrollment retroactively to January 1, with a subsequent 8-0 vote raising transportation and school impact taxes by 70 and 125 percent -- above $10,500 per single-family home and $28,500 per high school student, respectively -- effective December 1.

Nevertheless, to encourage transit-oriented development and affordable housing expansion, the transportation impact tax for projects around seven MARC commuter rail stations is set at 85 percent of the county-wide rates -- with builders around Metro stations already paying only 50 percent -- and school impact tax for market price units in residential projects with at least 30 percent of units for lower-income households stopping at 50 percent of the applicable rate.

Here are other key specifics: new projects will have to mitigate 100 percent of additional traffic in two areas, and up to 45 percent in 21 other areas, all depending on a just established area-wide transit and road test.

The tighter school adequacy test eliminates ''borrowing'' of excess capacity from adjacent school clusters, sets 105 percent of a school cluster capacity as the threshold for the newly-increased School Facilities Payment, and 120 percent of capacity as the threshold for a residential moratorium.

The School Facilities Payment for new projects goes up from $12,500 per student to $19,514 per elementary school student, $25,411 per middle school student, and $28,501 per high school student.

Raised by 125 percent, the school impact tax is accompanied by a large-house surtax, increased from $1 to $2 per square foot, and is now triggered when a single-family home exceeds 3,500 instead of 4,500 square feet.

In addition, the council voted 7-1 to increase the county's recordation tax for high-price properties, with the 0.31 percent raise for every $1,000 of the sale price in excess of $500,000 expected to bring in $10 million annually, half earmarked for capital projects and half for rental assistance to low-income and moderate-income tenants.

County Councilmember Nancy Floreen said in a statement that she voted against the revised Growth Policy as going ''over the top,'' rejecting ''the position of the County Executive, the Planning Board, the Board of Education, the Civic Federation and the Coalition for Smart Growth,'' and erecting ''barriers to the creation of affordable housing.''

But Council President Marilyn Praisner, ''who shepherded the policy through 11 months of often rancorous debate,'' reports Washington Post writer Miranda S. Spivack, pointed out that it ''tightened standards on developers,'' and County Democratic Executive Isiah Leggett said, ''It's time to move on. I am happy we have a policy.''

Planning Board Chairman Roy Hanson, a longtime transit advocate who wrote much of the policy, expects it to spur several transit-oriented town centers along the Rockville Pike, now ''a jumble of strip malls and indistinct high- and low-rise dwellings with few amenities within walking distance,'' the writer observes.

''Most of our new development is going to be relatively high density,'' the planner said, also mentioning the Bethesda, Silver Spring and Wheaton rail corridors. -- Washington Post   11/19/2007

Resource(s): www.montgomerycountymd.gov/index.asp ; www.washingtonpost.com/?nav=globaltop

State Website Provides Comprehensive Planning Data for All Maryland Towns

Following Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley's pledge to ensure openness of the state government and the public process, Maryland Department of Planning (MDP) Secretary Richard Eberhart Hall unveiled his department's new online service, at www.mdp.state.md.us/welcome.htm, which explains the comprehensive plan concept and adoption procedures, tracks the current and prospective local plans by jurisdictions, and provides state comments in the context of state laws related to Smart Growth.

Expecting the service to spur ''a more informed public process,'' Secretary Hall said, ''It is the responsibility of every Marylander to contribute to this public discourse so that, as a State, we follow the Smart Growth visions and create high-quality, sustainable communities and protect our precious natural resources.''

The site offers includes links to the Economic Growth, Resource Protection and Planning Act of 1992, the 1997 Priority Funding Areas Act, and the House Bills 1141 and 2 of 2006.

It also includes data on planning in all 23 counties, their regions and municipalities, along with links to plans, drafts and other documents, and MDP comments.

''I applaud Secretary Hall and his Department for taking a positive step in demystifying and important process. Giving Maryland citizens open access to its government is an important step to having an informed and engaged electorate,'' said Governor O'Malley. ''We are committed to taking the actions necessary to grow Maryland smarter through sustainable development. Making these plans available to the public ensures that every Marylander can be a part of that.'' -- Maryland Department of Planning 11.13.2007   11/13/2007

Resource(s): www.mdp.state.md.us/

Chestertown Charrette Helps Residents Shape Plans for Area Growth

''The question isn't just how we get Smart Growth in and around existing communities without overwhelming what makes them attractive in the first place,'' but also ''how do we get development that is consistent with the character of the town,'' said Washington-based Urban Land Institute (ULI) Senior Fellow Edward T. McMahon on the eve of a week-long planning charrette in Chestertown, organized by the town, Kent County and the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, crediting the conservancy for having helped that Chesapeake Bay area save some 40,000 acres since 1990 and for involving local governments in the more recent ''conservation development'' tactic.

All new houses in this Colonial-era waterfront town of 4,800 residents ''seem to be beige, tan, putty or taupe with garages sticking out the front,'' he told Baltimore Sun reporter Chris Guy, and ''people are saying that they need something that resembles what's been there for 300 years.''

That's exactly what the charrette's organizers aimed for, focusing on a 500-acre tract the town refused to annex about a year ago, because developers wanted to build 900 to 1,500 homes, which would have doubled its population.

Eastern Shore Land Conservancy Executive Director Rob Etgen called that proposal ''the same train wreck we've seen all over the Shore,'' with his group putting up a $300,000 option on the tract, under an agreement that will ensure the sale to a developer who accepts the publicly shaped master plan.

A similar 1996 community planning exercise, noted Chestertown Mayor Margo Bailey, brought several projects to the historic downtown business district, benefiting the town with an accessible waterfront and a visitor center, and also with grants for demolition or restoration of some run-down structures. -- Baltimore Sun   11/4/2007

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Busing Costs Soar as Sprawl Separates Schools from Communities

''We must change development patterns to build more walkable communities closer to schools,'' said 1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins, releasing the group's Yellow School Bus Blues report on just one ''hidden cost'' of recent sprawl practices statewide, which shows that total school fleet trips in the state's 23 counties have increased between 1992 and 2006 by 23 million miles to 117.2 million, and that combined county busing expenditures have risen from $215 million to $436 million.

''The location and design of new development greatly affects the cost incurred by governments and taxpayers,'' and public schools ''are no exception,'' the report states, allowing for the fiscal impact of inflation, wage and gas-price increases, and school closures or construction, but stressing that local land use decisions do influence the numbers of county students, along with their household locations and children's opportunity to walk or bike to school.

To curb related costs, 1000 Friends of Maryland recommend local policies to maintain neighborhood schools, locate new ones where more students can walk or bike, and build bike lanes and sidewalks to make students' biking and walking safe.

''Smart growth better supports schools and makes communities stronger,'' the report points out. ''School budgets are too tight to have scarce dollars disappear out of school bus tailpipes.''

And Director Schmidt-Perkins told reporters, ''There're other places that money could go. These dollars are urgently needed in school maintenance, in teacher salaries, in arts programs (and) gym programs. And they're being poured into school buses in order to get kids to school.'' -- Baltimore Sun, 1000 Friends of Maryland   11/1/2007

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/ ; www.friendsofmd.org/

Maryland Poll Respondents Want More State Involvement in Managing Growth

Reconfirming the scope and intensity of public concerns about Maryland's rapid development and its quality-of-life impact, previously evidenced in a 2005 Baltimore Sun survey, a new poll by California-based Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates for 1000 Friends of Maryland shows that 85 percent of respondents think the state government should be more active in coordinating and managing growth, including 49 percent who would like it to be very active, with 80 percent also agreeing that residents don't have enough control over local community plans.

Correspondingly, more than 80 percent of respondents support expanding county-town planning coordination (88 percent); ensuring state funding priority for roads, schools and other services in established communities rather than in the countryside (87 percent); making state dollars encourage towns and counties to conserve land, spur redevelopment and contain sprawl (86 percent); and limiting new construction to areas where provision of services would be cost-effective.

In addition, 74 percent of respondents support increasing state outlays on trains, buses and light rail, even if it means less money for new highways; while 72 percent in each case back requiring homebuilders to set aside 15 percent of new project units for moderate and low-income families, and channeling new residential and commercial construction to urbanized areas.

Poll results, observes Baltimore Sun reporter Nick Madigan, do not impress Maryland Association of Counties (MAC) Associate Director Leslie Knapp and Home Builders Association of Maryland (HBAM) CEO and Executive Vice President John E. Kortecamp, both considering the poll questions superficial and inadequate.

''When you try to concentrate growth, you get significant citizens resistance,'' noted Director Knapp, referring to the ''Not-In-My-Neighborhood'' (NIMBY) factor. ''You'd need to ask people what amount of new development would you be willing to accept to keep it out of more rural areas.''

The HBAM CEO agreed. ''This level of concern and frustration has been expressed consistently for some time. These generalizations lead us nowhere,'' he said, asking about transit backers' real commitment. ''What percentage of those people would themselves ride mass transit if it were available?''

Unpersuaded, 1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins and other anti-sprawl movement leaders expect the results once again to show Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley the urgency of fulfilling his 2006 electoral pledge to strengthen the state's Smart Growth laws and policies. -- Baltimore Sun   10/17/2007

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Former Maryland Planner Says Annexations Bring Needed Infrastructure to Towns While Limiting Sprawl

When Democratic Governor Paris N. Glendening and state legislators were launching their landmark multi-prong Smart Growth policy amid record outward development pressures in 1997, ''they didn't think they would do anything about sprawl in a decade,'' observed former longtime Maryland Planning Department key manager, now senior Hunt Valley firm consultant James Noonan, an exponent of more realistic expectations at the policy's three-day review conference in Annapolis, where he and colleague Jacquelyn Magness Seneschal presented a paper on community revitalization success.

According to their paper, described by a Baltimore Sun environmental blog writer as sometimes ''provocative,'' the state invested more than $679 million in revitalization of cities, towns and unincorporated villages, from Glen Burnie to Cumberland and from Hyattsville to Vienna, with each dollar leveraging $2 in private and local money.

The authors think the state should publicize these efforts better to attract more private investors, while helping communities apply and use the various grants, loans and tax credits that could reenergize their neighborhoods.

Convinced that making the designated growth areas ''more attractive places to live, work and play'' would do more to rein in sprawl than denying state infrastructure funds for ''spread out suburbia,'' the paper authors argue against opposition to municipal annexation deals with developers.

A ''lighting rod in growth debates across the state,'' especially on the Chesapeake Bay Eastern Shore, the Sun writer notes, annexation deals have the authors' support as bringing towns developer investment in their cores and otherwise unaffordable but ''badly needed public facilities.''

With further growth unavoidable, clustering homes around towns rather than letting them spread throughout the countryside is also better for the Chesapeake Bay and its water quality, James Noonan said, adding, ''Whether or not you think a town has annexed too much, any house on water and sewer (lines) is one less house on sprawl.'' -- Baltimore Sun   10/7/2007

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Gov. Glendening Reflects on Work to Curb Sprawl in Maryland

''We did good; we could have done better,'' said former two-term Maryland Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening at a conference on the aftermath of his 1997 Smart Growth policy, agreeing that Oregon or the Seattle area did more to curb sprawl thanks to their strict and early urban growth boundaries, though stressing, ''But most important, we stimulated a national debate that really changed policy,'' with about 30 states having adopted a number of smart growth principles and programs.

He also pointed out, notes Baltimore Sun reporter Timothy B. Wheeler, that Oregon-type growth boundaries and development regulations were neither politically viable in Maryland ten years back nor have they become so now.

What's more, the governor said, his policy of urban investments spurred revitalization in downtown Baltimore, Easton, Hagerstown and Hyattsville, despite mere lip-service to growth management under one-term Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and despite federal ''hostility'' to public transit and smart growth since 2001.

Applauding Governor Martin O'Malley for his pledge to strengthen Maryland's growth-management efforts, the former governor, now Washington-based Smart Growth Leadership Institute president, made it clear he would like to see greater state assertiveness and more outlays for compact mixed-use development.

''As we face booming population, rising sea levels, a warming planet, escalating gas prices and a troubled housing market,'' he said, ''the need for aggressive action is urgent.'' -- Baltimore Sun   10/4/2007

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Study Finds Gaps in Monitoring Maryland's Priority Funding Areas Program

Rarely if ever do new policies break long habits, surmount systemic hurdles and quickly reach all their goals, an adage now confirmed in University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education report on results of the state's 1997 shift toward land conservation and urban redevelopment, with some agencies unable to determine whether all their infrastructure money went to growth-designated ''priority funding areas,'' Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening ending his second term in January 2003, and his Republican successor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. ignoring the need to continue the work and fill the initial gaps.

''The Glendening administration tried to do it but didn't succeed. And then Ehrlich dropped it,'' said study co-author and Center Director Gerritt Knaap about monitoring of smart growth investments. ''The way to guide state infrastructure spending using priority funding areas is not working well.''

Its release coinciding with the Center's three-day Annapolis conference on the state's smart-growth accomplishments and stumbles over the last 10 years, writes Baltimore Sun reporter Timothy B. Wheeler, the study found that about 75 percent of housing built between 2000 and 2004 is in priority funding areas, but that the total of units built elsewhere not only went slightly up, but also took some 75 percent of all land developed in those five years.

It also found that most of the $1.1 billion in the state's annual growth-related spending -- about five percent of its whole budget -- helped transportation, with 60 percent of those outlays benefiting growth areas, but with toll highways, Baltimore harbor tunnels, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, and school construction and renovation exempted from the priority-funding areas law.

For Home Builders Association of Maryland Director of Government Affairs Tom Ballentine the report justifies frequent builders' complaints about local laws in some growth areas that bar construction until their roads, schools and utilities are upgraded.

''Most people who are involved in growth management in Maryland,'' he said, ''understand that the priority funding areas aren't functioning as they were intended to.''

For 1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins the key is a renewed and stronger growth-management commitment.

''We have a law,'' she observed, ''but if we're not going to have a monitoring and enforcement system, it's not going to happen particularly effectively, and the impact of the law will be lessened.''

Director Knaap and state Secretary of Planning Richard E. Hall agree, especially hopeful for additional anti-sprawl measures promised by Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley.

''I think it makes sense for the state to worry and try to monitor where it spends its money, to do everything it can to avoid subsidizing sprawl. But I don't think just that is enough to change development patterns,'' said the director.

''No one who knows anything about growth would think that the 1997 law would change things overnight. I think it is having an effect,'' said the secretary, adding, ''We need to do more.'' -- Baltimore Sun   10/1/2007

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Climate Change Report Spurs Maryland Anti-Sprawl Activists to Seek Quick Restoration of State Smart Growth Policies

With the U.S. population projected to increase by 23 percent between 2005 and 2030, but driving and tailpipe carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 59 and 41 percent, respectively, and with the Baltimore area already enduring some of the nation's longest commutes and loss of time in traffic jams, writes Baltimore Sun reporter Timothy B. Wheeler, Maryland anti-sprawl activists seized on data from the just-announced ''Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change'' book and urged Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley to speed up reinvigoration of the state's 1997 policies of Smart Growth.

The data show that development away from urban centers and related driving increases cancel improved vehicle fuel economy and emission standards, and thus much of the effort to slow down global warming, the reporter notes, quoting 1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins.

The urgency of blocking further sprawl has become even more evident, she said, in the face of the expected arrival of some 28,000 households to the Baltimore area within next several years under the Military Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) process.

''BRAC is really a test for the state and for local governments,'' she pointed out, seeing no real commitment yet to compact development, despite politicians' rhetoric about the need for regional planning cooperation and mass transit improvements.

''Is this going to get us the kind of development Maryland deserves and needs,'' she asked about the prospective BRAC influx, ''or is it going to just put us further back, hurting the Chesapeake Bay and contributing to global warming?'' -- Baltimore Sun   9/20/2007

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Coalition Urges Doubling of Transit Budget in Maryland Traffic Relief Plan

Instead of earmarking $6 billion for roads and only $2.2 billion for transit in its 2035 traffic relief plan draft, the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board should spend $4.3 billion on transit and $3.9 billion for roads, stressed activists from the Movement of Organizations for Regional Expansion of Transit (MOREtransit) at a recent public hearing, chastising the plan for the lack of a regional vision and breach of the state's Smart Growth policies.

Harford County residents, notes Baltimore Sun reporter Michael Dresser, urged the board to spend the money proposed for Routes 22 and 24 widening on more worthy projects.

John Hopkins Bayview Medical Center President Gregory Schaffer asked why the more than 6,300 employees of the East Baltimore campus had been ignored in plans for a new transit line and a Maryland Rail Commuter (MARC) system upgrade.

And Grater Baltimore Committee (GBC) President Donald C. Fry regretted omission of Morgan State University and Good Samaritan Hospital in a Metro extension plan.

Although the GBC didn't call for a shift of road funds to transit, he said the board's plan draft sends ''a bad message as to what this region's priorities are,'' especially as it prepares for an influx of many thousands of residents and jobs under the military Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process in the next several years.

MOREtransit advocates consider MARC expansion, with stations near Fort Meade and Aberdeen Proving Ground, crucial for absorbing the military personnel influx.

After two hours of testimony, the reporter writes, Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors Executive Vice President Joseph T. ''Jody'' Landers III diplomatically summed up what he heard as worrisome.

''I don't sense a whole lot of enthusiasm for this plan either in the audience or among elected officials,'' he said. ''We need to go back and redo the plan. We need a plan that has a sense of urgency.'' -- Baltimore Sun   8/29/2007

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Gov. O'Malley Welcomes Experts to Cabinet-Level Smart Growth Workshop

Happy about Maryland's prospects for perhaps 60,000 new jobs from the newest round of military Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), but troubled by the imbalance between its 30 percent population increase and a 100 percent land development increase since 1973, Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley welcomed his two-term party predecessor Parris N. Glendening (1993-2001), Portland Metro Councilman Robert Liberty and other smart-growth experts at his cabinet internal workshop, saying, ''If in the next 30 years we grow like that again, I shudder to think about the future we're going to leave for our kids.''

Organized by the Governors' Institute on Community Design, under Governor Glendening and former New Jersey Republican Governor, then EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, notes Baltimore Sun reporter Timothy B. Wheeler, the two-day workshop was funded by the U.S. EPA and the National Endowment for the Arts, to help the state prepare for the BRAC influx without sacrificing its environment and quality of life.

''We need to find predictable ways that we as a people can say no to development that is irresponsible and say yes to development that is responsible,'' stressed Governor O'Malley, with the former governor ready to help him recharge its efforts to curb sprawl, direct taxpayer funds to designated growth areas, and entice more local governments to revise zoning and shift from the prevalent countryside construction to urban redevelopment.

Although the Washington-based Governors' Institute on Community Design has held similar growth-management workshops in Delaware, Virginia, Arizona and Rhode Island, the reporter observes, Governor Glendening considers it a special privilege to participate in restoring national prominence to Maryland smart-growth policies, which he launched in 1997 but which faded under Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. in the past four years. -- Baltimore Sun   8/24/2007

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Chesapeake Bay Foundation Says Plan for Waterway Cleanup Would Also Help Reduce Greenhouse Gases

As the cross-agency Maryland Commission on Climate Change, created by Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley in April, begins to assess climate-warming impacts, calculate the state carbon footprint, and ''investigate climate change dynamics with the assistance of the University of Maryland,'' the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) calls public attention to the fact that the ''fight to reduce the greenhouse gases that cause climate change is not unlike the challenge we face in cleaning up and restoring the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers and streams,'' both especially dependent on broad conservation practices, reduced car use, and a faster shift from sprawl to smart growth.

A recent Yale and CBF study, ''Climate Change and the Chesapeake Bay: Challenges, Impacts, and the Multiple Benefits of Agricultural Conservation Work,'' shows that the agricultural conservation programs outlined in the multi-party Chesapeake 2000 Agreement would let Bay watershed states ''sequester -- or store away -- 4.8 million metric ton of carbon dioxide,'' an amount released by some 786,000 Hummers, each driven 12,000 miles a year.

Implementation of these programs, the CBF says, ''will have a dual benefit of restoring water quality'' in the Chesapeake and its rivers and streams, while serving ''as an immediately applicable tool in reducing greenhouse gases.''

As it works with its watershed partners ''to secure state and federal funding for agricultural conservation practices and technologies to reap the multiple benefits of these practices,'' the CBF stresses that they must be complemented by conservation-focused changes in transportation, land use, construction and energy consumption, to help the world cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 50 to 80 percent within 50 years.

Citing calls by scientists and similar regional goals set earlier this year in Environment Maryland's ''Blueprint for Action'' and in the Pennsylvania Environmental Council's ''Climate Change Road Map,'' the CBF lists the main common recommendations.

In transportation and land use, officials should reduce reliance on cars through ''commuter choice'' programs for transit, carpooling and telecommuting; promote smart growth and curb sprawl through compact development in urbanized areas; and create efficient transit systems.

In construction, they should provide incentives for ''green'' office buildings and make more energy efficient older ones; and plan and zone for commercial development inside communities and in adjacent locations to protect the remaining countryside.

In residential energy use, they should implement aggressive efficiency programs, including insulation, window replacement, fluorescent lighting, and other conservation measures; and increase renewable energy production.

Calling on ''cities, states, the federal government, and individuals to rethink our national energy policy, increase partnerships between farmers and businesses, take advantage of opportunities presented by transportation and land use planning, adopt more efficient technologies, and undertake fundamental shifts in the choices each of us makes, every day, in our businesses and homes,'' the CBF is optimistic that the Bay can be healed and climate change contained.

''Chesapeake Bay is facing at least two major issues,'' said CBF President William C. Baker, releasing the report. ''One is global climate change, but right now we've got dead zones, beach closures and human health concerns. What we are excited about is the solutions we're proposing for water quality also have tremendous benefits for reducing greenhouse gases.'' -- Maryland Department of the Environment, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, The Capital   7/19/2007

Resource(s): www.mde.state.md.us/index.asp ; www.hometownannapolis.com/

Editorial Urges More State Support for Growth Control to Help Chesapeake Bay Restoration Efforts

Maryland's smart growth policy could greatly help the multi-jurisdictional Chesapeake Bay partnership improve the bay's health, but it's ''not working well,'' with 75 percent of land taken by new housing between 1998 and 2005 located ''outside the 'priority funding areas' designated for growth,'' writes University of Maryland Public Policy Professor Gerald W. Winegrad on the Baltimore Sun op-ed page, urging strong government actions against both sprawl and agricultural runoff into the bay.

The bay watershed's population increased by 8 percent but its impervious surfaces by 41 percent in the 1990s, agriculture remains the largest single source of bay pollutants, and the additional 28,000 households expected by the state in the bay area due to the military base realignment and closure (BRAC) process ''will only exacerbate'' the pollution problems.

''The state,'' the former Senate Environment and Chesapeake Bay Subcommittee chairman stresses, ''must act aggressively to control growth through land-use legislation that effectively changes development patterns and establishes a 'no net loss' policy for remaining forests, and the state must require that farms implement a nutrient management program, coupled with increased funding.''

This, he observes, ''will require violating the land-use commandment, 'Thou shalt not interfere with local land-use decisions -- just send state money,''' but without it ''another 250,000 acres in the bay region will be converted to development by 2010,'' accelerating the loss of 100 acres of forest each day.

At the same time, he adds, ''Maryland and the other bay states, in cooperation with the federal government, should increase funding for pollution reduction from farms, but this should be coupled with legislation requiring farm plans that rigorously set enforceable nutrient management in place.''

Such new aid for farmers to limit polluted runoff may become a reality, reports Baltimore Sun writer Ted Shelsby in the same issue, if Congress passes a version of the 2007 Farm Bill drafted by House Agriculture Committee Chairman, Minnesota Democratic Representative Collin C. Peterson.

Under the bill, proposing $150 million solely for farmers in bay region states, the federal government would pay between 50 and 65 percent of their bay anti-pollution costs.

Environmentalists hail the bill, with Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Clagget demonstration farm officer Michael Heller saying ''every dollar spent on farm conservation is equal to $6 spent on other efforts'' to heal the bay. -- Baltimore Sun, Chesapeake Bay Program   7/15/2007

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/ ; www.chesapeakebay.net/index.cfm

Redevelopment Projects Moving Slowly Along College Park Section of Route 1

Most of its commercial strips hardly retouched since the 1950s, the heavily traveled Route 1 through College Park in Prince George's County ''is a mess,'' which has long offered the city, the county, the University of Maryland and developers ''an incredible investment'' opportunity, said Greenbelt-based Mark Vogel Cos. President Mark Vogel, as a new report attributed the scant action on the 2002 city-county revitalization plan for the corridor to poor coordination among stakeholders and to restrictive county zoning.

The county has the final word on Route 1 projects, and its 2005 ''adequate public facilities'' ordinance, focused on local services and infrastructure, ''is doing more harm than good,'' writes Washington Business Journal reporter Joe Coombs, quoting the report.

Prepared for the city by ICF International, Nelson/Nygaard Consulting and University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth Professor Reid Ewing, the report says that instead of taking on projects in isolation and without continuity, officials should concentrate development in nodes along the route.

That, according to Fraser Forbes land brokerage official Rich MacDonough, should boost property values.

Meanwhile, some developers have been moving ahead as much as they can, the reporter notes, mentioning the $100 million mixed-use University View development and Mark Vogel's plan for a 300-room Hilton hotel. -- Washington Business Journal   6/8/2007

Resource(s): www.businessjournal.com

Office of Smart Growth Regaining Strength in Maryland

Reduced by Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to one person and ''dormant'' for past four years, the Office of Smart Growth in the state's Department of Planning is regaining the role it played under Democrat Parris N. Glendening.

The General Assembly earlier approved funds for the office's five new positions, Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley just put it under the charge of Baltimore's former community investment chief David A. Costello, and Planning Secretary Richard E. Hall offered the new director operational support from his staff.

''We have suffered from a lack of a coordinated strategy. We have not addressed the pressures on our infrastructure and communities,'' said Governor O'Malley in Columbia at the Howard County Chamber of Commerce's celebration of the town's 40th anniversary. ''We want predictable growth and sustainability in an intelligent way.''

According to Secretary Hall, Office of Smart Growth Director Costello will work closely with state agencies, local jurisdictions and builders to curb sprawl and encourage mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly development in existing communities and other priority funding areas.

He will focus on the challenges posed by the region's military base closure and realignment, with some 45,000 to 60,000 new workers expected in or near Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County and Fort Meade in Anne Arundel County.

Since Baltimore ''is right in the middle'' between Aberdeen Proving Ground and Fort Meade, the secretary noted, it could absorb some of the 28,000 projected households and relieve the stress on both counties.

Earlier this month Baltimore Sun reporter Timothy B. Wheeler wrote that Governor O'Malley and Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown had ''launched a crash six-month base-realignment planning effort,'' to ensure coordination among nine Maryland departments in helping local officials to accommodate the job and household influx efficiently and smoothly.

''A lot of it,'' pointed out Director Costello, ''is about reinfusing across the state Smart Growth ethics and principles to guide the strategy.'' -- Baltimore Sun   6/7/2007

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/ ; www.examiner.com/

Developer Loses Bid for Wetlands Permit for Kent Island Waterfront Project

In a strongest sign of the state's renewed smart growth assertiveness since Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley took office in January, the three-member all-Democratic Board of Public Works voted 2-1 against letting the K. Hovnanian company disturb less than an acre of wetlands to build 1,350 waterfront homes and high-rise condos on the 562-acre Four Seasons project site on Kent Island in the Chesapeake Bay, with the governor and Comptroller Peter Franchot alarmed by its potential impact on the bay, and Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp feeling the same but voting for the permit, because the developer had followed the rules and obtained all other local and state permits.

''I wouldn't choose to put the development in this place, either,'' she assured project opponents, while calling it ''also very important that laws and regulations of the state be applied consistently and fairly to all persons.''

Like others at the meeting, notes Baltimore Sun reporter Timothy B. Wheeler, the governor and the comptroller observed that more than three-quarters of the Four Seasons site lies within 1,000 feet of the bay and its tributaries, where the state's 1984 critical area law limits development.

Questioning the ''common sense'' of ''cramming this many units'' so close to the troubled estuary on a flood-prone island, Governor O'Malley said he cannot vote for the permit ''(g)iven the lack of assurance that this will not do further damage to wetlands in critical areas.''

To his Planning Secretary Richard E. Hall, who agreed the island ''may not be the best place'' for dense development, but noted Queen Anne's County officials had designated the area for growth, the governor said, ''It seems to me there is not enough teeth for central planning in your shop,'' especially as related to the critical area law.

Comptroller Franchot echoed the statement. ''The bay is dying,'' he warned. ''It's being poisoned. Apparently the regulations are permitting it.''

Environment Secretary Shari T. Wilson expressed readiness for action. ''We have to do something different regarding land use,'' she stressed. It's a major factor impacting the bay.''

Both the Baltimore Sun reporter and Washington Post writer Lisa Rein see state environmentalists and Kent Island activists as instrumental in the denial of the state's last necessary permit for Four Seasons, pointing out that county voters ousted commissioners who voted for the project and expecting grassroots growth-management efforts to increase.

The wetlands permit denial ''is really important,'' said Maryland League of Conservation Voters Executive Director Cindy Schwartz, ''and I think it sends an incredible signal to the Marylanders out there who want to clean up the bay.'' -- Baltimore Sun, Washington Post   5/23/2007

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/ ; www.washingtonpost.com/?nav=globaltop

Appeal Filed Over Zoning Exception for Terrapin Run Project

In the final round of a two-year fight to stop Columbia-based PDC Inc. from building 4,300 housing units, a commercial/retail complex, and an equestrian center plus hike and bike trails along a scenic stretch of U.S. 40 near Green Ridge State Forest in eastern Allegany County, some 50 local smart-growth advocates asked the Maryland Court of Appeals to review the Court of Special Appeals' ruling last month for the county's Board of Zoning Appeals, which granted the developer a special exception for the massive Terrapin Run project in an area zoned for agriculture in 2005.

''Determined to welcome investment at nearly any cost, the Allegany County Board of Appeals scrupulously avoided the statutory requirement of a finding of (comprehensive) plan conformance,'' Cumberland Times-News writer Tai Shadrick cites from the plaintiffs' petition to the Court of Appeals. ''The decision of the Court of Special Appeals stands as an unwarranted departure from clear legislative policy and should be revisited in this court.''

According to the Court of Special Appeals, notes Baltimore Sun reporter Timothy B. Wheeler, the county's comprehensive plan functions as a ''mere guide,'' which doesn't have to be followed to the letter, leaving officials an option to declare Terrapin Run ''in harmony'' rather than ''in conformance'' with the plan.

The plaintiffs dispute that interpretation.

''The reason for pursuing this is we continue to believe strongly that a development like Terrapin Run as it's proposed doesn't conform to smart growth and is not envisioned in Allegany County's comprehensive plan,'' said their spokesman Dale Sams, noting that the project would jeopardize the area's water supply, stream quality and rural character.

In an e-mail to the Cumberland Times-News, Terrapin Run Project Manager Craig Leonard referred to plaintiffs as ''those who wish to make litigious mischief,'' glad that Maryland ''has run out of courts for them to appeal to.''

From the other side, Dale Sams wrote in an e-mail to the Baltimore Sun that should the Court of Special Appeals' ruling stay, it could undercut ''citizen-based planning'' and the state's Smart Growth policy by handing county officials wide discretion to deviate from comprehensive plans, updated every six years after extensive public input. -- Times-News, Baltimore Sun   5/22/2007

Resource(s): www.times-news.com/ ; www.baltimoresun.com/

State of Maryland Enters Debate Over Proposed Kent Island Development

Fought since 2000 for its impact on the Chesapeake Bay, victorious in several legal rounds and still subject to a final verdict from the Maryland Court of Appeals, a projected 1,300-home development along Kent Island's waterfront has stumbled in the state's new three-member Board of Public Works, where Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp have sided for now with concerned Queen Anne's County residents and delayed a routine decision on its wetlands permit until they review more data for their next meeting on May 23.

''This is not smart growth,'' said Kent Island Defense League President Wynn Krosac. ''There are no existing sewer lines, no existing water lines, no roads, no electric lines, and 80 percent of the project is in the Chesapeake Bay Critical Areas.''

The other 20 percent, notes Baltimore Sun reporter Andrew A. Green, is in the county's Smart Growth and Priority Funding areas, with state and local officials having approved the project's first phase as meeting their criteria.

''There are some people in Queen Anne's County who do not like the idea of any development on this property, and they are certainly entitled to their opinions,'' argued attorney Nancy L. Slepicka for K. Hovnanian Cos., saying law ''has determined this is an appropriate place for development.''

But opponents questioned the developer's assertion that the project's storm-water system would reduce the current rural runoff into the bay, pointing out that the proposed 4 million square feet of impervious surfaces near the bay cannot be good for its health.

What's more, the reporter writes, the county's current commissioners can't weigh in on the project, because their predecessors agreed in a 2003 settlement with the developer to refrain from public opposition to his permit applications.

Unable to elicit a word on the project privately from any of the five commissioners, Comptroller Franchot thought ''there's been a little too much legal intimidation of the local officials.''

County Commission Republican President Eric S. Wargotz, first elected last year, was even more direct.

''My interpretation is it's essentially a gag order against discussing anything potentially negative with it,'' he said. ''So if there are aspect of the project we like, I guess we're able to talk about it. If there are aspects of the project we don't like, we're not able to discuss it with other officials in government.'' -- Baltimore Sun   5/10/2007

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Design Expert Says Working Within Community's Character and Context Are Primary Components of Successful Smart Growth Projects

''Smart growth isn't done by municipalities alone. The public has to be on board,'' said Colorado-based DTJ Design expert Thomas W. Kopf in his ''Smart Growth at the Edge'' presentation in Berlin, some five miles from Atlantic beaches, stressing that to prevent sprawl and create quality communities, developers should preserve and enhance local character.

''Respect the context,'' he told builders in the audience, while giving local officials and residents this advice: ''Developers who come in without that should be shown the door.''

Part of a four-event smart-growth series sponsored by the Maryland Coastal Bays Program and the Worcester County Commissioners, reports Salisbury Daily Times writer Charlene Polk, the presentation focused on contextual community-building.

''Community is about connections made between people,'' the presenter said, pointing out that each new development should include a core as its heart, provide ample open space, balance the needs of drivers and pedestrians, and offer mixed uses and different housing types.

That's exactly what his firm's designers had done at its project in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, while incorporating in its design traditional local elements and low-key signage.

''We felt,'' he noted, ''that if we created a strong enough place, people would stop by without a flashy sign.''

Ending his presentation, he highlighted a basic difference between true community builders and mere subdividers.

The former, the writer paraphrases, believe in best value instead of yield and they plan for the future; the latter have little concern for the future or the environment and quickly build ''too much of the same thing, which becomes sprawl.'' -- Daily Times   5/8/2007

Resource(s): www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

North Bethesda Center Will Provide Mixed-Use Living With Transit Options for D.C. Suburb

Long a pedestrian-unfriendly domain of cars and strip malls, the invariably jammed Rockville Pike stretch five miles north of D.C. is now getting a forgotten asset, an $850 million mixed-use town center -- with 1,275 luxury high-rise apartments -- on 32 acres behind the White Flint Metro station, reports Washington Post writer Allan Lengel, with Washington Smart Growth Alliance Chairman Sam Black stressing, ''Some people will live there and work there. This is a way the city can grow with less traffic impact.''

Under first-phase construction by Berwyn, Pennsylvania-based LCOR, in conjunction with Metro, which expects $60 million from the 55-year lease of its land to the company, the North Bethesda Center project will include three office buildings, a large Harris Teeter grocery store, retail shops, restaurants, a hotel and possibly a movie theater.

Honored by the alliance's ''smart growth recognition award,'' the writer notes, the center will give this highly developed slice of suburbia ''a self-sufficient hub where workers go between shops and restaurants without getting in their cars -- and frequently use the Metro to commute or run errands.''

Although nearby residents like the town center project, some remain concerned about its impact on schools and traffic.

But Metro spokeswoman Joanne Ferreira said the center should generate about 6,500 more trips a day at the White Flint Metro station, including some on bus.

The current phase of construction should be completed next year, the next three or four phases within 10 years. -- Washington Post   5/7/2007

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/?nav=globaltop

Court Deals Setback for Smart Growth Advocates in Alleghany County Project Ruling

In a setback for Smart Growth, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals reversed last year's decision by an Allegany Circuit Court against the 4,300-home Terrapin Run project near Green Ridge State Forest in the distant scenic stretch between Pennsylvania and West Virginia, siding with the Allegany County Board of Zoning Appeals, which voted 2-1 in 2005 to grant the project a special exception due to its ''harmony'' with the county comprehensive plan.

Opponents, recalls Baltimore Sun reporter Timothy B. Wheeler, argued the project must meet a stricter legal standard of consistency with the plan, and the Circuit Court found the argument valid, sending the case back to the board for reconsideration.

In contrast, the Court of Special Appeals opined that comprehensive plans lack regulatory power and leave local officials some latitude.

''In our view,'' wrote Judge James R. Eyler, ''nothing within the zoning code or the comprehensive plan itself acts to elevate the plan beyond a mere guide.''

PDC Inc. Project Manager Craig Leonard said his firm is ''very pleased'' with the opinion, adding, ''We've got quite a bit of engineering and a number of approvals that we'll still have to get.''

If built as proposed, the reporter notes, Terrapin Run would have about 10,000 residents, a small shopping center and a sewage treatment plant, extending the western boundary of suburban-style development more than 100 miles beyond Baltimore and Washington.

Citizens for Smart Growth in Allegany County activist Tom Mathews said his group will analyze the court opinion ''and see what's next.''

1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins stressed, ''If there's any example of pure bad planning for generations of bad outcomes, Terrapin Run is it.'' -- Baltimore Sun   4/7/2007

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Editorial Suggests Maryland Provide More Support for Community-Friendly Schools

Although Maryland's 1997 Smart Growth law, which limits state infrastructure funds to municipalities and development zones, doesn't focus on schools, they are generally considered part of related planning and most of those approved in the last six years sit within designated growth areas, but the process is ''somewhat fluid and evolving,'' says a Baltimore Sun editorial on school sprawl, encouraging Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley's administration to ''offer more incentives'' for locating schools where planned development goes.

''The trend toward larger schools, with parking lots, ball fields and even space for pollution runoff, has pushed some school buildings outside of areas planned for residential development,'' the editorial observes, with officials attributing part of the swerve to poor topography, land costs, environmental concerns or local resistance in areas where these schools should have been built.

Glad that Governor O'Malley wants to increase state funds for school construction to $400 million, still less than half of what school districts need, the editorial points out that the state can and should provide ''more than just money, particularly as some counties try to cope with anticipated school population increases related to military base realignments.''

With the state Planning Department taking another look at school construction policies, trying to ''identify incentives to encourage locating schools within easier walking distance of communities or at least shorter bus or car rides'' and to promote ''green'' construction standards, the editorial concludes ''More state support for schools that are environmentally and community friendly would help keep Smart Growth vigorous.'' -- Baltimore Sun   4/2/2007

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Are Maryland School Construction Policies Undermining Fight Against Sprawl?

Designed to limit sprawl and boost municipalities, Maryland's 1997 Smart Growth law sends state road and infrastructure funds to projects in urban and growth-designated areas, but since it omits school construction, seven of 28 schools in the last six years went to the fringes, locations which trouble many parents and activists, writes Baltimore Sun reporter Timothy B. Wheeler, quoting 1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins, who asks, ''Why are so many of our schools being built out in cornfields where nobody can walk to them?''

Worried about ''mega-schools out in the middle of nowhere'' and their impact on traffic, air pollution and child obesity, Director Schmidt-Perkins and others feel that school construction policies and practices are undercutting the campaign against sprawl and the role of schools as community centers, while costing taxpayers more and more for busing.

School planners, complains a mother of three, Mount Airy resident Rita Misra, are not factoring in ''the cost of transportation or the benefits of having schools in communities.''

Now, under Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley, who seeks a record $400 million in school funds, the reporter observes, things may improve.

''One of our jobs,'' says Planning Secretary Richard E. Hall, ''is to encourage a Smart Growth take on where schools are sited.''

State and local education officials explain they had to build some schools outside designated growth areas for several reasons. They mention the shortage of adequate urban sites, the need to economize by building schools large enough for increased enrollment over the long term, the demand for more parking and ball fields, and last but not least, environmental requirements for reserving land to minimize polluted runoff.

The reporter cites the example of Vincent Farm Elementary School, under construction in northeastern Baltimore County. Just 2.2 acres will go for the building, 3.7 acres for parking and driveways, and 7 acres for ball fields and playgrounds, with most of the remaining 14.7 acres set aside for a water collection pond, woods, wetlands and floodplain.

With schools large and far away, Maryland pays $185 million to bus some 600,000 students for a total of almost 120 million miles a year.

Nationwide, busing and school-related driving is responsible for about a quarter of morning rush-hour traffic, with a 2003 EPA study estimating air pollution around a school where no student arrives on foot as two times higher than around a similar size school where 15 percent of students walk.

Experts warn that the sharp decline of walking to school, from nearly half of students in 1969 to below 15 percent now, affects children's health and contributes to their overweight and obesity.

Nevertheless, school siting isn't the sole culprit.

EPA Deputy Associate Administrator Richard D. Otis, who oversees the agency's Smart Growth program, points to an area's development pattern, too.

''If you have a fairly low-density community of wide streets, cul-de-sacs and feeder roads and so on,'' he says, ''it doesn't really matter where you site the school because people aren't going to be walking anyway.''

Still, in a 2004 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey parents made clear their children don't walk to classes because of distance and 1000 Friends Director Schmidt-Perkins calls for greater efforts to locate schools in urban and designated-growth areas.

The reporter sees two factors that may help curb school sprawl -- the increased scarcity of convenient large tracts, with some schools on smaller sites being built two or three stories up, and the cost of extending utilities into the countryside. -- Baltimore Sun   3/25/2007

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Maryland's Coastal Worcester County Praised for Comprehensive Plan

Heartened by increased public awareness of the physical, economic and social costs of sprawl and the shift toward sustainability, Pulitzer Prize winning former journalist Thomas Hylton complimented coastal Worcester County for its comprehensive plan during his smart-growth presentation in Berlin, saying he saw a ''junkscape'' along Route 13 in Salisbury, Wicomico County, just 20 miles west, but here county leaders are ''doing all the right things.''

The journalist, reports Berlin Dispatch writer Cara Dahl, shared his 20-year-long reporting experience, as part of the county's lecture series on key goals of its planning and zoning.

''It's to get the public familiar with what we're advocating,'' stressed County Planning Commission Chairwoman Carolyn Cummins. ''I hope the community comes out and sees us talking about what we're doing so they're not surprised when the new zoning code comes out.''

With the outdated separate-use zoning and sprawl, said the guest speaker, one of the most harmful effects is the slow erosion of the sense of community as minorities and the poor find themselves increasingly isolated.

At the same time, air pollution is taking its toll, while asphalt and other impervious surfaces worsen droughts, runoff and flooding.

Pointing to the advantages of pedestrian-friendly community design, the benefits of large trees and the aesthetic value of traditional local architecture, he emphasized the need for urban infill and redevelopment.

''The last place you want to build anything is virgin land,'' he observed. ''In America it's the first place, but it should be the last place.''

Comprehensive Planning for Worcester County Director Sandy Coyman and County Commissioner Judy Boggs agreed, appreciating the praise and advice.

''We don't want the whole county to be developed and turned into sprawl,'' said the latter. ''He validated the direction in which we're going. That was good to hear.'' -- Dispatch   3/22/2007

Resource(s): www.mdcoastdispatch.com/

Chesapeake Bay Green Fund Amendments Drafted to Ease Passage in Maryland General Assembly

To settle the last legislative objections to making developers pay impervious-surface fees for the proposed $130 million Chesapeake Bay Green Fund (HB 1220; SB 901), which would help fight polluted runoff and clean up the bay, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) followed concessions from House Environmental Matters Democratic Chairwoman Maggie L. McIntosh with several of its own amendments, worked out in greater detail and focused on less affluent counties that need an economic boost.

What's perhaps most important, reports Salisbury Daily Times writer Joseph Gidjunis, the CBF moved to reduce the impervious-surface fee from $2 to $1 per square foot outside the priority funding areas (PFAs) targeted for growth, and to increase it from 25 to 50 cents within those smart-growth areas.

Exceptions would be made for affordable housing, for more rural and forest tracts, and for economic development projects in distressed counties such as Somerset.

In addition, a fee discount for environmentally friendly site plans and construction would increase from 25 to 75 percent, and home additions wouldn't be charged unless expansion exceeded 20 percent of the original structure size.

Hailed earlier by state Planning Secretary Richard E. Hall as helpful in channeling growth to urban service areas, the proposed Chesapeake Bay Green Fund was also endorsed by Agriculture Secretary Roger Richardson, Environment Secretary Shari Wilson and Natural Resources Secretary John Griffin. -- Daily Times   3/15/2007

Resource(s): www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Homebuilders Give Cool Reception to Chesapeake Bay Green Fund, But Maryland Association of Counties Welcomes Opportunity to Provide Input

Since Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley took office this January, Maryland's land management prospects have brightened, with the governor budgeting $339,000 to reopen the Office of Smart Growth in the Department of Planning, and with House Environmental Matters Democratic Chairwoman Maggie L. McIntosh winning more support for the Chesapeake Bay Green Fund (HB 1220; SB 901) by offering local governments a third of the $130 million they would raise each year from new impervious-footage construction fees.

Set last month at 25 cents per foot in growth zones and $2 per square foot elsewhere, with exemptions for government projects, affordable housing and runoff countermeasures, notes Baltimore Sun reporter Tom Pelton, the fees would help clean up the Chesapeake Bay and limit further pollution from roads, driveways, parking lots and roofs, but also from fertilized farmland.

Eight times higher in the countryside, the fees would motivate more builders to follow the state's 1997 Smart Growth policy for concentrating development in urban and designated growth areas.

In addition, exemptions for porous parking lots, smaller driveways, advanced storm-water systems and similar features would encourage environmentally-friendly construction practices.

''We don't want to stop growth,'' stressed Chairwoman McIntosh, ''but we want to make sure it's compatible with the heart of Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay, and the heart is sick.''

Her readiness to lower the anti-runoff fees somewhat made no difference to homebuilders, the reporter observes, quoting Maryland State Builders Association lobbyist Stephen J. Orens.

''The focus on new impervious surfaces,'' he argued, ''places a disproportionate burden on the new homebuyer and the new businesses coming into the state.''

In contrast, Maryland Association of Counties Secretary, Calvert County Board of Commissioners President Wilson H. Parran, complimented Chairwoman McIntosh for her openness to county input, saying, ''she is very passionate about solving the problems with the environment and the bay, and so are we.''

With 35 percent of the projected $130 million a year going to the Department of Agriculture to help farmers set buffer strips along waterways and plant cover crops to curb fertilizer runoff, new state Planning Secretary Richard E. Hall also hailed the proposed fund for its expected impact on local planning and keeping growth in service areas. -- Baltimore Sun, Associated Press   3/8/2007

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Baltimore County School Planners Urged to Buy Land Now for Future Needs

In the face of enormous population growth over the next decades, said Baltimore County civic activist Kent Smith in an interview with Northeast Booster community newspaper writer Linda Garman Weimer, school planners should ''be looking 20, 30, 40 years ahead, not just three or four years down the road,'' and they should be buying land now to meet future student needs.

The former journalist, now Columbia-based Cadmus Communications academic journal production assistant manager and a Northeast Area Educational Advisory Council member, recently told the County Council that poor planning is the root cause of current school overcrowding, especially in the county's designated growth areas.

At the same time, the writer reports, Advisory Council President Peter Mattes stressed the importance of better long-range school planning at a county school board meeting.

Another problem stems from the state's school site guidelines, which recommend 25, 40 and 50 acres for elementary, middle and high schools, respectively, with the district's ''land bank'' inventory showing a total of 17 lots, all smaller than the state wants.

Noting that the Advisory Council ''isn't unanimous'' on the need to lower the state's recommended school site minimums, Kent Smith said, ''In limited instances, there should be a look at lowering the acreage required.''

He feels a degree of confidence, the writer notes, that the pleas from the Advisory Council and the Perry Hall Improvement Association ''will motivate the school professionals, school board members and county Council'' to act. -- Northeast Booster   2/28/2007

Resource(s): http://news.mywebpal.com/index.cfm?pnpid=807

Green Fund Bill Would Direct Impervious Surface Development Fees to Curb Sprawl, Protect Chesapeake Bay

To bolster the state's 1997 Smart Growth law, curb sprawl and protect the Chesapeake Bay from polluted runoff, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation proposed a Green Fund bill that would let local governments raise $130 million a year from new developer fees -- higher in rural areas, lower in designated growth zones -- twice the annual amount sought by former Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. under his so-called ''flush tax,'' imposed January 2005 to help pay for sewage treatment plant improvements.

State Democratic leaders, including Governor Martin O'Malley, House Speaker Michael E. Bush and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, notes Baltimore Sun reporter Tom Pelton, like and support the legislation, though the latter isn't sure it will pass at a time when lawmakers are ''focused on balancing the budget'' and ''looking at sales tax increases, lotteries, slot machines.''

Home Builders Association of Maryland policy director Tom Ballentine questions if ''forcing new homebuyers to pay a disproportionate share of cleanup is really equitable,'' with House Republican Minority Leader Anthony J. O'Donnell asking, ''How can you create new fees to drive up the cost of construction when we haven't even begun to fix our existing structural deficit?''

Nevertheless, with 75 percent of subdivisions since 1997 built outside Maryland's growth-targeted ''priority funding areas,'' because the state can't stop developers rich enough to pay for roads and sewers without its help, conservationists stress the need to toughen Smart Growth policies.

The proposed Green Fund, says House Environmental Matters Committee Chairwoman Maggie L. McIntosh, offers them both more ''teeth'' and a ''high IQ.''

According to Chesapeake Bay Foundation Maryland Director Kim Coble, the Green Fund law would cover any ''impervious surfaces'' such as roofs, parking lots and sidewalks, except for government projects, with developers paying local governments permit application fees of 25 cents per square foot in designated growth zones and $2 per square foot in other areas.

They could reduce the charges by 25 percent by making parking lots more porous or otherwise softening the environmental impact of impervious surfaces.

Should they pass the cost to homebuyers, a mortgage for an average house on a quarter-acre lot would rise by $5 a month in growth areas and by $38 elsewhere.

Local governments would send the $130 million a year to the state comptroller's office, with 35 percent of the money distributed by the Department of Agriculture to help farmers pay for reducing agricultural runoff and similar environmental risks.

The rest would fund other conservation measures, including incentives for affordable housing in growth zones, storm water system improvements, and wetland restoration. -- Baltimore Sun   2/16/2007

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Editorial: Cooperation Key to Enhancing Quality of Life in Wicomico County

''Managing growth is a team effort,'' says a Salisbury Daily Times editorial, agreeing with Wicomico County Executive Rick Pollitt that ''government, developers and residents must all work together'' to enhance the county's quality of life by directing dense development into its so-called Metro Core -- cities of Delmar, Salisbury and Fruitland -- while protecting the surrounding open space, a consensus and cooperation absent so far.

Enacted in 1998, the editorial recalls, the state's Smart Growth policies helped the county curb its prevalent sprawl, as it increased the agricultural zoning limit from two housing units per acre to one unit per 15 acres.

Consequently, and contrary to the popular impression of intense residential growth, 86 percent of Wicomico County land, including the 46 percent suitable for development, remains undeveloped.

Similarly, the county public school enrolment of 14,548 is still below the 1970-71 record of 14,635.

While rural residents like the idea of concentrating growth in the Metro Core and city residents fear the prospective traffic and density, the editorial continues, county officials count the taxpayer costs related to development type and service needs.

Unfortunately, it observes, ''residential development just doesn't pay for itself,'' with the county spending $1.21 for each dollar it gets in residential property taxes, but only 33 and 96 cents for every dollar in commercial and open land or park taxes, respectively.

''The answer isn't to encourage more commercial growth and discourage residential growth,'' the editorial cautions, stressing the economic need for balance and careful planning to make the Metro Core denser and save the countryside. -- Daily Times   2/12/2007

Resource(s): www.delmarvanow.com/

New State Groundwater Regulations Appear to Work Against Maryland's Smart Growth Policy

Having replaced their one-term Republican governor with Democrat Martin O'Malley last November, Maryland voters most wanted, among other things, to restore the state's pioneering anti-sprawl drive, now made more difficult by recent Maryland Department of the Environment requirements for municipalities to own one acre for each house -- a minimum that secures groundwater supplies for once-in-100-years drought conditions, but also pushes development in the countryside.

''There seems to be a real disconnect between state water policy and the state Smart Growth policy,'' observed Virginia Tech Planning Professor Jesse J. Richardson Jr. at Carroll County's water summit in Westminster, telling county and municipal leaders the department's approach ''means you have to build those houses out in rural areas, with well and septic, on 1- or 2- or 5-acre lots.''

Hampstead Town Manager Ken Decker voiced obvious municipal frustration, saying, ''We're caught between two state policy initiatives to get more dense and somehow magically come up with more water to support this increased density.''

His town has tapped its sources for up to 724,000 gallons a day, he noted, puzzled why the department now allocates it only 580,000 gallons -- criticism echoed by other local officials.

With Carroll County seen as a laboratory for the new state law mandating specific water resource plans in all counties and municipalities, notes Baltimore Sun reporter Laura McCandlish, Professor Richardson mentioned the need to manage the demand by repairing pipelines and septic systems, recycling rainwater and restricting water use during droughts.

Commenting later on the state's ''looming freshwater crisis,'' reports Baltimore Examiner writer Kelsey Volkmann, retired federal chemical engineer Peter Ritzcovan said, ''We have to look at water availability and disposal as a single question,'' which involves issues of wastewater recycling and seawater desalinization.

County hydrogeologist Tom Devilbiss agreed, saying, ''It's not something we should fear; it's something we should investigate.''

Meantime, summit participants want to look at old plans to build two regional reservoirs, lobby state lawmakers for water law reform and promote conservation.

''We have to be planning as a group for all these things and how to pay for them,'' stressed Westminster Administrator Marge Wolf. ''It can't just fall to the municipalities.''

Long-time smart growth advocate, County Commissioner Julia Walsh Gouge said, ''Water is going to be the key as to how we grow, and what really happens in every one of our areas.'' -- Baltimore Sun, Examiner   2/9/2007

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/ ; www.examiner.com/

Baltimore County Groups Balk at State Education Department's Recommendations for Massive School Sites

Oblivious of a national shift back to neighborhood schools, which recognizes not only their educational and social advantages but also the shortage and high costs of suitable land, the Maryland Department of Education recommends at least 25, 40 and 50 acres for elementary, middle and high schools -- a recommendation strongly opposed by Baltimore County's voluntary Northeast Educational Advisory Council and the Perry Hall Improvement Association as delaying school construction and augmentation.

Alarmed by overcrowding at Chapel Hill Elementary in Perry Hall and Perry Hall High in White Marsh, reports The Jeffersonian community newspaper writer Linda Garman Weimer, both groups unanimously endorsed a research report by their officer Kent Smith, urging school board officials to disregard the state's guidelines -- which are neither law nor regulation -- especially in the county's rapidly growing northeastern section.

Had it observed such acreage standards in the past decades, the report says, the county could have built only one of the area's 31 elementary, middle and high schools, now averaging 16.6, 25.8 and 38.6 acres, respectively.

The current standards slowed construction of Vincent Farm Elementary in White Marsh, its previously sufficient site acquired in the 1970s, Kent Smith wrote, because ''it took county government 16 months to close the deal for additional land.''

He called for an inventory of the county's school land, both active and vacant, to determine its full potential in the face of fast residential growth.

County Assistant Superintendent Bill Lawrence, the writer notes, admitted that with many schools under capacity, particularly in the southeastern section, the overcrowded ones are mainly in the designated growth areas of Owings Mills and Perry Hall/White Marsh.

He said a review of the Chapel Hill Elementary situation will determine the possibility of placing another trailer on the site and adding school staff, but didn't address the call for reducing the school-site minimums. -- The Jeffersonian   1/24/2007

Resource(s): http://news.mywebpal.com/index.cfm?pnpid=811

Maryland's New Transport Secretary Will Link Transit to Local Land Use

Following new Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley's promise to restore the state's focus on transit and Smart Growth, his Transportation Secretary John Porcari, also at that post during Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening's second term (1999-2003), won't plan transportation ''in a vacuum,'' telling Washington Post columnist Robert Thomson, or Dr. Gridlock, ''Whether you're building transit in particular or highways, it should be linked to local land use.''

In contrast to his Republican predecessor Robert Flanagan, Secretary Porcari also considers light-rail lines better suited for attracting investment in transit-oriented development than bus rapid transit, because their stations can't be moved some place else.

''Would you put tens of millions of dollars of private capital at risk next to a station that could be moved if it's bus rapid transit?'' he asks.

''One of the advantages of fixed guideway -- heavy rail or light rail,'' he observes, ''is that you can make a reasonable assumption that if you make the investment in the community, you have a reasonable expectation that stations will be there 50 years from now, 100 years from now.''

As to the prospective Intercounty Connector (ICC) between interstates 270 and 97 north of D.C. -- argued about for decades, put on a fast track by Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., strongly opposed in Montgomery County, and perhaps vulnerable to an environmental lawsuit -- Secretary Porcari expects it will be built.

''Anything could happen,'' he says, ''but I do think it's been studied enough, it's been scrutinized enough and it has been debated enough that all the significant issues have been vetted one way or another.'' Still, he adds, ''the first order of business is system preservation,'' taking care of present assets, ''filling the holes, resurfacing, fixing the bridges,'' along with focusing on the projects already under construction or about to get under way.

All things considered, the columnist concludes, to Secretary Porcari, ''a proper transportation network offers people choices -- drive, ride, transit, bike, walk -- and is integrated with a land use plan and environmental protection.'' -- Washington Post   1/18/2007

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com

Office of Smart Growth Will Be Revived in Maryland Under Gov.-Elect O'Malley

At the national Smart Growth forefront under two-term Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening until 2003, Maryland faltered during the four years of Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., but now his Democratic successor, former Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, said his spokesman Rick Abbruzzese, will put the state back on the course, by reviving the Office of Smart Growth, creating another for the military personnel influx after the latest base realignment, focusing on transit expansion, and seeking greater involvement in local development plans.

Growth-management advocates, reports Associated Press writer Kristen Wyatt, feel relieved but they don't expect the fight against Maryland sprawl and road congestion to be easy.

''Over the last four years, there's not been a whole lot of progress,'' said Washington-based Smart Growth America Communication Director David Goldberg diplomatically. ''The effort is to realign the decision making and spending priorities to support growth where you want it to happen and discourage it, or at least not subsidize it, where you don't want it.''

State Democratic Delegate William Bronrott and 1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins were more outspoken about state policy in the past four years.

''I feel like Smart Growth was mostly buried under the Ehrlich administration,'' noted Delegate Bronrott. ''The Smart Growth flag was flying high under Glendening. Then it was lowered to half-mast under Ehrlich.''

Friends Director Schmidt-Perkins attributed the change to partisanship.

''The Ehrlich administration thought Smart Growth was a Glendening initiative,'' she pointed out; ''therefore, they were fairly hostile to continuing the momentum we had.''

Convinced that unwillingness to block local decisions that perpetuated sprawl cost the Republican governor rural votes and sealed his loss in November, she added, ''The citizens of this state want our open spaces protected much better.'' -- Washington Times, Baltimore Sun   1/8/2007

Resource(s): www.washingtontimes.com/ ; www.baltimoresun.com/

Montgomery County Council President Proposes ''Time-Out'' on Development Application Reviews for Certain Projects

''I want to assure our residents that we have heard the call to moderate growth'' in this heavily congested suburban area northwest of Washington, D.C., said Montgomery County Council President Marilyn Praisner, chosen by the newly elected all-Democratic council to a third term, as she proposed ''a targeted 'time-out' on development application review'' until August 15, ''except for those in Metro Station Policy Areas and Enterprise Zones'' or those outside the Poolesville and Goshen Policy Areas that would generate up to five peak traffic trips.

She also introduced a resolution to ask the Planning Board for ''a set of tools to manage growth and fund infrastructure,'' which will help the council revise its Annual Growth Policy within a few months instead of by next fall.

''We must strengthen the link between development and infrastructure,'' she stressed, ''to ensure that our county grows in healthy and sustainable way.''

The moratorium proposal, report Washington Post writers Ann E. Marimow and Miranda S. Spivack, requires a public hearing and approval by new County Democratic Executive Isaiah ''Ike'' Legget, who replaced his fellow party member Douglas M. Duncan, pledging a tougher approach to development and gridlock.

Councilwoman Nancy Floreen, one of the three remaining council members seen as too permissive to developers, the writers note, thought moratoriums should be reserved for emergencies.

''It's a political statement here, and I respect that,'' she said. ''But the implications for affordable housing, for churches, are very significant, and without giving anyone any direction as to where we're going on this.''

One of the newly elected members, Councilman Marc Elrich, called the proposed moratorium a pause. ''It's not like development is going to come to a screeching halt,'' he pointed out. ''This is the sensible thing to do to get our growth policy in shape.'' -- Washington Post, Montgomery County Government   12/6/2006

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/?nav=globaltop ; www.montgomerycountymd.gov/index.asp

Activists Expect Gov.-Elect O'Malley to Bring New Emphasis on Reducing Sprawl, Preserving Undeveloped Land

In the four years of Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich's administration, ''we had to fight for everything we gained,'' said Maryland League of Conservation Voters Executive Director Cindy Schwartz, expecting more effective environmental and anti-sprawl policies under incoming Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley, an expectation justified by his spokesman Rick Abbruzzese.

The governor-elect will take ''a really aggressive'' environmental stance, he promised, mentioning plans to start regular meetings of all agencies whose decisions affect the environment and Chesapeake Bay, and to revive the Office of Smart Growth, established by previous Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening.

According to state House Environmental Matters Democratic Chairwoman Maggie McIntosh, reports Associated Press writer Kristen Wyatt, the public may expect a renewed focus on more fuel-efficient and less polluting cars -- possibly with the state imposing tougher emission standards and manufacturers having to sell more hybrids -- and legislation to curb sprawl and help local governments preserve farmland.

''My hope is the new administration looks at areas such as planning,'' said Chairwoman McIntosh, ''and realizes a lot of small communities do not have capacity to do planed growth.''

That's what environmental groups are counting on, having volunteered campaign time and spent outreach money to help the Democrat unseat the Republican incumbent, the writer observes, quoting state Sierra Club Chairwoman Betsy Johnson, who stressed, ''We would like a governor who actually supports us.'' -- Washington Post   11/27/2006

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/

Frederick County Builder Discusses Financial Pitfalls of Construction Moratoriums, Suggests Annexations as Path to Smart Growth

Wary of more difficult development under the newly elected Frederick County board of commissioners, most of whom campaigned for growth management, Frederick County Builders Association (FCBA) President Terre Rhoderick, a former commissioner who backed school impact fees, told Frederick News-Post writer Ed Waters, Jr. that if they really want Smart Growth ''then they will support annexations into municipalities and growth areas where building should be allowed to proceed.''

Talk of moratoriums and plan changes ''doesn't bode well'' for the county, he said, noting that roughly half of county revenue comes from property taxes and the other half from income taxes - the former going for schools, the latter for everything else - and that its six-year $724.9 million capital improvement program is predicated on construction of 1,500 housing units a year. Should construction slow down, the county would need to increase property taxes to cover the shortfall, he cautioned, promising the industry will do its best to cooperate with the new board.

According to the Frederick County Division of Planning's 2005 report, the writer observes, developers received permits for 2,251 housing units last year, the most since 2000, which brought the total number of dwellings to 84,685. The report projects that number will reach 91,078 by 2010, then 108,140 by 2022 and 122,766 by 2030.

The FCBA president respects the voters' choice for slower growth, but also feels ''disheartened.'' He thinks that many attributed county road congestion to local development, while a lot of this traffic is caused by commuters who ''live outside the county because of restrictions on the building process.''

FCBA Executive Director Bryan Patchan said he heard ''a lot about 'out-of-town' builders during the campaign,'' but these are local people who build in adjacent counties or West Virginia and Pennsylvania because they ''were forced to do business elsewhere'' by Frederick County restrictions and residential land shortages. Still, he declined to predict what the new commissioners might do.

In June, the writer adds, the board commissioned the Bethesda-based TischlerBise consulting firm to study the county's revenue, including its current and potential income from development, with the first results promised in six to eight months. -- Frederick News-Post   11/12/2006

Resource(s): www.fredericknewspost.com/index.htm

Ehrlich Administration Announces Deal to Preserve 754 Acres at Site of Blackwater Resort Project Hours Before Voters Elect Mayor O'Malley to be Maryland's Next Governor

Having cut into the incumbent's conservative base and drawn huge numbers in Baltimore and populous suburban counties near Washington, Baltimore Democratic Mayor Martin O'Malley beat Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. by 53 to 46 percent of votes, even with the administration's announcement on election eve that the state will spend $10.4 million to preserve 754 of 1,080 acres between Cambridge and the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge on Chesapeake Bay's Eastern Shore, where a resort project was to include 2,700 homes.

Ousting the Republican governor, Marylanders also voted 85 to 15 percent for a constitutional amendment on ''Disposition of Park Lands,'' which bars future governors from selling state land without the approval by the General Assembly, a proposal Ehrlich backed.

As to the Blackwater development fight, wrote Baltimore Sun reporters Tom Pelton and Chris Guy on Election Day, the administration agreed to include the fragile tract on its ''priority funding area'' list last year, instead of denying Cambridge officials related infrastructure funds under the state's 1997 Smart Growth Act. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation gathered 37,000 signatures on petitions urging Governor Ehrlich to save the land, and in early October, Mayor O'Malley and former Governor Harry Hughes also urged the governor to block the development project, which provoked farmers and conservationists and sparked seven lawsuits.

Gubernatorial spokesman Henry Fawell described Ehrlich as ''thrilled'' with the deal -- supposedly in the works since August -- which would let developer Duane Zentgraf build just 600 homes on Cambridge's southern fringe, but still depends on approval by the state Board of Public Works and the incoming Democratic governor next year.

The project's opponents would have liked the whole 1,080-acre tract to have bee bought for preservation and for the Republican governor to have acted earlier. ''Is this the kind of governor we want, one who will do this at the last minute, or one who will do the right thing the first time?'' asked Maryland League of Conservation Voters Executive Director Cindy Schwartz, calling his reversal on the issue ''a crassly political . . . election ploy.''

1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins echoed the sentiment. ''I think it could have been done saving the taxpayers $10 million,'' she said, ''by using the state's Office of Smart Growth to say we are not going to allow this kind of growth on sensitive land.'' -- Baltimore Sun   11/8/2006

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Gov. Ehrlich Receives Endorsement from The Washington Post

Since 2003, its writers, columnists and editors have often questioned Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s policies, but now The Washington Post prefers him over Baltimore Democratic Mayor Martin O'Malley as the state leader for the next four years, an endorsement that prompted incredulous letters from at least two readers the next day -- high school senior Ben Shnider of Kensington citing a 40-percent tuition increase on some campuses during the governor's term and Baltimore resident Martha K. Johnston pointing out that the Maryland League of Conservation Voters gave him ''a grade of D for his record on issues such as air quality and smart growth.''

The Post credits the incumbent for having ''grown in the role and become a generally proficient, pragmatic governor, if not always a disciplined or mature one,'' as evidenced by his ''childish blacklisting'' of two Baltimore Sun journalists and ''tiresome quarrels' with Democratic majority leaders in the General Assembly.

Like most state executives, the Post says, Governor Ehrlich benefited from a good national economy, but he also ''helped his own cause by raising funds through higher taxes and fees, breaking with his party's knee-jerk anti-tax orthodoxy and using the proceeds constructively.''

As examples of his transportation, environmental and educational successes, the Post cites resurrection and approval of the Intercounty Connector between interstates 270 and 95 north of the DC; passage of the ''flush tax'' bill, setting a $30 per household annual fee for upgrades in sewage plants that pollute the Chesapeake Bay; and a law allowing charter schools opposed by some school boards.

Noting that the governor pardoned more criminals and commuted more sentences than his two predecessors did over the previous 16 years, the Post says his ''practice of dispensing mercy is exemplary.'' The Post also commends him for ''appointing plenty of Democrats to his cabinet and judgeships.''

Turning to the Democratic challenger, the Post agrees that Mayor O'Malley ''made progress in stanching Baltimore's outflow of population, reviving some of its more blighted neighborhoods, reducing the level of violent crime, and adapting corporate methods of efficiency and accountability to the functions of government.''

Still, the Post worries about two things. First, that he ''has remained Baltimore-centric, offering little of substance about the Washington area's problems, especially its choked roads and transit systems;'' and, second, that his victory ''would herald a return to the brand of one-party Democratic rule that has served the state poorly in the past.''

The reasoning sounds hollow for the two cited readers. Prospective University of Maryland student Ben Shnider wrote it will cost his family about $18,000 a year for tuition, room and board, asking the Post this question: ''Has Mr. Ehrlich really raised funds by 'breaking with his party's knee-jerk anti-tax orthodoxy,' or has he exhibited a virulent disregard for Maryland's working families in his scramble to appear fiscally responsible?'' Baltimore resident Martha K. Johnston wrote that in addition to his poor grade from conservationists, the governor tried ''to secretly sell parkland to developers,'' and she has a question: ''How can the Post possibly consider this good stewardship of the land or of state government?'' -- The Washington Post   10/26/2006

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/

Mayor O'Malley Pledges to Restore Maryland's Office of Smart Growth if Victorious in November

Criticizing Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. for a ''knee-jerk opposition to rail'' and for dismantling his Democratic predecessor's Office of Smart Growth, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, pledged to order an immediate audit of the state's transportation resources, to name a commission for drawing up a 10-year transportation-funding plan, and to restore the smart growth office.

The governor ''consistently tells us we should be satisfied with a fast bus,'' said Mayor O'Malley during a campaign event at a Metro station in New Carrollton, stressing that bad transportation and land use policies worsened the state's traffic congestion. He also promised to search for more transportation money by streamlining state management first instead of seeking new taxes and charges. In 2004, notes Baltimore Sun reporter Michael Dresser, the governor pushed through a $238 million-a-year transportation-funding package largely based on higher vehicle registration fees.

State Transportation Secretary Robert L.Flanagan dismissed the mayor's plan as full of complaints and wishes but void of specifics. Calling his attention to details of the just-released six-year state transportation plan, he said 10-year planning would risk inaccurate revenue and cost projections.

During his own campaign appearance in the Bass Pro Shop at Arundel Mills Mall, Governor Ehrlich described the mayor's whole record as one of ''taxes and taxes and more regulation and just blame George Bush for everything.'' -- Baltimore Sun   10/25/2006

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

''Reality Check Plus'' Report Looks at How Maryland Can Preserve Open Space, Boost Denser Development

''People are tired of natural areas being paved over, tired of sitting in traffic, tired of overcrowded schools, tired of worrying that there won't be enough drinking water or that it's contaminated,'' said 1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins of a new report on the need for greater state efforts to boost denser development and save farmland at faster rates than currently planned or permitted by current zoning.

Released as the electorate wrangles over growth, with rivals for local and state offices stressing its benefits or drawbacks, notes Baltimore Sun reporter Timothy B. Wheeler, the report summarizes ideas from four ''Reality Check Plus'' visioning workshops in May and June, attended by some 850 officials, planners, developers and community activists.

Held jointly by 1000 Friends of Maryland, the University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education, and the Baltimore council of the Washington-based Urban Land Institute (ULI), the workshops produced a general agreement that the nation's fifth most densely populated state -- its population of 5.5 million projected to reach 7 million by 2030 -- should concentrate much of this growth within the Baltimore and Washington beltways, in transit corridors and in other designated areas.

With national military base realignment expected to bring in 28,000 households and 45,000 jobs within 10 years, workshop leaders acknowledged that the shift toward higher densities won't be politically popular. ''There is some disconnect between that desire (to concentrate development) and what happens on the ground,'' observed the report's primary author, Smart Growth Research and Education Associate Director John W. Frece. ''There are two things people don't like -- one is sprawl, and the other is density.''

Home Builders Association of Maryland executive Vice President John Kortecamp and Maryland Planning Secretary Audrey E. Scott agreed, both appreciative of the reality check workshops and the report. The former welcomed the call for development ''in areas that can and should support it, meaning where there's good transit of various sorts'' and for ''a connection between jobs and housing that currently does not exist.'' The latter said the state can only educate and work with localities protective of their land use control, adding, ''You're not going to change people's minds overnight, but it's a start.''

Smart growth advocates expect the report to help the public debate and crystallize policy recommendations for compact development, the reporter writes, once again quoting Director Frece. ''This is not a substitute for sophisticated planning. This is the result of bringing together 80 laymen from all walks of life,'' he stressed. ''It is a very crude sort of measurement, but I think it gives an indication of a direction.'' Baltimore Sun   9/26/2006

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Revival of Maryland's Live Near Your Work Program Draws Criticism from Smart Growth Advocates

Part of former Democratic Governor (1994-02) Parris N. Glendening's multi-prong Smart Growth initiative, the Live Near Your Work program helped 990 homebuyers in depressed urban areas over five years with $3,000 grants for their closing costs before the money ran out in 2003, but the way Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has revived it just four months ahead of the November election strikes smart growth advocates as contrary to their goals.

Governor Ehrlich, reports the Associated Press, disengaged the program from employer and county underwriting, expanded it for homes within 25 miles of the buyer's job and increased the grant amount to 3 percent of a mortgage.

''Three thousand dollars is nice, but 3 percent of your mortgage amount is better,'' announced state Department of Housing and Community Development chief financial officer Stephen Silver, adding that homebuyers get the money without having to worry about employer and county participation.

Indeed, the agency notes, a Silver Spring couple, Paul Pilger and his girlfriend, got more than $9,000 for settlement costs of their $311,000 mortgage -- she increasing her distance from a job, but not beyond the 25-mile eligibility radius; he, commuting some five miles more and slightly exceeding the limit.

''This is 'live near your work'?'' asked 1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins, expressing her utter disbelief. ''This is a benefit for congestion, which we don't really need any more incentives for.''

Former Maryland Secretary of Planning (2000-01) Harriet Tregoning, who continues to work with Governor Glendening as executive director of Washington-based Smart Growth America's Smart Growth Leadership Institute, feels the same. ''You could draw a 25-mile circle around most major employers,'' she pointed out, ''and end up where you don't want development to happen.'' -- The Capital   9/19/2006

Resource(s): www.hometownannapolis.com/

Citizens Group Cites Maryland's Smart Growth Goals to Refute Developer's Claim That Allegany County Project Is ''Smart''

While PDC principal Michael Carnock and staff insist that density of the firm's 4,300 housing-unit and shopping-center Terrapin Run project on some 1,000 acres of forest and steep slopes in eastern Allegany County constitutes smart growth and that they need exclusive rights to that term and related organizational names used by their opponents, including ''Citizens for Smart Growth in Allegany County,'' that group's member Penny Knobel-Besa makes it clear that the proposed development ''does not fit'' the state's definition of Smart Growth.

Comparing Terrapin Run to a car without an engine, she notes the project's location far away from any infrastructure. The 1,000-plus acres include 400 unsuited for construction, with the whole site bordered by scenic US-40 and surrounded by Green Ridge State Forest, Billmeyer Wildlife Refuge and other land zoned for conservation or agriculture, she writes in a Cumberland Times-News guest opinion, pointing out that there are no public water and sewer lines, no electricity and no schools.

The project is named after the thin and slow Terrapin Run stream, which trickles into 15 Mile Creek, the location of an endangered aquatic plant, and eventually reaches the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay.

In this context, she cites the Maryland Department of Planning web site, which lists its four straightforward Smart Growth goals. ''Support existing communities by targeting resources to support development in areas where infrastructure exists;'' ''Save our most valuable natural resources before they are lost forever;'' ''Save the taxpayers from the high cost of building infrastructure to serve development that has spread far from our traditional population centers;'' and ''Provide Marylanders with a high quality of life, whether they chose to live in a rural community, suburb, small town, or city.''

At the same time Allegany County's own comprehensive plan calls for ''scattered and limited development'' as the only kind appropriate for that area, she stresses, asking, ''can't our county commissioners, planners and zoning board read?'' Soon ''our present politicians may find that while the bears and trees in eastern Allegany County don't vote, the 'Citizens for Smart Growth' will vote for them,'' she concludes, now asking readers, ''How about you?'' -- Times-News   9/14/2006

Resource(s): www.times-news.com/ ; www.mdp.state.md.us/

Crofton Wal-Mart Project on Hold Pending Land Assessment, Public Hearing on Site's Ecological Status

Opposed by the Crofton First smart growth group, a 143,000-square-foot Wal-Mart big box, with a lube center, garden shop and 676-car parking lot, proposed for 20 acres west of Route 3 in Anne Arundel County, will have to wait for a second assessment of the tract by the Army Corps of Engineers and a public hearing by the state Department of the Environment (MDE) to determine the land's current sensitivity, including wetlands, plants and wildlife.

Corps spokesman Chris Augsberger said the agency, in cooperation with the MDE, wants to make sure that its 1998 assessment, which found only a half acre of non-tidal wetlands on the site, is still valid. Land owner William Berkshire, reports Annapolis Capital writer Joshua Stewart, is confident the site contains no ecosystem required for the Corps' wetlands designation and considers local concerns exaggerated.

But Wal-Mart opponents call the Corps' decision to reevaluate the site a small victory, noting that environmental changes and a wetlands increase would require the company to seek a new permit for its big-box project. ''It has put the agencies on notice that they better make sure that their i's are dotted and their t's are crossed,'' said Crofton First Co-Chair Madonna Brennan. ''(Hurricane) Isabel may have changed things. There was a lot of flooding in 2003. There may have been some changes in the topography of the land.''

Recently, the writer adds, Wal-Mart spokesman Phil Serghini noted that the project may get smaller, saying, ''We have listened to a lot of the comments that have been raised during this process and we are strongly considering downsizing the store.'' -- Capital   9/7/2006

Resource(s): www.hometownannapolis.com/

Yard Signs Voice Support for Clean Water, Smart Growth in Worcester County

''The future of Worcester County depends on Clean Water, Smart Growth, Working Farms, and Forests,'' read yard signs distributed free by the Maryland Coastal Bays Program (MCBP) in West Ocean City, to help residents demonstrate support for the county's new comprehensive plan and its proper implementation.

The plan was approved several months earlier, but its recommended rezoning of land for development and for preservation will only begin next year, reports Berlin Dispatch writer Cara Dahl, quoting MCBP Outreach Coordinator Dave Wilson, who cautioned that a similar Vicomico County plan is being implemented differently than written.

The county's plan ''is basically the arbiter of the health of water quality and wildlife,'' he said, stressing it's vital that growth remains in designated growth areas, sewage pipes are kept out of coastal bays, and treated sewage is disposed of elsewhere.

The public needs to be involved in planning and zoning, although the issues are less glamorous and immediate than tree planting or oyster gardening. The plan-supporting yard signs are not political, he added, inviting residents and candidates from any party to get them for display. -- Dispatch   9/1/2006

Resource(s): www.mdcoastdispatch.com/

MARC Commuter Lot Eyed for Future Pedestrian-Friendly Savage Towne Centre

A 15-acre, 940-car parking lot at the Maryland Rail Commuter (MARC) Savage station in an industrial section of the busy U.S. 1 corridor between Washington and Baltimore may become pedestrian-friendly Savage Towne Centre within five years, with Annapolis-based Petrie Ross Ventures proposing 260 tower apartments, 198,000 square feet of stores and offices, a 200-room hotel and five garages for 2,000 vehicles, and with Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. announcing at a site press conference “we are standing on a gold mine.”

Company President Phillip L. Ross showed conceptual drawings of “high-rise buildings surrounding fountain plazas lined with sidewalk cafes,” writes Baltimore Sun reporter Larry Carson, noting that Howard County officials rezoned the Savage and Dorsey station areas for transit-oriented development in 2004 to spur dense, mixed-use projects that must offer 15 percent of apartments to moderate-income earners.

Area representative, County Democratic Councilman Guy Guzzone told the reporter that rezoning the land for higher densities will enable people to “live there and jump on a train to go to work,” which will also alleviate traffic congestion. State and local officials point out that the $175 million Savage Towne Centre project will help Howard and adjacent Anne Arundel counties accommodate a worker influx to Fort Meade and the National Security Agency once the newest military base realignment takes effect, especially if the developer is able to expand it onto 20 adjacent acres now used by the Boise Cascade Corp, for warehousing.

The sale of state land for the project must be approved by the state’s three-member Board of Public Works, including the governor. Asked after the press conference if he should recuse himself from voting because of $3,800 in campaign contributions from three Petrie Ross Ventures officials since 2003, Governor Ehrlich replied, “If that was the measure, no Maryland politician could ever vote on anything.”

His comment disappointed Common Cause Maryland Director Bobbie Walton, who said, “By accepting large amounts of money from (these) contributors, you have compromised your objectivity.”

Though the issue “could create a slight awkwardness” for the governor, the reporter observes, experts like Urban Land Institute senior fellow Robert T. Dunphy note that public and business demand for compact, mixed-use, transit-oriented communities is on the rise nationwide. With cities and states investing more in transit, he said, “there’s the need for transit agencies and the local governments to help reinforce those transit investments by putting people where they’re close to transit to support it with fares.”

As a prime example of successful transit-oriented planning, he mentioned the Rosslyn-Balston capital metro corridor in Arlington County, Virginia. Since the mid-1970s, the area along the line has been completely revitalized and transformed into a bustling urban stretch with some 20,000 housing units, two new hotels, 20 million square feet of offices, and the retail equivalent of two large shopping centers. -- Baltimore Sun   8/27/2006

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Blackwater Resort Project Approved by Cambridge City Council; State Critical Area Commission Could Decide on Plan by December

Approved by the Cambridge City Council in a 4-1 vote, the 2,700-home Blackwater Resort project on 1,080 acres of farmland and wetlands, about a third within 1,000 feet of the Chesapeake Bay tributary Little Blackwater River, remains as divisive as it was over the past three years, with developer Duane Zentgraf and his attorney William “Sandy” McAllister insisting an adjacent school and city sewer service make it “smart growth,” but local residents and environmentalists saying its location on recently annexed land far away from the city center makes it a sprawl threat to the nearby Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.

Having lost residents in past decades, note Baltimore Sun reporters Chris Guy and Tom Pelton, the city counts on tax revenue from this billion-dollar project. Although the state Department of Natural Resources calls much of the tract a “wetland of special state concern,” Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s administration included the zone in its “priority funding area” program, making it eligible for road and sewer funds under the 1997 state Smart Growth law and leaving the key decision on the project for the governor-appointed Critical Area Commission.

The commission, the reporters observe, can approve, deny or require changes to plans for the section of the land within 1,000 feet of the Little Blackwater River. Dorchester County has already forced the developer to eliminate about 500 homes planned for that section, but he still wants to build a conference center there, together with a hotel, golf course, clubhouse, retail complex and parking lots.

“Storm water is one of the major issues, and the impacts on the Little Blackwater River,” said commission executive director Ren Serey, expecting the 29-member body to decide on the sectional development plan by December.

Cambridge Councilman Gilbert Cephas, who cast the sole vote against the resort, pointed out that he can accept “some kind of development” there, but “this proposal would double the size of the city (currently about 11,000 residents) with just one project.”

Chesapeake Bay Foundation spokeswoman Beth Lefevbre voiced a similar view for the more than 25,000 area residents who signed its petition urging the governor to take a public stand against the project. “It’s the wrong project in the wrong place,” she stressed. “It’s a huge mega-development that displaces a thousand acres of farmland and forest, and it’s not in line with the city’s comprehensive plan for growth in that area.” -- Baltimore Sun   8/22/2006

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Rejection of Zoning Bill on Howard County Ballot Complicates Citizen Efforts to Stem Sprawl

In an election year when development-driven road congestion preoccupies many Howard County voters, the Maryland Court of Appeals compounded their frustrations by disallowing a November ballot on the county's so-called Comp Lite bill, which changes zoning on 38 parcels to facilitate residential, office-park and other projects, including a major church expansion in Ellicott City, a win for developers and landowners, notes Baltimore Sun reporter Larry Carson, with likely political implications for local candidates.

Although Democrats have created and passed the bill, while County Council Republican Chairman Christopher J. Merdon cast the sole vote against it, the petition drive to put it on the November ballot was also led by a Democrat, former Councilwoman Angela Beltram. The 6,027 petition signatures the campaign has collected, she and others said, reflect countywide support from voters tired of heavy traffic, crowded schools and big homes rising on almost every vacant lot.

''We will inform people (about) who voted which way,'' she promised, with others saying the court took away their rights to challenge decisions by elected leaders through a countywide vote.

The court, the reporter observes, declared that the summary of the bill in their petition was too narrow to inform people sufficiently about what they were signing, even if it was the official version chosen by the county election board.

University of Baltimore law professor Byron L. Warnken considers rejection of a ballot because its wording ''fairly unusual,'' noting that referendum petitions usually fail for lack of valid signatures. -- Baltimore Sun   7/27/2006

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Vienna Mayor Outlines Annexation Plan to Preserve Quality of Life, Sense of Place in Eastern Shore Town

As development surges all across the Chesapeake Bay Eastern Shore, Vienna Mayor Russell Brinsfield wants to spare the 280 residents of this tiny 300-year-old town the risk of ''cookie-cutter McMansions on 20-acre lots'' by annexing 376 acres of adjacent farmland for 300 future homes in clusters near public trails and parks, which would leave two-thirds of the tract as open space.

''I see what's happening in other parts of the Shore, and I think we can do better -- do something that protects that special sense of place and our quality of life, instead of just reacting to developers,'' says Mayor Brinsfield. ''I think this gives us the chance to control our own destiny.''

A preliminary comprehensive plan, drafted with extensive community input and approved by town officials in January, envisions new houses matching the old ''in a seamless extension of streets'' centered on a proposed town square with a new Town Hall, writes Baltimore Sun reporter Chris Guy, noting that experts call it classic smart growth. ''We see Vienna as a model of how conservation and growth could actually go hand-in-hand,'' says Washington-based Conservation Fund Vice President Erik Meyers.

The fund, which has saved millions of acres nationwide over the past 20 years, including 140,000 acres in Maryland, helped Vienna in planning and suggested Virginia-based Elm Street Development for other tasks.

The fund's former smart-growth expert, now Urban Land Institute senior fellow Edward T. McMahon, points out that Vienna ''is a work in progress,'' but deserves attention. ''There's almost nothing being built on the Shore that looks like the Shore,'' he observes. ''If you're willing to accept off-the-shelf, cookie-cutter architecture, that's all you'll ever get.''

Some worry that regardless of planning, growth will one day overwhelm the historic town on the banks of the Nanticoke River. ''We're sort of presuming that there is a finite number of people coming here,'' cautions long-time environmental activist, Salisbury University Biology Professor Judith M. Stribling. ''Small towns have their own particular culture. If you add 250 people (or) 1,000, they change things. It's not the same place anymore.'' -- Baltimore Sun   7/15/2006

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Crofton Civic Association to Oppose Special Exceptions for Proposed Route 3 Wal-Mart Project

Under its 1988 agreement with Anne Arundel County landowner William D. Berkshire, who promised to keep land near Lake Louise and the Crofton Country Club undeveloped, the Crofton Civic Association remained neutral on his other development plans, but now that he is seeking several zoning and regulatory changes to build a 143,000-square-foot Wal-Mart with 676 parking spaces on 20 floodplain acres along Route 3, the association has taken a stance, expressing opposition to any special exceptions for the project in letters to the county's Office of Planning and Zoning and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a move applauded by the civic Greater Crofton Council and the smart-growth Crofton First group.

The landowner, reports Annapolis Capital writer Joshua Stewart, called the action ''not honorable,'' saying there was no opposition to Wal-Mart at public meetings three years ago, so his Lancer Corporation ''spent millions of dollars and went on'' with the development process, in which floodplain zoning changes are normal. ''Somebody is advising them to risk the harmony this agreement has created,'' he complained, ''for virtually a half-acre of back-hoed land.''

Opponents see it differently, concerned about the project's environmental and traffic impact. ''We're not objecting to the presence of Wal-Mart,'' pointed out Association President Steve Grimaud. ''We just want the present guidelines used for the property.''

Greater Crofton Council President said, ''I'm happy and glad they are doing something. I feel the anti-Wal-Mart issue is definitely gaining support.''

Crofton First Co-chair Sharon Wanamaker added, ''We're not a group of elitists who don't like Wal-Mart and like Wegmans. We're against the Wegmans as well.'' Her group, the writer notes, has been working with environmental experts to identify the permits needed for the site's development and will submit its own objections to the state Department of the Environment and the Army Corps of Engineers. -- Capital   6/28/2006

Resource(s): www.hometownannapolis.com/

Gov. Ehrlich Plants Trees to Mark Approval of Maryland's Intercounty Connector Project; Opponents Say Impact Study Is Flawed

Not a bit less but possibly more controversial than it has repeatedly been since the 1950s, the proposed Intercounty Connector between Route 1 and I-270 south of Baltimore and through Washington's northern suburbs became one of the top goals for Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. in 2003, was put on a fast environmental review track by President Bush, got approval from the Federal Highway Administration late on Memorial Day, and the governor launched the six-lane, 18-mile, $2.4 billion highway project the next day by planting several trees as part of its nearly $300 million mitigation program.

''Today,'' he announced, ''marks the most important milestone yet for the Intercounty Connector as we have the necessary approvals to start building this 'highway of opportunity' that Maryland has needed for decades.''

Addressing a group of hecklers, including some home owners who face property condemnation, notes Baltimore Sun reporter Michael Dresser, the governor said it's time for the majority to prevail.

But opponents still may challenge the approval process. ''This road is not a done deal,'' stressed Environmental Action transportation director Michael Replogle last month, when several groups released their detailed critique of the final environmental impact study, calling it ''incomplete, inadequate and biased.'' Backed by the Audubon Naturalist Society, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Sierra Club and other organizations, director Replogle cited several road projects stopped by courts due to review process flaws.

As an example of such flaws in the ICC impact study he mentioned official estimates of induced development. In a draft, officials wrote that the ICC will increase corridor development by eight percent, and although University of Maryland researcher Stephen Prince calculated it at about 33 percent, they pushed the final figure down to just 3.6 percent, with the researcher observing that their estimates ''cannot be taken seriously.''

Nevertheless, officials were and remain unconcerned. Expecting construction to begin this fall, Maryland Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan was confident the state would overcome legal challenges and have the highway completed in 2010. -- Baltimore Sun   5/30/2006

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Judge Rules Allegany County Development Must Follow County Master Plan; Sends Project Back to Zoning Board for Reconsideration

A few days after a sharp Baltimore Sun editorial critique of a proposed 4,300-home Terrapin Run project near Green Ridge State Forest in northwestern Allegany County, some 100 miles from key Baltimore-Washington area job hubs, the county's Circuit Judge Gary G. Leasure ruled its Board of Zoning Appeals should have examined the project's consistency with the more restrictive county master plan rather than the broad comprehensive plan and sent the 2-1 special rezoning exception back for reconsideration.

With the exception for the massive project in an agricultural and conservation area having been granted after 30 hours of testimony last summer, Columbia-based PDC Inc. officials don't mind the judge's ruling, reports Baltimore Sun writer Timothy B. Wheeler, quoting Terrapin Run development director Craig Leonard, who said, ''The Board of Zoning Appeals conducted a very professional and thorough review of our application last summer, and we are very comfortable going back to them.''

But attorney William C. Wantz, who represented more than 50 area residents in the court, and Citizens for Smart Growth in Allegany County spokesman Tom Matthews also are optimistic.

''For sure, the momentum has shifted,'' the spokesman said. ''We're just ecstatic that the judge has ruled in our favor.'' -- Baltimore Sun 05.09.2006   5/9/2006

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Editorial: Desperate Search for Affordable Housing Reaches Mountain Land in Allegany County

Maryland's sprawl seems to have no end as developers push northwest toward Pennsylvania and West Virginia, its latest 900-acre ''poster child,'' called Terrapin Run and now in the Allegany County Circuit Court, liable to put 4,300 homes and a shopping plaza next to Green Ridge State Forest, with uncertain water and septic capacities and 30 miles from the nearest school, warns a Baltimore Sun editorial, calling it ''a natural but terrible product of cheap mountain land and the growing willingness of Washington-area workers to commute as far as 100 miles away in their desperate search for more-affordable housing.''

Exempted from the county's land-use restrictions by a 2-1 vote of its Board of Zoning Appeals, the project ''would send thousands of additional cars each day onto a stretch of U.S. 40 that's been designated one of seven 'last-chance scenic places' in Maryland,'' the editors observe, stressing that they don't oppose growth, ''but the costs of this sort of sprawl -- economic, social and environmental -- are much too high.''

They believe that the county's two largest towns abound in redevelopment opportunities, and they applaud suburban developer Pulte Homes for its reported intention to build 400-700 housing units at a Baltimore post-industrial waterfront tract, about an hour by train to Washington.

The editors acknowledge that sprawl is also fueled by growth controls in many urban areas and by the high cost of infrastructure for dense redevelopment, both factors illuminated by a new study from the University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education, but they conclude that ''the overall costs cannot match the toll from a growth pattern represented by the likes of Terrapin Run.'' -- Baltimore Sun   5/4/2006

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Maryland Gubernatorial Hopefuls Making Growth Management Central to Campaign Theme

In 2002, Republican Governor Robert L Ehrlich Jr. won 63 percent of the votes in rural St. Mary's County between the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay, but the two Democrats vying for party nomination to challenge him this fall, Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan and Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, expect a different outcome this time, both campaigning on smart growth and hitting the governor for his reported willingness in 2004 to sell 836 acres of a protected county forest to construction magnate Willard J. Hackerman.

The possible deal, aborted after it was revealed by The Baltimore Sun, drew especially tough words from Mayor O'Malley during a recent tour of the saved forest.

''In Baltimore City, we can't sell an abandoned house without [City Council] approval,'' the mayor said. ''To think the governor could have sold [836] acres under the table.''

He continued his criticism in a speech at St. Mary's College, note Sun reporters John Fritze and Doug Donovan. ''We have to be a lot smarter about developing where infrastructure already exists and rebuilding our older communities,'' the mayor stressed. ''Sometimes that's a little more expensive on the front end ... but it's a lot less expensive than it is to chase constant sprawl in cornfields that are becoming these giant developments of little mansionettes.''

Gubernatorial spokesman Henry Fawell and spokeswoman Shareese N. DeLeaver defended the governor, the former asserting the proposed forest deal wasn't secret and hailing his success in passing the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Act, and the latter pointing to the governor's role in augmenting this November's ballot with a referendum to require the General Assembly's approval for state parkland sales.

But Democrats promise real growth management and bank on a cross-party response. ''Many Democrats only focus on places like Prince George's County and Baltimore City and Montgomery County,'' observed Mayor O'Malley campaign manager Jonathan Epstein during the St. Mary's County trip. ''This is a very different type of campaign. We're going to reach out to voters who don't usually hear from Democrats.'' -- The Baltimore Sun   4/19/2006

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Montgomery County Sees Denser, Pedestrian-Friendly Redevelopment Near Transit Hubs and Malls as ''Next Frontier'' of Smart Growth

Its population of 930,000 expected to grow by some 200,000 in 25 years, Montgomery County -- north and west of DC -- wants to keep its bucolic one-third as rural reserve and the suburban one-third as cohesive single-family-home neighborhoods, but to spur denser pedestrian-friendly redevelopment in the last one-third, especially around Metro stations, large shopping malls and key road sections, with County Council President George L. Leventhal saying, ''This is the next frontier of smart growth.''

Planning Board Chairman Derick Berlage added, ''We know we can't build our way out of congestion, but what we can do is build communities where people will be less dependent on the automobile.''

According to the ''Framework for Planning in the Future'' draft circulated by the Department of Parks and Planning, reports Washington Post writer Cameron W. Barr, redevelopment near shopping centers without Metro rails stops could be somewhat less dense and served by buses, while parts of several thoroughfares would be turned into boulevards, with bus lanes, bike paths, wider sidewalks and better landscaping.

Although county Chamber of Commerce President Richard Parsons called the idea of dense urban redevelopment without transportation improvements ''laughable in its unreality,'' and some council members also wish the draft included more details, planners point out it will at least help start a broad growth-management vision debate at public hearings scheduled for May. If doubts were to avert visioning while the crisis mounts, said chairman Berlage, ''that would be the worst thing we could do.''

Land shortages throughout Washington's older suburbs increasingly turn local leaders toward ''vertical, urban-style redevelopment,'' the writer observes, noting that the Montgomery County Council has recently approved such mixed-use projects in Bethesda and around the Shady Grove Metro station, and the Fairfax County (Virginia) Board of Supervisors followed several days ago with approval for redevelopment of a 65-home neighborhood near the Vienna Metro station into a 2,250-unit mid-rise and high-rise complex. -- Washington Post   4/3/2006

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/

Growth-Management Advocates Disappointed in Gov. Ehrlich's Support of Priority Places Program

Replacing two-term Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening in January 2003, Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr folded the quickly decimated Office of Smart Growth into the Department of Planning, where it was to coordinate the new Priority Places urban revitalization program, yet lingered leaderless until put under the control of planning novice Douglas Burkhardt last month, writes Baltimore Sun reporter Timothy B. Wheeler, finding growth-management advocates disappointed over the governor's ''anemic effort'' to fund his own aid scheme. ''While in concept I think the program is good, it really lacks substance in terms of funding to local governments to do planning or promote redevelopment,'' said Chesapeake Bay Foundation senior planner George Maurer, noting that at the same time the governor's push to spend lavishly on sprawl-enticing highway projects ''speaks loudly to what the real priorities are.''

1000 Friends of Maryland director Dru Schmidt-Perkins is encouraged that communities are trying ''to break bad habits'' and seeking a Priority Places designation, but she added, ''It's just too bad that we can't make projects move along faster and better with funding or something like the office of Smart Growth, with multi-agency programs to move things along more quickly.''

Maryland Public Interest Research Group director Brad Heavner agreed. ''It took a long time for any places to be named,'' he observed. ''And when they were, there wasn't a lot behind it.''

The governor, the writer notes, named the first two Priority Places -- a Baltimore housing project in a blighted neighborhood and a 5.5-acre mixed-use Leonardtown waterfront redevelopment -- in February 2005; selected another two in April, a Hyattsville project to construct housing, stores and a YMCA on a vacant car lot and an empty building site downtown, and a Crisfield plan to turn abandoned seafood processing businesses into waterfront housing; and added two more last month, a mixed-use Town Center project on the edge of Silver Spring in Montgomery County, and a Frederick plan for mixed-use brownfield redevelopment and completion of a 1.3-mile linear park.

But the state has awarded only one Priority Place grant so far -- $300,000 to the Hyattsville project. And although newly hired program coordinator Burkhardt promised two grants totaling $700,000 soon, he declined to identify the winning projects. -- Baltimore Sun   3/31/2006

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Growth and Development Issues Crucial for Howard County Fall Election

Its rural west under strong residential pressures and the east long a part of the continuous suburb in the Baltimore-Washington I-95 corridor, Howard County was able to slow down the pre-1990 peak-growth rate, but the cumulative impact of the past three decades on roads, schools, services and home prices perturbs residents and makes development issues crucial for the fall election, with County Council Republican Chairman Christopher J. Merdon and Democratic Councilman Ken Ulman focused mostly on transit expansion in their campaign for the county executive post, and the third hopeful, Democrat Harry Dunbar, ready for more decisive growth controls.

The number of home occupancy permits, notes Baltimore Sun reporter Larry Carson, dropped from more than 3,000 a year before 1990 to below 1,700 in each of the past five years; tightened in 2000, the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (APFO) delays construction of some 1,500 homes until local schools are back below 115 percent of their capacity; and APFO cluster-housing guidelines helped subdivisions preserve 72 percent of their 10,390-acre total since the law took effect in 1992.

To protect the county's rural half, limit another increase in long commutes, and supply more lower-cost housing -- the 77 percent home-price jump within four years thwarting even middle-income families -- county officials are planning denser redevelopment, with several thousand units in central Columbia, and eventual rezoning along the U.S. 1 and U.S. 40 corridors.

The only way to expand affordable housing ''is to create greater density,'' said County Executive James N. Robey recently, but many traffic-worn residents oppose denser development even if it could support more transit, afraid it still would worsen congestion on local roads and overcrowd schools. They put a comprehensive rezoning bill on the November ballot and officials understand their frustrations, but note that much has been done and that some complaints may be overstated.

''We think development is actually pretty well phased,'' said County Planning Director Marsha S. McLaughlin. ''It is a challenge to convey that to citizens.'' -- Baltimore Sun   3/19/2006

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Planning Groups Join Forces to Organize ''Visioning'' Workshops for How and Where Maryland Should Grow

As the public imagines the state's population increased from 5.6 to 7 million by 2030 and as discontent over its sprawling development deepens ahead of the gubernatorial and local races this fall, three planning advocates -- University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth and Education director Gerrit Knaap; Urban Land Institute (ULI) chapter official and Linden Associates Inc. principal Christopher W. Kurz; and 1000 Friends of Maryland executive director Dru Schmidt-Perkins -- joined forces to prepare a series of four Reality Check Plus ''visioning'' workshops in May and June, expecting more than 1,000 participants to reach consensus on how and where the state should grow.

As in several previous Reality Check sessions, held in the Los Angeles and Washington metro areas, notes Baltimore Sun reporter Timothy B. Wheeler, the participants -- local officials, business leaders, community activists, developers, conservationists and others -- divided into teams at separate tables, will try to work out mutually acceptable growth patterns by distributing colorful Legos on the region's maps.

''We hope to change the direction of development trends in the state,'' said director Knaap. ''We need longer-term, more regionally oriented planning,'' observed developer-ULI official Kurz. ''It's a win-win proposition when all these groups can get together and realize they have a lot more in common than they disagree about.''

1,000 Friends director Schmidt-Perkins expressed alarm that the way the state accommodates new residents defies smart growth, saying, ''Clearly things are running amok, and we need to do something to straighten them out.''

Independent of the state, the visioning workshops will be funded by private and nonprofit co-organizer groups, including architects, planners, home builders, business people and environmentalists, the reporter adds, once more quoting director Knaap, who said, ''We're doing it at a time that we think elected officials and aspiring elected officials are going to want to pay attention and be identified with this effort.'' -- Baltimore Sun   2/24/2006

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

New State Water Restrictions at Odds with Maryland's Smart Growth Policy

One of the most water-rich states nationwide, Maryland should be among the least-worried about water supplies, but its 35-percent population growth since 1970 to 5.3 million in 2000, with 1.1 million more expected by 2030, combined with recent droughts and overburdened treatment systems, has already caused shortages in areas that grow fast or depend on wells, prompting state officials to impose seasonal restrictions on inessential water uses, tighten limits for some 500 jurisdictions reliant on public water and sewers, and require an acre of aquifer for each new household hooked to a well -- a requirement bad for compact development and at odds with the state's 1997 policy of Smart Growth.

Many towns ''feel that environmental regulations and capacity limits don't support the grand idea for directing growth to existing communities,'' said Carroll County Health Department environmental health director Ed Singer at a Carroll County Council of Governments meeting attended by several state officials to address concerns over unexpected regulations.

Hampton town manager Ken Decker was equally direct, writes Baltimore Sun reporter Mary Gail Hare. ''You have two public policies that are fundamentally opposed,'' he stressed. ''How can the towns develop, if they cannot provide water and sewers? Without them, you create a situation where it is easier and cheaper to build mini-mansions on one-acre lots with their own well and septic.''

A week earlier Sun reporter Timothy B. Wheeler quoted Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) water supply coordinator Herbert M. Sachs as saying the aquifer-household ratio could run ''smack in the face of Smart Growth,'' because when towns want to build ''and we tell them they need so many acres of land to withdraw (water) from, they're going to look to annex or swing some deal on the outside.''

But at the Carroll County meeting, MDE Water Management Administration director Bob Summer sought to explain that although his department and the planning department want to help municipalities grow, they are increasingly concerned about water and wastewater, saying, ''You can't grow without water, and we can't make water for you if it's not there.''

From the 2002 drought, ''we learned a lot about the ability of our wells to produce water, and we are using what we have learned,'' he noted. ''On the wastewater side, we realize that we have nearly reached the maximum amount of nutrient loading we can put into our waterways and we have to increase the technology for nutrient removal.''

With the county Health Department unable to sign off on building permits and recorded plats without sufficient water or wastewater treatment plant capacity, environmental health director Singer said his agency takes the full brunt of blocking urban development.

''There is a fair method to determine adequacies, and everybody needs to know the rules,'' he told state officials. ''The towns are trying to shape policies that allow planned growth.'' -- Baltimore Sun   2/12/2006

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Proposed Bill Would Encourage Maryland's Counties, Municipalities to Cooperate During Annexation Proceedings

Prompted by Chesapeake Bay area county officials, environmentalists and residents troubled by a recent surge of municipal annexations of land for massive development, especially on the bay's Eastern Shore, state Republican Senator E.J. Pipkin and Democratic Senators Paula C. Hollinger and John C. Astle have proposed legislation that would encourage bilateral negotiations on annexation and related infrastructure funding, but without agreement counties could delay annexed tract development for 10 years and residents within its one-mile radius would be entitled to a referendum on expansion.

The intention is to make counties and municipalities ''work together to provide some kind of planned growth,'' said Senator Pipkin, whose upper Eastern Shore area has seen bitter debates over planned annexations that could double or triple the size of some small towns within 10 to 20 years, observes Baltimore Sun reporter Timothy B. Wheeler.

The senator's depiction of land annexations as ''one of the hot-button issues related to growth,'' was immediately attested to from both sides of the controversy.

Annapolis Mayor Ellen O. Moyer called the proposed bill ''an anti-Smart Growth initiative,'' which would fuel suburban sprawl. But bill backers, the reporter notes, cited Cambridge's (Dorchester County) annexation of farmland for a 3,300-home resort near Blackwater National Wildlife Refugee as an abuse of Smart Growth and pointed out that adjacent Caroline County is in court to block Denton's annexation of farmland across the Choptank River. -- Baltimore Sun   2/4/2006

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Public Hearings Set to Review Controversial $1 Billion Eastern Shore Development

Nearly three years in planning, the 3,200-home Blackwater Resort subdivision on 1,080 acres of farms and wetlands near the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge on the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay will be making headlines in February, with the grassroots Dorchester County Citizens for Planned Growth group and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation urging Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to block this project that would ''change the character of the area forever,'' and his spokesman Henry Fawell responding, ''The governor has a great respect for the refuge, but he also has a great respect for local governments to make their own decisions.''

Dorchester County and Cambridge city officials, observes Baltimore Sun reporter Tom Pelton, have given preliminary approvals for the $1 billion project, which would be eligible for infrastructure funds under the governor's ''priority funding area'' program, a tapered variant of his Democratic predecessor Parris N. Glendening's policy reflected in the 1997 Smart Growth Act.

Developer Dwayne E.E. Zentgraf has promised to decline public funds for the project, and his attorney William ''Sandy'' McAllister described the site as logical for development due to the proximity of city schools.

With the City Council's decisive public hearings scheduled for February 9 and 27, Cambridge Mayor Cleveland Rippons questioned the opposition, seeing ''no rationale why the governor should intervene.''

But Chesapeake Bay Foundation President William C. Baker said, ''There comes a time when you have to draw a line in the sand, and say, 'No, not here'.'' And the grassroots group leader, teacher Fred Pomeroy, pointed out that instead of boosting the city economy, the project will flood the refuge with dirty runoff, displace animals, clog roads and further reduce the downtown population.

''We have the crown jewel of the National Wildlife system just down the road,'' he stressed. ''And now we have more than 3,000 houses being built here on critical wetlands. These mega developments are about the worst enemy we have of our quality of life.'' -- Baltimore Sun   1/27/2006

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Gov. Ehrlich Proposes Full Funding for Maryland's Open Space Acquisition Program

In a seemingly preemptive move before his reelection campaign later this year, Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. reached back to key ingredients of his Democratic predecessor Parris N. Glendening's smart growth policy, proposing full $258 million annual funding for open space acquisition -- the first time since 2003 -- and $115 million for farmland conservation and rural legacy measures, and promising new funds for Chesapeake Bay restoration, renewable energy, and agricultural runoff control programs.

While the governor spoke about his work to protect bay tributaries and ease development pressures by bolstering the agricultural economy, and about his earlier ''historic'' and ''groundbreaking'' bay and air protection initiatives, writes Baltimore Sun reporter Andrew A. Green, Baltimore Democratic Mayor Martin O'Malley, a gubernatorial contender, addressed a legislative summit held by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, drawing applause for his statement that Maryland needs a leader who will restore its place at the vanguard of smart growth.

Concerns about the governor's environmental record ''will follow him to the ballot box,'' the reporter writes, noting that once lawmakers learned about negotiations to sell 836 acres of state-owned St. Mary's County forest ''to a politically connected contracting company owner,'' they put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot to restrict gubernatorial power to cash in preservation land.

Accompanying the governor during his announcement, Chesapeake Bay Foundation state executive director Kim Koble observed that the state reached at best 40 percent of its goal in protecting the bay from farm runoff and should provide additional funds to help farmers who want to play their part. The governor is proposing ''great things,'' but ''we need a much more significant investment in agricultural preservation programs,'' she said. ''There's a lot of catching up to do.''

At the parallel legislative summit, 1000 Friends of Maryland executive director Dru Schmidt-Perkins was more outspoken. Pointing out that the open space fund is dedicated to land acquisition, and that a 2005 bill requires eventual repayment of money taken from it the past few years for other goals, she said the state ''lost ground, literally'' in its fight against sprawl and will find catching up quite expensive. Still, she expect conservationists to make substantial gains this legislative session, stressing, ''Everybody's green in an election year.'' -- Baltimore Sun   1/17/2006

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Agriculture Outlook Conference Reviews Maryland Quality of Life Issues, Affordable Housing and Land-Use Policies

Firmly on the Mid-Atlantic land management forefront several years ago, Maryland now loses about 40,000 acres of farmland a year, benefits little from the federal Conservation Reserve Program, and needs a new program to credit farmers ''for conservation practices already in place,'' said University of Maryland's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Professor Bruce Gardner at the state's 9th annual Agricultural Outlook and Policy Conference in Beltsville, laying the ground for panelists who addressed other top development issues, including affordable housing, zoning, Chesapeake Bay cleanup and smart growth.

Maryland is ''a desirable state'' and as people are moving in, they expect both to ''see fields of farms and woodlands'' and to find good homes, observed Associate Professor Lori Lynch, convinced that the state must respond quickly to the need for sufficient affordable housing, while considering the environment, wildlife habitat and water quality in any new development policies.

Others voiced similar concerns, reports American Farm web writer Stephanie Jordan, noting that their suggestions will help prepare an agenda for the Governor's conference in February. Maryland Department of Planning resource conservation director Joe Tassone called zoning a key growth-control factor, since it ''sets a tone for a place'' and ''changes the price of land very rapidly,'' pointing out that conservation investments can bear fruit only in areas where zoning protects land.

Professor Ted McConnell said in a time of limited Chesapeake Bay cleanup funds, ''cover crops are one of the most effective way to reduce nutrients,'' suggesting a cap on their sources and a simple ''economic incentive'' program for both bay and land preservation, under which big polluters like sewage treatment plants would pay farmers for planting such crops instead of selling for development.

The university's Center for Smart Growth executive director Gerrit Knapp stressed the need for urban growth boundaries and ''buffers'' between urban and rural land, calling such transition zones -- where farmers would produce food for nearby city markets -- crucial for curbing sprawl, and citing Montgomery County as an example of their effectiveness.   12/6/2005

Resource(s): www.americanfarm.com/

Growth Management, Chesapeake Bay Protection Could Be Top Issues in Maryland's 2006 Gubernatorial Race

Regardless of which Democrat will challenge Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich next fall, growth-management and Chesapeake Bay protection will be among the top electoral issues, promised Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley and Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan, the mayor saying the governor's administration ''has no goals,'' the executive recalling that one of the first things the governor did after taking office three years ago was abolish the state smart growth office, a ''signature program'' of his Democratic predecessor Parris N. Glendening.

Addressing a League of Conservation Voters audience at the presentation of awards to the state's river keepers for their efforts to protect 10 rivers in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, reports Associated Press writer Tom Stuckey, both Democratic candidates for the 2006 gubernatorial race pledged to make the bay cleanup a high priority and to take other necessary steps to preserve the environment.

Executive Duncan credited the governor for a flush tax on sewage bills to fund treatment plant cleanups and for planned restrictions on power plants to reduce emission of nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and mercury, but criticized him for not going farther and for stripping hundreds of millions of dollars from land preservation programs. Governor Ehrlich, the executive said, has been ''taking one step forward and three steps back.''

The governor was invited to attend the ceremony and speak, but he couldn't come, explained his aide, due to another engagement. -- Baltimore Sun   11/29/2005

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Wicomico County, Salisbury Ready to Slow Growth, Focus on School and Road Improvements in Wake of Rapid Residential Growth

As the ''We Care Wicomico County'' smart-growth group celebrated the county's decision to deny rezoning requests for dense residential building as a possible turning point in their battle to slow development until schools and roads are improved, Salisbury City Council President Mike Dunn announced the city will also look for tighter growth-control by seeking consultant advice on how to make better decisions about residential development.

Until then, reports Salisbury Daily Times staff writer James Fisher, the city will consider only small projects, such as subdivisions of single lots into double single-family-home plots and additions to churches, and halt land annexations for ''major'' ones.

Taken aback, Eastern Shore Builders Association President Martin Groff said he and his colleagues would look elsewhere for new investments, because in Wicomico, ''You can't rely on the law or what you're told by the commissioners.''

While developer Thomas Ruark hoped the delay of his proposed 21-unit project some three miles northeast from central Salisbury would be temporary, he too was troubled. ''A lot of us have a lot of money invested based on the ground rules that the county has set and the city has set,'' he noted. ''And with pretty much no warning at all, they've in effect declared a moratorium, even if they're not calling it that.''

According to Council President Dunn, two separately hired consultants will review the city's planning procedures and calculate potential impact fees, their reports expected in six to nine months.

''This is the next phase of 'growth pays for growth','' he said, adding ''We are the council that changed the rules for developers.''

Republican County Council member Stevie Prettyman said of the county decision to make new residential projects dependent on availability of schools and other infrastructure: ''We need a timeout to get our house in order, and now is the time to do it. We've got to quit feasting on this land and having a buffet.'' -- Daily Times   11/20/2005

Resource(s): www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Developer Pledges to Heed Neighbors' Concerns While Drafting Plans for Towson Condo and Townhouse Project

Although only preliminary, a proposal for 333 condos and town houses on 13.5 acres of a 17-acre post-industrial site in Towson, eight miles north of central Baltimore, got a mostly cold reception from about 100 local residents, some telling Preferred Real Estate Investment proponents at an informational meeting that a smaller project might be acceptable, while being told by Loch Raven Community Council executive director Donna Spicer from an adjacent neighborhood to get ready since ''Smart growth and high density -- this is what is coming down the pike.''

This drew a ''Not here'' response from the audience, reports North East Reporter writer Mary T. Robbins, with Preferred development manager Matthew Taylor and Design Collective principal Matthew D'Amico -- his firm asked to sketch initial plans -- assuring residents nothing will happen without their feedback.

''The idea is to do something that will fit into the neighborhood'' instead of spending ''a lot of money for a plan no one wants,'' said the manager. ''We are not going to go and start building tomorrow,'' stressed the designer. ''In fact, we need your input before we can do anything.''

In response to concerns about local traffic and already-overburdened schools, he promised related impact studies and a design that would preserve the area's character and streetscape. Both he and the company official also voiced willingness to reconsider the project's scope. -- North East Reporter   9/29/2005

Resource(s): www.northeastreporter.com/

Carroll County Rejects Westminster Bypass Plan; Four-Lane Road Would Have Cut Through 100-Acre Farm

Its creation urged by the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce, a blue-ribbon panel on Westminster area congestion sided with the chamber's idea of resurrecting a 40-year-old plan to build an eight-mile four-lane Westminster bypass across a 100-acre farm as vital to this county seat's commerce and quality of life, but the three-member County Board of Commissioners rejected the possibility, just as former Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening did in 1999 under his Smart Growth policy.

With bypass construction costs estimated at $500 million, which the county doesn't have and the state can't offer, the board decided instead to back the state's intention to upgrade Route 140 throughout the area, expecting to work with the city to improve connector roads to let local traffic avoid the highway, reports Baltimore Sun writer Mary Gail Hare, noting that it carries 50,000 vehicles daily through Westminster, a number likely to grow to 70,000 within 20 years.

''The panel didn't show us anything that we had missed other than 'I want it','' commented Commissioner Dean L. Minnich on its bypass recommendation. ''No one answered the question of where the money would come from.''

Commissioners Julia Walsh Gouge and Perry L. Jones thought the same. ''People forget the huge costs for land and construction,'' said the former, while the latter agreed with farm owner Jim Harris, who sued twice against the bypass and who told the hearing that instead of building a costly road, officials should secure more jobs because now almost 60 percent of the county's work force commutes to other areas, sometimes outside the state.

''Why should we build a bypass with county money,'' asked Commissioner Jones rhetorically, ''to get people in and out of Pennsylvania?'' -- Baltimore Sun   9/2/2005

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Maryland DOT Preparing to Ask Developers for Qualifications to Convert 25 Acres of North Baltimore to Mixed-Use

Following a March state-city report on plans for joint $1.1 billion redevelopment of several blocks around two Metro and light-rail stations just north of downtown Baltimore into the proposed 110-acre, pedestrian-friendly and family-oriented Eutaw District, the Maryland Department of Transportation is readying a request for qualifications (RFQ) from developers who would convert three state-owned office buildings and two vacant lots, a total of 25 acres, to mixed uses, with the department's Office of Real Estate Director Sam Minnitte indicating the RFQ might also cover the nearby Fifth Regiment Armory.

''To have a parcel of this size in an urban environment is a huge opportunity for any city,'' noted Baltimore's Department of Planning Director Otis Rolley III, while Downtown Partnership spokesman Mike Evitts stressed, ''We feel that that area is perfect for transit-oriented development with the light rail and easy access to highways.''

As currently envisioned, reports Baltimore Daily Record business writer Jen Degregorio, the Eutaw District would help integrate the area's varied-income neighborhoods, with some blocks removed or reconfigured, a curved street section straightened out to ''reinstate perpendicular street geometry'' at a key intersection, the 31-acre McCulloh Homes public housing project turned mainly into a mixed-income development, and a former high school renovated as lofts for ''young professional workers.''

However, pointed out Baltimore's Department of Housing and Community Development official Christopher Shea, the city would back any McCulloh project redevelopment only if its residents ''say that it is time for us to do something different on the site.''

According to the March report, the writer adds, the district would require a $100 million subsidy, probably in tax-increment financing (TIF). But it would eventually offer more than 3,000 housing units, 1.2 million square feet of offices, 571,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space and a 200-room hotel, creating some 5,300 permanent jobs and generating $20 million in city tax revenue a year. -- Daily Record   8/30/2005

Resource(s): www.mddailyrecord.com/

Howard County Court Dismisses Suit to Halt Route 32 Road Widening

Disappointing 1000 Friends of Maryland and Clarksville resident Nancy Davis, Howard County Circuit Court Judge Lenore Gelfman dismissed their suit against the state's three-member Board of Public Works for approving a $200 million project to widen a nine-mile stretch of Route 32 in the county's most-congested western section from two to four lanes, in violation of the Maryland Smart Growth law that bars such state funding outside designated growth areas.

At a meeting in July 2004, reports Baltimore Sun writer Timothy B. Wheeler, two board members -- Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and a representative of Comptroller William Donald Schaefer -- voted to exempt the project from the Smart Growth law, while Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp opposed the exemption. The plaintiffs argued that the vote should be overturned because the board didn't spell out the basis for the exemption and the comptroller could not legally vote by proxy, but the judge found the arguments invalid.

Plaintiffs' attorney G. Macy Nelson promised to appeal the decision. -- Baltimore Sun   7/2/2005

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Baltimore Mayor O'Malley Pledges to Make Smart Growth Major Theme in 2006 Governor's Race

Lambasting Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. for letting Maryland slip from its position as a national Smart Growth leader, and for failure to strengthen air quality and land protection measures, Baltimore Democratic Mayor Martin O'Malley promised to make these and other environmental issues a major theme in the 2006 gubernatorial campaign.

Although the mayor has not declared his candidacy for governor, notes the Associated Press, observers consider his recent speech at Tide Point, with the city's Inner Harbor as a backdrop, as a clear indication of his gubernatorial plans. -- WJZ   6/30/2005

Resource(s): http://wjz.com/homepage/

Carroll County Planning Conference Speakers Focus on Value of Preserving Open Space

''If Maryland is to retain its open space, protect the Chesapeake Bay and maintain its farmland, counties will have to reinforce the pattern of towns surrounded by open space,'' said ''Save Our Land, Save Our Towns'' author and Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer Thomas Hylton ahead of Carroll County's first-ever planning conference, glad that moderate county commissioners elected in 2003 reversed the previous board's course against Smart Growth, set rigorous developer requirements for adequate roads, schools and water supplies, and just launched work on a master plan that will guide the area until 2030.

''It is not so much population growth but rather low-density development that is ruining Maryland landscapes,'' the editor wrote in his Baltimore Sun guest opinion on the conference's eve, asking officials to learn from the foresight of developer James W. Rouse, who moved in the early 1960s to build his successful mixed-use Columbia, a dense, prosperous, and racially diverse city with nearly 100,000 residents, 91,000 jobs, abundant walking trails and natural areas.

He urged the county to cooperate with its eight towns to have them absorb most of the population growth, in mandatory good urban design settings.

The conference's other keynote speaker, Urban Land Institute senior resident fellow Edward T. McMahon, with expertise on ''the dollars and cents of growing smarter,'' reports Baltimore Sun writer Mary Gail Hare, also stressed that the county must reach ''a consensus about where it is going and what it will look like in 20 years;'' otherwise ''it will be Anyplace, U.S.A.''

Advising the county to inventory its assets and to focus on enhancing farmland, he warned, ''If you screw up the landscape, you destroy the economic underpinnings.'' -- Baltimore Sun   6/10/2005

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Hyattsville and Crisfield's Bay Waterfront Selected for Maryland's ''Priority Places'' Redevelopment Program

In the second round of Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s ''Priority Places'' urban revitalization program, seen as his remake of the 1997 Maryland comprehensive Smart Growth policy, the state promised planning assistance and as-yet absent redevelopment funds to Washington's inner suburb of Hyattsville, Prince George's County, for mixed-use downtown projects in the U.S. 1 corridor, and to Crisfield, Somerset County, for a similar overhaul of its once-working Chesapeake Bay waterfront.

''We wanted the designation, even though it didn't come with any guarantees,'' said Hyattsville Mayor William F. Gardiner, ''because we felt having the state as an important partner in revitalizing our downtown was really critical.''

Hyattsville and the Arlington-based Eakin/Youngentob Associates development firm, which wants to invest more than $100 million downtown, reports Baltimore Sun writer Timothy B. Wheeler, jointly asked the state for up to $5 million to make the area more attractive and pedestrian-friendly, with benches, crosswalks and wider sidewalks.

The firm plans some 500 condos and townhouses, plus shops and restaurants for a vacant car dealership site straddling the route, while the nonprofit Housing Initiative Partnership would transform the nearby site of an old municipal building into artists' residences and studios, along with a YMCA.

Small Crisfield, population of about 2,700, the faded ''crab capital of the world,'' which has lost 600 jobs due to Bay fishery decline since 1990, the writer notes, is seeing new market interest in its downtown waterfront and drafting a revitalization plan for the area around a state-owned marina. The state delayed a move to privatize the marina, to give local officials time to involve business owners in planning and make it more comprehensive. -- Baltimore Sun   4/20/2005

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Montgomery County Acknowledges Emerging Affordable Housing Crisis

With the $400,000-plus median price of single-family homes and new townhouses in Montgomery County last year already making them too costly for its $84,000 median-wage earners, a new report by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission predicts that much of the county's middle class will soon find most old townhouses beyond reach, too, since their median price of $274,000 is expected to grow by double digits, but wages by only three percent a year.

''This is why affordable housing has got to be on anyone's short list of major challenges to Montgomery County's future,'' stressed county planning board chairman Derick Berlage, warning that county demographics ''will fundamentally change because people with ordinary incomes -- firefighters, police officers, nurses -- simply will not be able to live in the county.''

Planners forecast, reports Washington Post writer Tim Craig, that moderate-income buyers will increasingly look beyond county borders, turn to high-risk financing such as interest-only loans, and seek mortgages exceeding ''the traditional affordability yardstick of three times an annual income.''

To alleviate the problem, county officials are ready to start by building more subsidized and medium-price housing, and exploring ways to spur so-called workforce unit construction, fully aware that they have to boost all housing over the long term to cool market demand.

Since 80 percent of the county's available land is already developed, they want to prepare residents for taller buildings and higher density in some neighborhoods, the writer reports, quoting County Democratic Executive Douglas M. Duncan, who points to 2,000 condos and apartments under construction in Silver Spring, just northeast of Washington, D.C., and says, ''The down-county will become more urban.''

The situation is basically the same in other counties around the capital, the writer observes, with Montgomery County firefighter Francisco Javier calling it ''ridiculous,'' and adding, ''We can work here in the fire department. We just can't live here.'' -- Washington Post   4/10/2005

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/

Growth Pressures Felt in Maryland's Eastern Shore Communities

The first state nationwide with smart-growth laws, passed under Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening in 1997, Maryland lost momentum after his second term ended in 2003 and is now at a crossroads; its great farms, forests, bay coasts and historic battlefields ''fading amid the voracious spread of subdivisions, strip malls and office parks,'' reports Baltimore Sun writer Timothy B. Wheeler, quoting Urban Land Institute senior fellow, former Conservation Fund vice president Edward T. McMahon, who credits Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. for his Priority Places redevelopment program, but regrets an obvious ''reduction in emphasis on Smart Growth and growth management.''

Maryland Department of Planning spokesman Charles Gates insists the governor is committed to Smart Growth, but feels he must fix the inherited ''financial crisis'' before putting back money taken from land preservation.

Meantime, the situation may be getting worse despite occasional smart growth victories, with McMahon especially concerned about the Chesapeake Bay Eastern Shore, where developers want many small towns to annex adjacent farmland, proposing to double or even triple their housing.

Although building near towns ''is better than building out in the middle of nowhere,'' he notes, some of the proposals are hotly debated because they threaten the area's character, sense of place and quality of life.

He tells communities a first and crucial step toward better development is to agree where not to build. ''When people feel all land is up for grabs everywhere, they're prone to fight anything,'' he observes, stressing next that adequate ''green infrastructure'' is as important as new roads and utility lines, since market surveys show that people seek opportunities to walk, bike and hike, and will pay a premium for housing near parks and natural areas.

Even though public funding cuts bar acquisition of all tracts that should be preserved, developers still can set land aside while making full profit and boosting the market value of area projects. McMahon shows them how to do it in his new book, Better Models for Development in Maryland.

Written with Preservation consultant Shelley Mastran for the Conservation Fund's reference series, the writer notes, the photo-filled book presents ideas on how to save the countryside, build up downtowns and enhance the suburbs. ''The choice is not between growth and no growth,'' McMahon says. ''The choice is between bad growth and better growth.'' -- Baltimore Sun   3/6/2005

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Prince George's County Eyes Parkland Sites for New High School

Although the trend-setting Council of Educational Facilities Planners International (CEFPI) dropped its old multi-acre school-site minimums, recommending instead renovation of small neighborhood schools, Prince George's County School Board Chairwoman Beatrice Tignor maintains that a high school needs a minimum of 32 acres, leaving county leaders no choice but to consider four parkland sites for a new school in the county's northern suburbs, just within the Washington beltway.

In a letter to the chairwoman, reports local Gazette writer Meghan Mullan, County Executive Jack Johnson and Council Chairman Samuel H. Dean listed three Adelphi sites of the requested size -- three owned by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and a private one in Riverdale Park -- promising to gather extensive local input on their selection.

School District spokesman John White is already organizing related public hearings. ''There just are not many vacant parcels,'' said County Councilman Thomas Dernoga, noting that officials looked at 10 sites in the area and found those four the best, though none perfect.

Buck Lodge Citizens' Association president Ken Morgan told the writer a new school in Buck Lodge Community Park would ruin the neighborhood's top asset, make its narrow road even more congested and dangerous, and force out deer, foxes and other wildlife.

The county's Sierra Club vice chairman, Adelphi resident Jon Robinson, promised to oppose a school on parkland, calling on officials to buy and redevelop properties in areas where most children live, which would also save on transportation. ''They're making people in Adelphi suffer for bad planning,'' he said. ''They're treating parkland as if it's unused land.'' -- Gazette   3/3/2005

Resource(s): www.gazette.net/

Residents Seek Alternatives to Widening Howard County's Route 32 After State Sets Funds for Preliminary Work

With vehicle and accident numbers more than doubled within eight years on the two-lane nine-mile stretch of Route 32 in a Howard County rural area protected from fast development, the three-member state Board of Public Works, now including Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., exempted the road from the state's 1997 smart growth law last year, and the governor just budgeted the first $29 million for its widening in 2007 -- the prospect feared by many residents and the exemption challenged in court by 1,000 Friends of Maryland.

''The state smart growth law says we shouldn't spend precious state money to fund sprawl development that has sucked the life out of older communities,'' said Friends executive director Dru Schmidt-Perkins. ''If this highway were expanded, what limited protections there are in the county would evaporate.''

The road widening from two to four lanes, with six new interchanges, would cost between $230 million and $280 million over a decade or so, depending on funds, reports Washington Post writer Mary Otto, noting that many feel the expansion would whip up aggressive driving and make the road even more dangerous, while opening the area to sprawl and destroying its rural character.

In a search for a middle ground, the writer adds, some residents formed ''A Better Plan for 32'' group, whose lobbyist Bruce C. Berano promises to offer its own list of local priorities. -- Washington Post   2/3/2005

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/

Groups Urge Maryland to Explore Non-Highway Alternatives to Montgomery/Prince George's Intercounty Connector

Rather than mulling over the sole to-build-or-not-to-build question for the long-debated 18-mile intercounty connector (ICC) -- between I-270 in Montgomery County and I-95 in Prince George's County, some 10 miles north of the ever-clogged Capital Beltway -- the Maryland State Highway Administration should look first at non-highway options, which an independent study for six environmental and growth-management organizations found much more effective in cutting public costs, traffic congestion and air pollution.

Conducted by Vermont's Smart Mobility traffic engineering firm for the Sierra Club, Audubon Naturalist Society, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Environmental Defense, Coalition for Smarter Growth and Solutions not Sprawl, reports Washington Post writer Katherine Shaver, the study estimated the non-highway options -- different combinations of rail links, express bus service, and HOV and toll lanes -- would cost between $626,000 and $2 billion, in contrast to state projections of $2.6 billion plus interest for the ICC.

The non-highway options would take thousands of cars from the roads instead of dispersing them elsewhere, while a greater push for mixed-use development and job creation in older areas, especially in underserved Prince George's County, could further reduce commutes and help the D.C. region comply with federal clean air standards.

State Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan acknowledged the importance of the groups' input. ''What they're promoting -- improving transit, balancing development so jobs are closer to where people live, and improving the local road network -- are all things we support,'' he asserted. ''Where we differ is we think those should be done in addition to building the ICC.''

With Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. signaling earlier he would want to break ground for the ICC next year, the secretary said its benefits ''far exceed the costs.'' In response to Coalition for Smarter Growth Executive Director Stewart Schwartz, who mentioned ''legal options'' should the state refuse to expand its environmental impact study and focus on transit, the secretary promised to consider all options, but not ''to accept a proposal that would do nothing but delay construction of a highway.''

This clashes with expectations of the Prince George's County Council and many state Democratic lawmakers, several of them attending the new study presentation in Annapolis, reports Capital News Service writer Sarah Lesher. Calling it an ''economic bypass'' for Prince George's County, the county council registered its unanimous opposition to the ICC, a stance applauded by area Democratic Delegate James W. Hubbard, who noted that the state should spend more to preserve open space and build schools.

Montgomery County Democratic Delegate Adrienne A. Mandel stressed, ''We must look at alternatives to an 18-mile long concrete swatch bisecting the county.'' And area Democratic Senator Sharon Grosfeld said, ''It makes me extremely angry to see that we in the state legislature have to rely, not on our own government, but on outside groups, to do the job our administration had the duty and responsibility to do for the citizens of Maryland, who will pay their tax dollars for this boondoggle.'' -- Washington Post   1/19/2005

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/ ; www.wtopnews.com/index.php

Former Gov. Glendening Blasts Maryland's Plans to Sell State Surplus Lands, Widen Route 32

''How ironic it is that states from Pennsylvania to Michigan, from New Mexico to Utah, are adopting the Smart Growth principles pioneered in Maryland, and at the same time, our leaders would have us move back to the days of unrestrained sprawl,'' said former Democratic governor and present Smart Growth Institute President Parris N. Glendening, ''outraged'' by Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s intent to widen Route 32 in Howard County rather than expand transit and to sell the so-called state surplus land.

Stressing in a speech at the Maryland Progressive Summit in Annapolis that Democrats and Republicans across the nation realize the political weight of sprawl problems, reports Baltimore Sun writer Andrew A. Green, Governor Glendening refrained from criticizing his successor by name, but clearly made him responsible for turning ''away from Maryland's historical commitment to the environment'' and for ''dismantling serious efforts to contain sprawl.''

That drew a denial from Governor Ehrlich's spokesman Greg Massoni. A proof of deep commitment to protecting the environment and curbing sprawl was the governor's support for the tax to improve sewage systems and cut discharges into the Chesapeake Bay, which everyone agrees, the spokesman said, ''was the best legislation for this bay in 20 to 25 years.'' He also repeated the governor's environmental argument for legalizing slot machines at racetracks as a means to bolster the horse industry, which would help horse farms stay undeveloped, further preventing sprawl and runoff into the bay. ''When horse farms leave, they don't come back'' the spokesman observed. ''Developers buy them and build houses.''

Nevertheless, the writer notes, the 400 participants at the Maryland Progressive Summit rose in an ovation for Governor Glendening's anti-sprawl and growth-management pledge: ''We will not back up, we will not back away and we will not back down.'' -- Baltimore Sun   1/9/2005

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

$2 Billion National Harbor Project Underway in Prince George's County

Often unlucky in its push for private investment and high-quality economic growth, Prince George's County, just southeast of Washington, D.C., will finally get the long-sought $2 billion National Harbor tourist-and-retail complex envisioned by developer Milton Peterson for 220 vacant acres along the Potomac River, with the enthusiastic crowd at the groundbreaking ceremony including Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., both Maryland Democratic Senators, Barbara A. Mikulski and Paul S. Sarbanes, and other officials, activists and business leaders.

The governor, reports Washington Post writer Ovetta Wiggins, called the project, anchored by the future Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, the ''latest jewel'' in the state's tourism industry, and Senator Mikulski complemented the developer for ''breaking ground on a new attitude towards Prince George's County.''

Helped with more than $200 million injected by the state into the area's intersection upgrades, and by $160 million from the county, the project will include 1,500 hotel rooms, 400,000 square feet of meeting and exhibition space, upscale stores, restaurants, indoor gardens, a riverbank promenade and other amenities.

Hailed by the developer as symbolizing public-private cooperation, the project will be completed in 10 years, with the first-phase opening scheduled for March 2008. -- Washington Post   12/3/2004

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/

Property-Rights Challenges Should Have Little Effect on Maryland's Sprawl Management Programs

It's anybody's guess if and how the retroactive land-value compensation measure passed by Oregon voters last month may affect other states, with Smart Growth Leadership Institute President and former Maryland Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening afraid the general impact will be ''devastating'' in some regions, but many Maryland officials quite sure that the state's smart growth policies he initiated in 1997 are safe from such a property-rights challenge.

The difference is, reports Baltimore Sun writer Timothy B. Wheeler, that Maryland hasn't enacted statewide anti-sprawl zoning rules, which hurt some property values in Oregon, relying instead on channeling state infrastructure and service funds to older communities and other areas targeted for growth.

This is also a course preferred by Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., whose approach has irritated some observers as not aggressive enough, but whose spokesman, Henry Fawell, confirms his commitment to the smart growth concept.

Governor Glendening's remark that the Oregonians in Action property-rights group basically misled voters into the approval of Measure 37, which requires the state to pay owners for losses caused by zoning or exempt them from regulations, corresponds with an observation by an academic expert. Noting that voters endorsed the state growth-management law three times after its enactment in 1973, University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education director Gerrit Knaap predicts they will move to amend the compensation measure once they see its financial burden. -- Baltimore Sun   12/2/2004

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

$40 Million Mixed-Use Transit Village Planned for Odenton

One of Anne Arundel County's three areas designated for ''town center'' development, the mostly residential city of Odenton will finally get a long-awaited downtown commercial boost, with Klein Enterprises planning a $40-million mixed-use village next to the MARC train station, which serves thousands of local residents as well as commuters from the huge Fort Meade Army post, home of the National Security Agency.

Unique in the county, ''this type of transit-oriented development is sweeping the country,'' says Klein Enterprises spokeswoman Patricia Palumbo of the planned 400,000-square-foot Village at Odenton Station, which will feature offices, small stores, restaurants, a laundromat, a gym and 180 condos in the $200,000-$250,000 price range.

Residents and officials, reports Baltimore Sun writer Childs Walker, welcome the prospect. A former chairwoman of a downtown planning committee, Doreen Strothman, considers the village just ''a first step'' toward revitalization but expects it to ''set the tone for the whole town center.''

County economic planning director William A. Badger Jr. is equally optimistic. He points out that the county is running out of open land and that a great remaining location like Odenton should certainly attract more mixed-use projects.

Klein Enterprises, the writer adds, may present the county with a village draft plan within a few months, hoping to start construction in spring. -- Baltimore Sun   11/18/2004

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com

Gov. Ehrlich Plans to Sell Large Tracts of State-Owned Land

In contrast to former Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening's policy of curbing sprawl through land purchases, reports the Associated Press, Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is planning to sell off large swaths of state land, some of them seen by conservationists as ecological gems.

''We're absolutely looking at surplusing properties wherever we can,'' the governor said, confirming unofficial reports from past months. ''Just having government holding pieces of land that should be developed is a policy we want to confront.'' Such sales, he added, let the state raise money, cut maintenance costs and restore land to the tax rolls.

Some state lawmakers and environmentalists point out that the governor's plans not only undermine major state investments, but also invite cronyism, noting that Baltimore construction company owner Willard Hackerman, who almost succeeded in buying 800 environmentally fragile acres in St. Mary's County, is known for his contributions to both parties.

Democratic Delegate Peter Franchot said, ''It's clear that the Ehrlich administration has declared open season on open space.''   11/14/2004

Resource(s): www.wtop.com/index.php

Howard County Residents Unhappy With Plan to Widen Route 32

Denied funds under Maryland smart growth laws by former Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening four years ago, but exempted from strict anti-sprawl rules by the Board of Public Works last July, the controversial $200-million proposal to widen a nine-mile stretch of Route 32 in western Howard County from two to four lanes is being pushed by state Republican Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan as ''a life-saver'' for this congested and dangerous road, and again resisted by many area residents as extremely ill-advised.

They told the secretary at a heated public meeting, reports Baltimore Sun writer William Wan, that the wider road would unleash sprawl, destroy farms and open space, and exacerbate congestion.

''Adding the lanes is just going to induce even more traffic'' and result in worse gridlock, said West Friendship resident Rick Gezelle, one of founders of an advocacy group called ''A Better Plan for 32.''

Opponents also refute the stretch's danger, noting that although its traffic has almost tripled since 1990, from 9,900 to 28,000 vehicles a day, the road's overall accident rate has been below the state average, a result state officials attribute to center-line rumble strips and left-turn lanes added in the late 1990s.

If the road expansion designs and state and federal funds are approved, the writer notes, the construction of the first interchange would begin in 2008, with the whole project likely to take 20 years. -- Baltimore Sun   10/29/2004

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Smart Growth Subcabinet to Review Applications for Maryland's Priority Places Program

In a clear shift of emphasis in media releases on Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s Priority Places Strategy, usually presented as a revision or replacement if not a refinement of his Democratic predecessor's 1997 Smart Growth program, the newest state announcement of regional Priority Places Workshops to educate the public about the strategy gives the previous governor his due, by calling it ''a new initiative that builds on Maryland's smart growth efforts'' and by invoking his Priority Funding areas.

The strategy, says the Maryland Department of Planning, ''is designed to make well-planned development inside Priority Funding Areas easier to achieve'' by marshaling the resources of state agencies in support of community revitalization. Announcing a September 21-October 20 series of six workshops across the state, the department says ''the Smart Growth Subcabinet'' will review the 22 first-round applications for aid to make its recommendations to the governor, who expects to name the winners by the end of the year.

''Through the Priority Places Strategy,'' the department stresses, ''there will be an unprecedented, cross-agency commitment to coordinated action on behalf of the designees.''   9/17/2004

Resource(s): www.priorityplaces.com/

''Priority Places'' Program Off to Moderate Start in Maryland

Announced by Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. last fall as an obvious substitute for Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening's nationally acclaimed 1997 Smart Growth policy, his anti-sprawl Priority Places program attracted 22 applications from across the state by its first round's September 1 deadline -- 16 from municipalities, four from private developers, one from a county, and one from a nonprofit group.

The Smart Growth policy, Baltimore Sun writer Timothy B. Wheeler reminds readers, sought to curb suburban sprawl by funneling state funds for roads, schools and other infrastructure to older communities and areas designated for growth; the Priority Places program lacks dedicated funds so far, offering to spur community revitalization plans and urban redevelopment projects with coordinated state agency technical help, ''fast-track'' regulatory reviews, and funding priority once state grants become available.

Inviting the first round applicants, the writer reports, the administration expected to see among them developers of the two most challenging projects -- to redevelop 28 westside downtown blocks in Baltimore and to convert an abandoned shopping center near Annapolis into a $400 million mixed-use ''lifestyle'' Town Centre -- but they are ''conspicuously absent.''

Deputy Planning Secretary Florence E. Burian expressed hope that ''we'll hear from them for the next round in December.'' Both addressees, WestSide Renaissance Inc. executive director Ronald M. Kreitner and Greenberg Commercial Corp. president Brian J. Gibbons, explained they weren't ready with project details and confirmed their intention to seek Priority Places designation. -- Baltimore Sun   9/4/2004

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Gov. Ehrlich Directs Maryland Planning Department to Complete Statewide Analysis of Land Inventories

As recommended by his broadly based Development Capacity Task Force last month, Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. signed an executive order directing the Maryland Department of Planning to work with local officials, homebuilders and environmentalists to coordinate and direct future growth in accordance with statewide development capacity analysis, also called buildable lot inventory.

Complementing the task force for having done ''tremendous work helping local governments and community advocates enhance their land use planning techniques,'' the governor restated the commitment of his administration to responsible growth and called a statewide analysis of land inventories ''an important step in that direction.''

Chaired by Planning Secretary Audrey E. Scott, the task force will continue quarterly meetings to track the progress of the analysis program and help its implementation.

Since its formation last year, said Secretary Scott, the task force has covered a broad range of topics, ''from the details of how to conduct this analysis, to specific examples from the (ten) pilot jurisdictions, to important growth policy issues,'' all of which ''will lead to better planning in Maryland.'' -- Maryland Department of Planning   8/19/2004

Resource(s): www.mdp.state.md.us

Rockville's King Farm Development Designed for Walking

Epitomizing New Urbanism, the almost-finished King Farm development of stores, offices, restaurants and 3,200 housing units near a metro station in Rockville, some 10 miles northwest of the nation's capital, ''paves the way for healthful living,'' reports Washington Post writer Rob Stein, noting that its layout, street-grid, wide sidewalks, scattered parks and common areas ''should do one seemingly simple but crucial thing; get people to walk more.''

Along with junk food and oversized dishes, experts hold sedentary lifestyles responsible for the nation's runaway overweight and obesity rates, the writer observes, quoting University of Colorado's Health Sciences Center researcher James O. Hill. ''We built communities with no sidewalks, and then we wonder why our kids don't walk to school,'' the researcher says. ''We live in gated communities where the garage faces the street and there's no connection with the neighbors, and we don't get out and walk.''

Such concerns have sparked a nationwide movement to build walkable neighborhoods and retrofit the car-dependent suburbs, with several federal agencies, state and local governments, foundations and community groups beginning to fund projects that encourage daily walking and physical activity.

That's what King Farm does, even if the busy arteries around prevent outside trips on foot. ''This is the first time we've ever been able to walk to a Safeway,'' beams Tiffany Berman, who moved into King Farm recently with husband Lou. ''We really don't use the car at all in the neighborhood.''

One of the newest and largest examples of New Urbanism, the writer finds, King Farm will be among 32 neighborhoods in Maryland and the Seattle area selected for a four-year, $2 million federally funded study of pedestrian-friendly designs as a factor in the lifestyles and physical activities of residents. -- Washington Post   6/15/2004

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/

Carroll County Board Slows Sprawl to a Crawl

Long Maryland's most permissive jurisdiction for residential builders, Carroll County -- population about 163,000 -- shows how public alarm over strained schools, roads and services can undo foes of smart growth and quickly generate development rules decried by some as the most restrictive in the Baltimore region.

Having replaced two Republican conservatives a year and a half ago, moderates Dean L. Minnich and Perry L. Jones joined re-elected like-minded incumbent Julia Walsh Gouge on the county board, and all three fulfilled their campaign pledge to curb sprawl by imposing a year-long freeze on most projects last June and tightening the development approval process last month.

Effective June 10, reports Baltimore Sun writer Hanah Cho, the new three-tier process raises the standard of developer proof that proposed projects won't strain schools, roads, water supplies and other public services, with officials evaluating plans twice before letting them proceed; enables county planners to set timetable conditions for projects placed in a new ''yellow light'' category due to their possible impact on schools or roads; and allows re-submission of rejected projects no sooner than annually.

Home Builders Association of Maryland governmental affairs director Tom Ballentine tells the writer that some counties may have ''more restrictive school standards,'' but no other county has ''more layers of restrictions and regulations on the pace of growth.''

Real estate agents think the tougher standards regarding projects' impact on schools, roads and services may artificially elevate home prices and undercut affordable housing. But Commissioner Minnich observes, ''If you're going to manage growth, part of that is making sure you provide a plan for providing adequate facilities.''

Former Maryland Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening, whose conflicts with the two since-ousted Carroll Republican commissioners were widely reported by the press, is ''pleasantly surprised'' by the new county board's fast move, but ''not surprised at all'' by the policy change itself. The former governor, current Washington-based Smart Growth Leadership Institute President, says, ''The reason being that control of sprawl and some type of rational growth policy is becoming a major political issue all over the country.'' -- Baltimore Sun   5/17/2004

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Bill Would Add Incentive for More Housing in Howard County Mixed-Use Project

As the Howard County Council keeps the hot housing market in check with annual builder allocations and long waiting lines in many areas, Republican Councilman Christopher J. Merdon hopes to boost housing in mixed-use projects through a bill that would offer their developers one additional unit for every 2,000 square feet of office space.

Focused mainly on the Route 100 and U.S. 1 commercial corridors, since most land along Interstate 70 is under rural preservation programs and safe from development, reports Baltimore Sun writer Liz F. Kay, the bill would specifically help Bozzuto Homes, Inc., which will convert the 75-acre Curtis farm near the Route 100-Snowden River Parkway intersection into a mixed-use neighborhood of 396 town houses and condos, 28,000 square feet of shops, and 144,500 square feet of offices, letting it build 72 additional housing units.

Bozzuto Homes president Charles L. Covell considers the bill good for Smart Growth, noting that commercial development is ''an important part of the economic basis of a municipality'' and that local governments need ''to embrace office and retail components as a way of balancing the budget.''

On the other hand, Corporate Office Properties Trust president and CEO Rand Griffin calls the proposal ''very misguided legislation,'' pointing out that the area office vacancy rate has dropped to 14-15 percent and that office oversupply ''always adversely affects rents.''

County Council Democratic Chairman Guy Guzzone promises ''a very, very good look'' at the bill, stressing, ''If you're going to speed up housing development, you have to be very careful.'' -- Baltimore Sun   5/4/2004

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Population Continues to Shift to Far Suburbs of Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

Although the Smart Growth policies of former Maryland Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening have greatly advanced land protection and urban revitalization since 1997, the newest Census data indicate a continued population shift to the far suburbs of Baltimore and Washington, while inner-ring suburbs stagnate, with the former governor and current president of the Washington-based Smart Growth Leadership Institute calling this continuation of old patterns ''(t)he unfortunate reality'' nationwide, and repeating the cautionary words he spoke when first proposing Smart Growth: ''we didn't get here overnight, and we can't reverse the path overnight.''

Confident that aggressive implementation of Smart Growth on the state and local levels will show results in about a decade, he warned that delaying action now will only harm quality of life, asking, ''How much longer will people sit in traffic going to work, and how much worse can the air quality get, and how much more expensive can tax bills become?''

Real estate agents and home builders attribute the residential development in the distant suburbs to growth restrictions in highly urbanized Baltimore and Montgomery counties and to buyers' ability ''to get more house for their money'' farther out, reports Baltimore Sun writer Andrew A. Green, quoting Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors president, regional Long & Foster vice president Cindy Ariosa, who says young dual-career couples want big kitchens near family rooms, smaller yards, and neighborhoods where everyone has children at the same time, a combination not usually offered by older communities.

Troubling as the Baltimore population decline and the service-hungry residential development in outer counties are for officials short of school and infrastructure funds, that development wouldn't be contrary to Smart Growth had it been concentrated in priority funding areas required under Maryland guidelines, says former state Smart Growth official John W. Frece, now communication director at the University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education.

Since county officials resisted ceding part of their traditional land-use control to the state, he notes, Governor Glendening's program for directing growth to priority funding areas focused on incentives, not restrictions. -- Baltimore Sun   4/9/2004

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Editorial Urges Gov. Ehrlich to Recharge Maryland's Public Transit

''Baltimore needs better public transit,'' instead of its present ''bunch of half-built half-measures,'' asserts a Baltimore Sun editorial, stressing that since Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. ''inherited a neglected system,'' he should be truly keen on advancing the four proposed transit lines'' in Baltimore and the state's Washington suburbs, especially as ''there are legislators who know that spending money on public transit is an investment in new jobs, in urban renewal, in clean air and Smart Growth.''

One of the key pro-transit legislators is House Environmental Matters Committee Democratic Chairwoman Maggie L. McIntosh, without whose support the governor's ''entire transportation program could be in trouble,'' since many lawmakers ''are unhappy'' that the governor's bill to boost transportation spending by $266 million a year relies on higher fees instead of a gas tax increase.

To really recharge transit, the editorial urges the governor to move beyond a token promise of $17 million for planning and design of the proposed downtown Baltimore-Woodlawn Red Line -- which his Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan can't see in the works before 2011 -- and offer ''the big bucks '' for its construction. -- Baltimore Sun   3/9/2004

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

State Takeover of Baltimore's Public Schools Could Help Maryland Manage Sprawl

''I have 90,000 children in Baltimore City schools,'' said Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, having first pledged a $42 million loan for school bills and later indicating willingness to let the state take over the system, writes Baltimore Sun columnist Dan Rodricks, crediting the governor, ''who garnered little support in the 2002 gubernatorial election from the city,'' with ''stepping into an area of public leadership that has been empty in Maryland for decades.''

The governor, the columnist writes, is ''embracing true regionalism, telling his suburban and rural constituency, otherwise averse to more city assistance, that a stable and effective Baltimore public school system eventually will lift the quality of life in the entire state.''

University of Maryland urban studies professor Howell Baum agrees, saying the governor ''appreciates the immense cost of not paying'' for city schools. Professor Baum, the columnist notes, scrutinizes the problem in the Journal of the American Planning Association's winter issue, pointing out that urban school failure and racial segregation further suburban sprawl, which worsens suburban school overcrowding, road congestion, air pollution and open space loss.

Noting the professor's view that the flight of ''middle-class, largely white families'' to the suburbs and related urban ills ''are intrinsic to sprawl, but they are not on the Smart Growth agenda,'' the columnist stresses they ''should be on all agendas.'' Providing several quotations from the professor's article as the best rationale, the columnist concludes with this one: ''Improving city schools is central to managing sprawl and the collaboration required for doing so will build regional capacity for dealing with other metropolitan problems.'' -- Baltimore Sun   2/26/2004

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Bethesda Smart Growth Development Gets Another Green Light, But Neighbors Demand More Concessions

Even though a smart-growth six-story building, with 157 market-rate and 23 middle-income apartments over small shops and sidewalk cafes, proposed by award-winning Federal Realty for a vacant Giant supermarket site on Arlington Road in Bethesda, has just been approved by the Montgomery County planning board for the fifth time in thee years, ''a relative handful of very loud'' Not in My Back Yard (NIMBY) activists ''do not take yes for an answer,'' defy their own neighbors and stubbornly push on, writes Washington Post Metro columnist Marc Fisher, glad that ''ever more residents see the advantages of increasing density in close-in communities,'' but dismayed that ''developers and politicians still cave to those who shout the loudest.''

Quoting resident John Freeman who told the board that the NIMBYs would relent only in exchange for their area's gated entrance, private Arlington Road rush-hour lanes and guaranteed weekend-night table reservation at nearby restaurants, the columnist notes that Federal Realty even tried to soothe them by doubling the number of underground parking spaces to 470 -- despite ''efforts to create a downtown not wholly dependent on cars'' -- and contrasts all this with a firm stance on smart growth south of the county and state lines, in Columbia Pike neighborhoods, Arlington County, Virginia.

''(F)ed up with ugly shopping centers, unwalkable retail areas and speeding commuters,'' Columbia Pike residents are working with the county and inviting developers ''to create a traditional Main Street featuring shops, apartments, offices and cultural amenities,'' the columnist writes, attributing Arlington's success to public engagement early in the planning process, and also to ''the political courage to stick to smart growth rules even in the face of carping from neighbors who fantasize about locking the gates against newcomers.''

And things are going to get better in Bethesda, too, says Washington metro Coalition for Smarter Growth executive director Stewart Schwartz, an outspoken foe of developer greed, stressing, ''We will go to bat for developers with the right projects.'' -- Washington Post   2/24/2004

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/

Howard County Looks at Higher Density Living as Open Land Becomes More Scarce

''The future for Howard County is going to be a big switch toward higher density,'' said Department of Planning and Zoning research division director Jeff Bronow, commenting on its new annual Development System Monitoring Report, according to which a drop in supply of new homes -- from 1,951 between Fall 2001 and Fall 2002 to 1,397 in the next 12 months -- and low mortgage rates, which put more buyers on the market, pushed up the median price for single-family homes by 13.9 percent to $396,600 and for townhouses by 10.9 percent to $203,300.

Another factor, Towson University's Regional Economic Studies Institute associate director John Hopkins told Baltimore Sun writer Liz F. Kay, was the county's high quality of life, which attracts ''a lot of young professional couples that are willing to pay top dollar'' for homes. With Interfaith Coalition for Affordable Housing spokesman Andre De Verneil saying the report ''underscores the problem that middle-income people are being squeezed out of the market, especially people starting out,'' local Re/Max real estate agent Rick La Rocca stressed, ''It's not the purchase price -- it's the monthly payment that makes it affordable. If rates drop to 2 percent, $600,000 is going to look affordable.''

Director Bronow added that as the county approaches build-out, with open land getting scarce, it will intensify a shift from single-family homes toward townhouses and apartments, targeting seniors and complementing homes in phased mixed-use developments such as Waverly in Woodstock. -- Baltimore Sun   2/23/2004

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

State Office of Smart Growth Could Be Absorbed by Maryland's Department of Planning

The Maryland Office of Smart Growth -- created by Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening as the first in the nation in 2001, staffed by 15 experts and support workers from other agencies, but gradually downgraded since Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich took over last year -- is facing elimination under a bill just proposed by the state Department of Planning, which promises to do the sprawl-control job with five staffers and less money. Department spokesman Charles Gates tells Baltimore Sun writer David Nitkin that the change wouldn't mean ''a reduction in emphasis or a reduction in services,'' adding, ''I don't know of any other state that has a separate entity whose primary purpose was smart growth.''

Yet, the writer reports, conservationists wonder. Coalition for Smarter Growth executive director Steward Schwartz says, ''I think there's some important symbolism. It downgrades the role of smart growth in the state.'' Last year, the writer notes, in written testimony to legislative budget committees, whose analysts suggested elimination of the office, its staff wrote, ''What we do is the tough job of being neutral coordinator between agencies by keeping the focus on a Smart Growth outcome.'' This, says League of Conservation Voters director Susan Brown, the Department of Planning may be not able to do, ''not being an independent coordinating body.'' -- Baltimore Sun   2/4/2004

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Local Farm Protection Legislation Expected in Anne Arundel County

With a state-funded study finding suburban sprawl one of the main threats to Maryland agriculture and with the state's 1998 right-to-farm law offering farmers protection from nuisance suits, Anne Arundel County may become the eighth of 23 counties to reinforce farmer protection locally, under legislation sponsored by all of its five state senators and introduced by Republican Senator Janet Greenip.

The County Council's 2002 resolution in support of the state right-to-farm measure has no teeth, reports Annapolis Capital writer E. B. Furgurson III, quoting Senator Greenip, who says about county officials, ''Without this enabling legislation they can't go further. Now they will be free to enact laws.''

Such legislation, the writer notes, was one of the key recommendations by an Agricultural Development Advisory Committee appointed by County Democratic Executive Janet S. Owens two years ago. County Soil Conservation District manager Jeff Opel says farmers prefer local control over their conflicts with new homeowners who complain about farming machinery, fertilizer, animals and dust, explaining, ''Then maybe these issues can be handled more quickly and without litigation.'' -- Capital   2/4/2004

Resource(s): www.hometownannapolis.com/index.html

Maryland Offers Ten Transit Station Parking Lots for Private Redevelopment

Seen as ''a more aggressive and commercially minded version of Smart Growth initiatives begun in the previous administration'' of Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening, the Baltimore-Washington area transit-oriented development program recently launched by Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and his transportation officials aims to boost both ridership and state revenue, but its early outlook is mixed, with only seven of the first ten bus, train and subway park-and-ride lots offered to developers for mixed-use projects attracting bids and some local officials and residents calling any parking reduction bad for future transit use.

In contrast to states that offer subsidies or tax breaks for development near transit stations, Maryland expects its program to help the Department of Transportation get some of the extra $300 million it needs each year, reports Baltimore Sun writer Ariel Sabar, quoting Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan, who says, ''If we can find a partner in the private sector who can create development, that promotes transit as well as generates profit.'' Noting that the profit motive makes some think the state may be eventually ''wasting'' valuable land near transit stations, the writer also quotes the department's real estate chief, Samuel F. Minnitte, who observes that ''ridership in the Baltimore region has declined in the last 10 years'' and that most of the targeted parking lots are underused. ''You can hope for the future,'' he adds, ''but you also have to be practical for what the financial realities are today.''

Officials in Howard, Harford, Baltimore and Prince George's counties like the plan, with Laurel city development official Karl D. Brendle saying about the prospects of its MARC station improvements, ''It gives us exactly what we're looking for -- a mixed-use project with an open plaza, places for outdoor restaurants, offices and apartments, all wrapped around a multilevel parking structure.''

On the other hand, officials in Frederick County worry about losing 450 of 820 parking spaces at the Frederic Monocacy MARC Station, and Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens has expressed public opposition to eliminating 130 of 180 parking spots at the Severna Park & Ride lot, with a popular May-October farmers' market, by pledging to block its sale for ''high-end'' commercial development. To this, state transportation spokesman Jack Cahalan responds, ''The fact that a farmers' market has arisen there is a consideration, yes -- but it's only one factor of consideration. It will be judged against the larger use of the property and the mission to grow transit ridership.'' -- Baltimore Sun   12/27/2003

Resource(s): www.sunspot.net/

Eastern Shore Planned Development Proposals Bring Threat of Big-Box Retail, Traffic Congestion

As Eastern Shore towns of a few hundred to a few thousand people are embracing large planned development proposals hoping to raise tax revenue for vital services without the loss of local character, some experts worry that it may bring in big-box retailers, traffic congestion and environmental degradation anyway, with Talbot County Preservation Alliance president, Easton attorney Thomas T. Alspach, saying, ''The development community has very cleverly attached itself to Smart Growth, but people seem to be ignoring the issue of scale in these small towns.'' But the issue is complex and others note that development near towns meets the state's land-conservation guidelines, reports Baltimore Sun writer Chris Guy, quoting Salisbury University's Business Economic and Community Outreach Network top economist Memo S. Diriker, who says, ''In a weird way, this makes sense from a Smart Growth perspective,'' observing that anyone ''who thinks something can be done to reverse these trends is just naive at best.'' This sounds good to ''a veteran of bitter battles with slow-growth advocates,'' Easton developer Robert Rauch, who heads a partnership ready to build a 900-acre planned community of some 2,000 homes and many commercial facilities near the 450-home Trappe. ''For years, the mantra has been 'Smart Growth,' and that's what we're trying to do,'' he declares. ''Trappe has been designated a growth area as long as there's been zoning. This looks like the definition of Smart Growth.'' Chesapeake Bay Foundation senior planner George Maurer responds, ''It does seem like the model, but Smart Growth can be a double-edged sword,'' adding, ''What people fear is that they'll wind up with both high-density growth in town and still get low-density sprawl out in the rural areas.'' Trappe Commission President Cheryl Lewis calls development a matter of town survival. ''We're enlarging a farm town, instead of chopping up waterfront land for million-dollar mansions like you see in other places in Talbot County,'' she stresses. ''We want to build on what we have, not ruin it.'' -- Baltimore Sun   11/30/2003

Resource(s): www.sunspot.net/

New Development Capacity Task Force Sets First Meeting for December 3

''Responsible development is not a political issue. It affects everyone who cares about livable, attractive, vibrant communities,'' said Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., as his Secretary of Planning Audrey E. Scott took the charge of the new Development Capacity Task Force, stressing, ''We must all come to the table to discuss how growth can most efficiently be directed to preserve the quality and natural resources of the state while maximizing the public investment in infrastructure.'' Created last month by the Governor's Priority Places Strategy Executive Order, which shifts the main focus of state agencies from land protection to urban revitalization, the nine-member cross-sector task force includes American Planing Association Chapter President Dirk Geratz, Chesapeake Bay Foundation Senior Planner George Maurer, Preservation Maryland Executive Director Tyler Gearhart and University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education Executive Director Gerrit Knaap. The task force will examine development capacity evaluation methods and their prospective use by the ten jurisdictions in a pilot study. The jurisdictions include the counties of Anne Arundel, Harford, Montgomery, St. Mary's and Worcester, and the municipalities of Chestertown, Frederick City, Hagerstown, Havre de Grace and Salisbury. With its first meeting scheduled for December 3, the task force will present the governor with a final report by next July.   11/20/2003

Resource(s): www.mdp.state.md.us/

Rockville's Proposed Twinbrook Commons Development Gets Smart Growth Alliance's Quarterly Award

Under a program of selecting each quarter the project most advantageous to the Washington area's land use, environment and overall quality of life, the Smart Growth Alliance recognized the proposed Twinbrook Commons at the Rockville-Montgomery County border next to the county's Metrorail station, a high-density mixed-use development which will offer 610,000 square feet of offices, 160,000 square feet of street-level retail and 1,288 residential units. As agreed between the developer, JBG Companies, and the transit authority, WMATA, the station and the street will be substantially upgraded, to ensure easy pedestrian access and safety. Thrilled ''to receive this important endorsement,'' JBG managing director Rod Lawrence said the Twinbrooks Commons objective ''is to create a vibrant, live-work-play environment that becomes a focal point of the surrounding area and an asset to the current and future residents.'' SGA jury chairman, a partner in Washington-based Squire, Sanders and Dempsey, LLP, Sam Black, called Twinbrook Commons ''an excellent example of how to make smart growth work,'' adding that through the recognition program, the SGA ''strives to highlight the benefits these projects offer to the surrounding communities and help break down barriers in the approval process.'' The SGA was formed three years ago by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the Coalition for Smarter Growth, the Metropolitan Washington Builders' Council and the Urban Land Institute-Washington.   11/20/2003

Resource(s): http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031120/dcth037_1.html

Baltimore County Redevelopment Plan Would Give Quick Project Approval to Developers Working with Local Residents

''We can keep development from encroaching on rural land. We can keep our growth areas free of congestion and sprawl, and we can protect our older, established neighborhoods,'' said Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr., outlining his proposed ''Renaissance Redevelopment Regulations,'' which would streamline and shorten the county approval process and replace most of the current zoning with site-specific requirements if developers involve local residents in planning from its earliest phase. Determined to keep urban revitalization as his key priority, notes Baltimore Sun writer Andrew A. Green, the executive will introduce a county bill next month or in January to create a pilot program for seven yet-unidentified areas, where public ''charettes'' will help developers craft their plans according to local needs. If the county approves the plans, developers will be able to start construction within months instead of years. The proposal was generally well received, but everyone awaits details, the writer reports. Owings Mills developer Larry Rosenberg, used to intensive community input to his plans, said, ''there will be a learning curve for some of the developers, but I think it will work.'' Towson's Community Conservation Action Group chairman Dick Parsons agreed that the proposal ''makes sense,'' but warned against any exception or project alteration after county approvals, ''otherwise, it will fail and undermine zoning as we know it.'' A former state Smart Growth official presently with University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth and Education, John W. Frece called the proposal a continuation of the county's long tradition of land protection, noting that revitalization of older neighborhoods will reduce pressure to weaken its protection measures, and adding, ''You've got to make the most of what you've got, and this sounds like a way of doing it.'' -- Baltimore Sun   11/7/2003

Resource(s): www.sunspot.net/

Editorial Notes Shift in Maryland's Smart Growth Policy

After ten months in office, Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. ''essentially'' reaffirmed former Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening's signature smart growth efforts ''to control sprawl by directing growth to developed areas,'' though under his own ''Priority Places'' name, while pledging closer cooperation with local officials, observes a Baltimore Sun editorial entitled Smart Growth II, calling it all ''laudable'' on paper, but noting that ''too many details remain vague'' and that growth-control advocates were excluded from preparatory discussions and ''remain wary.'' Excusably reluctant to pursue his predecessor's ''aggressive land purchases'' at this time of fiscal worries, the editorial says, Governor Ehrlich ''underscores the other side of the growth management coin: the need to foster high-quality, higher-density redevelopment and infill projects in the state's designated growth areas.'' With a sixth of Maryland, more than a million acres, already preserved, the state must continue preservation, but to accommodate an expected million new residents within two decades, it also ''must redirect growth back inside and along the state's beltways,'' where each new household ''saves at least two acres of open land further out.'' But with the gubernatorial team's timely move to spur urban revitalization, brownfield reuse, infill and transit-oriented development, while streamlining regulations, the editorial poses three questions. Will the state give counties more infrastructure funds ''to handle higher housing densities?'' Will a current inventory of developable land in growth areas be used to argue for ''expanding these growth boundaries, inducing more sprawl?'' And what will the state do if jurisdictions like Carroll County -- until recently challenging the state over Smart Growth -- ''aren't reining in runaway sprawl?'' -- Baltimore Sun   10/16/2003

Resource(s): www.sunspot.net/

Gov. Ehrlich Outlines New ''Priority Places Strategy''

Calling his new Priority Places Strategy ''a little more than a tweak but certainly not a sea change'' in Maryland's 1997 Smart Growth policy launched by former Governor Parris N. Glendening, Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. promised to work more closely with local leaders on land-use decisions than his predecessor and to launch a five-jurisdiction pilot program for his ''land bank'' priority sites where the state and local governments will encourage development. The governor expects counties, municipalities, conservationists and developers to play roles in formation of the land bank program, reports Baltimore Sun writer Michael Dresser, noting that his other priorities include new investment in established communities; increased efforts to reclaim brownfields; transit-oriented development in areas served by bus and rail; and regulatory changes to facilitate growth in target areas. Conservationists thinks the strategy reflects key principles of Smart Growth, but remain concerned about details and the forthcoming revisions in the land preservation program. Chesapeake Bay Foundation vice president Theresa Pierno said, ''What I'm not hearing here is the other side (of Smart Growth), which is protecting our natural resources.'' 1,000 Friends of Maryland executive director Dru Schmidt-Perkins endorsed the ''land bank'' idea, but also stressed, ''There has to be some open-space component.'' Nevertheless, the director of the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education at the University of Maryland-College Park, Gerrit Knaap, focused on positives. Seeing the strategy as ''a step in the right direction,'' with nothing that makes him ''cringe or that is going backward,'' he was pleased that the governor left a role for the Smart Growth sub-Cabinet, in which his predecessor gathered the heads of agencies involved in land-use issues. He also praised the ''land bank'' program, adding, ''Land-use planning is an extremely important element in Smart Growth.'' -- Baltimore Sun   10/11/2003

Resource(s): www.sunspot.net/

''Smart Sites'' Web Database Could Help Steer Maryland Development to Neglected Sites

Pursuing Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s vision of smart growth, reflected in his Priority Places Strategy focused on community revitalization, the Maryland Department of Planning (MDP) and its Office of Smart Growth launched their interactive ''Smart Sites'' web database ''on high-priority development opportunities across the state,'' with MDP Secretary Audrey E. Scott saying the initiative ''marks yet another effort to steer development into already built environments and encourage economic development in areas that have languished or declined.'' This online source of information on 12 priority properties in 7 jurisdictions so far will likely include another 10 next year -- some perhaps privately owned -- marketing them ''through the enhanced promotion of an array of existing state, local and federal incentives.'' Besides reclamation of neglected sites and efficient use of present infrastructure, the web page reads, ''the initiative reflects other basic tenets of Smart Growth by alleviating development pressure that otherwise threatens critical natural resources and farmland.'' MDP spokesman Charles Gates adds, ''This is the most aggressive attempt by the state to market this type of land. In the past, this type of property would just sit.'' -- Maryland Smart Sites   10/9/2003

Resource(s): www.mdsmartsites.org

Editorial Calls Maryland's Freeze on Land Purchases ''Worrisome''

Taken aback by Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr's decision to overhaul Maryland's land preservation programs, Annapolis Capital Editorial Board calls it ''inevitable,'' because he must deal with huge budget shortages and because Governor Glendening began the cuts last fall, but also ''worrisome,'' since the present governor said his objections to the predecessor's conservation policies go beyond cost and mean ''a fundamental change'' in the administration. Worried by the governor's move to spend mostly on land purchases around Chesapeake Bay, its tributaries and Ocean City coastal bays, the Capital editorial board says it doesn't understand what the governor means by ''secondary land purchases,'' since he ''knows that every square foot of this state, except for the small Atlantic coast and an area across the mountains in Garret County, is in the bay watershed.'' Declaring no sympathy for the previous governor for putting the state ''into a hole,'' the editorial board points out that he ''realized that the whole state contributes to the condition of the bay and has an economic stake in sensible development that preserves green space.'' This, the board concludes, should remain ''a central part of state policy.'' -- Capital   10/5/2003

Resource(s): www.hometownannapolis.com/

Gov. Ehrlich Hails Redevelopment of Established Town Centers at Citizen Planners Conference

''Responsible development is not a political issue. It affects everyone who cares about livable, attractive, vibrant communities,'' said Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., at the 20th Anniversary Conference of the Maryland Citizen Planners Association in Annapolis, presenting the 9th Annual Vision Awards to 15 winners in seven categories: Community Activism and Achievement; Government Innovation; Smart Development; Business and Economic Development; Public Education & Outreach; Public School Construction/Renovation; and Redevelopment and Revitalization. ''We are focusing our resources, our money, our attention, and our energy on the redevelopment of established town centers. That is the smartest growth you can possibly have. Reinvesting so that we encourage development in older communities,'' the governor continued, hailing transformation of the long vacant, windowless big-box-style Drumcastle Center near his former legislative quarters in Towson into a ''green'' state-county office complex next to a newly renovated shopping center, both easily accessible for pedestrians. ''We have some great examples of smart planning and development in the Drumcastle Center,'' the governor said, noting that he lived and worked close by for eight years and saw ''what really smart growth redevelopment can do for a community.'' His Department of Planning Secretary Audrey Scott stressed its efforts provide viable residential and business options, ''while protecting our environmental assets,'' with ''extensive plans for infill and brownfield redevelopment, transit-oriented development, and major improvements to wastewater treatment plans.'' -- Maryland Department of Planning   10/3/2003

Resource(s): www.mdp.state.md.us/

Maryland Freezes Land Acquisition Program

Stressing his fundamental opposition to ''secondary land purchases'' throughout the state, where Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening preserved more that 310,000 acres between 1994 and 2002, Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. told the other two members of the Board of Public Works, which oversees such deals, that he is putting acquisitions on hold until his team focuses the state's conservation policy on land protecting the Chesapeake Bay. A long-time adversary of Governor Glendening on the board, Democratic Comptroller William Donald Schaefer, report Washington Post writers Nelson Hernandez and Anita Huslin, seemed to relish another jibe opportunity, saying the former governor ''bought so much useless land they didn't know what to do with it,'' while the third member, Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp, was surprised by the sudden announcement and declined to comment. Although the state budget shortfall, the writers note, forced the former governor to halve land conservation funds and trim related spending by the Department of Planning last fall, the new governor ''cut even deeper,'' dismissing much of the department's land conservation staff. Disheartened by the announcement, Chesapeake Bay Foundation vice president Theresa Pierno stressed that ''cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay is not just about preserving strips of land along the edges of the bay,'' because all of the state, with a few small exceptions, lays in the bay watershed. -- Washington Post   10/2/2003

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/

Rental Housing Costs Jump 12 Percent in Maryland

decline in federal funds for low-income homes look ''particularly acute'' in this state; nonprofit Interfaith Housing of Western Maryland president James Upchurch attributing part of the increase to county impact fees, often the same for mansions and studio apartments; and Department of Housing and Community Development housing policy officer John Greiner blaming the lack of subsidies and citing local bias against affordable housing to conclude, ''Smart Growth got hijacked by no-growth advocates.'' Based on the federal definition of affordable housing as taking no more than 30 percent of annual income, reports Baltimore Sun writer Jamie Smith Hopkins, the study found that it takes an hourly wage of at least $15.21 to rent an affordable two-bedroom unit nationally, but almost $19 -- or about $40,000 a year -- in Maryland. This jumps above $48,000 a year in Montgomery and Frederick counties north of Washington, D.C., and in southeastern Charles and Calvert counties. The Columbia-based Enterprise Foundation Chairman and CEO Bart Harvey, who helps finance affordable housing nationwide, pointed out that the ''lack of affordable housing within a reasonable commuting distance to jobs really hampers the economic development of the state and the counties,'' telling suburbs to encourage rather than fight lower-income housing and urging local leaders to revitalize blighted communities. Department of Housing and Community Development spokeswoman Leslie Mooney said state leaders see the problem, noting that Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. already appointed a 21-member Commission on Housing Policy, to find ways to expand and retain affordable housing. The states even costlier for renters than Maryland are Massachusetts, California, New Jersey and New York. -- Baltimore Sun   9/9/2003

Resource(s): www.sunspot.net/

Baltimore's ''Smart Commute'' Program Adds Incentives for Home Purchases Near Transit Stations

In another expansion of its ''Smart Commute'' initiative, which increases affordable housing choices and eases traffic congestion by linking housing and public transit, Fannie Mae partnered with Maryland and with Baltimore area banks, groups and agencies, to offer qualified buyers of homes near transit stations ''greater mortgage financing flexibility,'' including a three-percent down payment from their own funds and assumed additional income of up to $250 a month from savings on less car use. In addition to these special mortgage-eligibility considerations, reports Baltimore Times writer Ginger Williams, the home buyers will receive four free weekly MARC Train passes, also valid on the city's buses, light rail and subway. Fannie Mae's Southeast Region vice president David Elam said his company ''is working with this project to lower homebuying costs and the barriers to homeownership'' in the city. Calling this a ''common sense approach,'' Baltimore's Housing Commissioner, Paul T. Graziano, announced ''a major new initiative'' to revitalize the Reservoir Hill area by selling the first 16 of its vacant homes to prospective occupants or investors through private Realtors starting in September and putting more than 20 others on the market later. Fannie Mae's Maryland partners in the ''Smart Commute'' program include the state Department of Transportation, the Department of Planning, the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors, the LiveBaltimore Home Center, the Municipal Employees Credit Union and Chevy Chase Bank/B.F. Saul Mortgage Company. -- Baltimore Times   8/29/2003

Resource(s): www.btimes.com/news/default.asp

County Executive Faults Maryland Governor on Transit Improvements

A day after hitting Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. in a Baltimore Sun op-ed piece for ignoring the city's request for ''a first-rate subway system'' and ''condemning the region to perpetual gridlock,'' Montgomery County Democratic Executive Douglas M. Duncan continued the attack in his own county, reminding radio listeners that the governor ''campaigned on solving our transportation problems,'' but cut the transportation budget, calling him ''a disaster'' and urging his Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan to put more money in projects statewide -- all this brushed off by the secretary as ''political noise.'' Noting that the executive may run for governor in 2006, Washington Post writer Matthew Mosk quotes political experts Keith Haller and Blair Lee IV, who think he could have a problem attacking the governor's transportation record locally, since both backed the long-debated Intercounty Connector (ICC) across Potomac to Virginia, with the governor taking ''critical steps to get the project moving.'' The executive gives the governor his due for spurring the projects, but says, ''With this governor, every other transportation improvement can fall by the wayside besides the ICC.'' To highlight their differences further, the writer reports, the executive's ally, Montgomery Democratic Delegate Peter Franchot, asked Secretary Flanagan for a joint Friday morning rush-hour ''Ride On Route 15'' bus trip, during which the delegate stressed the need for new revenue to keep the county's transit lines in business, while the secretary argued that despite the budget constraints, the administration is ''not sitting still.'' -- Baltimore Sun   8/10/2003

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/

Anne Arundel Closes Zoning Loophole That Allowed New Homes on Undersized Lots

Anne Arundel Closes Zoning Loophole That Allowed New Homes on Undersized Lots Backed by Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens and Planning Officer Joseph W. Rutter Jr., the County Council voted to stop the ever more frequent practice of tearing down old homes that straddle small lots -- permitted before the county's 1952 zoning -- and squeezing a home on each, with the law's long-time proponent, Councilwoman Barbara D. Samorajczyk, pointing out that building new homes on lots smaller than allowed since then ''defeats the very purpose of trying to manage your growth.'' In many older neighborhoods -- especially in the increasingly popular Chesapeake Bay waterfront communities like Bay Ridge, Cape St. John or Severna Park, reports Baltimore Sun writer Amanda J. Crawford -- residents resented the tightly packed, ill-fitting homes, often blocking water views. The Greater Severna Park Council's planning and zoning committee chairman, Albert M. Johnston, said, ''A builder comes in and maximizes his investment and leaves the community with an eyesore.'' Simpler than its two previously proposed versions, the new law eliminates that old zoning loophole by following a 1999 Court of Appeals decision in a Baltimore County case, in which the court ruled that ''lots with overlapping structures should be considered a single merged lot.'' The new law, the writer adds, doesn't automatically merge adjacent undersized lots having such accessory structures or features as sheds or driveways, but owners adding them in the future will have to consolidate lots. -- Baltimore Sun   8/6/2003

Resource(s): www.sunspot.net/

Smart Growth Comes to Baltimore County's Hunt Valley

In a win for smart growth in Baltimore County's Hunt Valley, the three-decades-old business-industrial hub, with light-rail links to Baltimore and BWI Airport, has recently received a 400-unit apartment complex and now bulldozers level much of a failed mall for the future $70 million Towne Center's shops and restaurants, applauds a Baltimore Sun editorial, while sounding a ''sprawl alert'' and telling county officials to stand firm against the inevitable developer pressures to breach the adjacent urban-rural demarcation line. Drawn just north of the mall, the demarcation line has long ''contained large-scale development in an area with public water and sewer, safeguarding the rural one third of the county from sprawl,'' the editorial observes. It urges County Executive James T. Smith Jr. and the County Council to match their predecessors' resolve in keeping Hunt Valley redevelopment ''from leapfrogging into currently protected rural areas'' and to be ''on guard against infringement attempts when a new rezoning cycle begins in September.'' -- Baltimore Sun   8/6/2003

Resource(s): www.sunspot.net/

Gov. Ehrlich Urges Unity at Summit to Curb Nutrient Runoff into Chesapeake Bay

''The sooner we get past the politics and (the notion) that because you're pro-environment, you're anti-agriculture, and if you're pro-agriculture, you're anti-environment, the better off we'll be,'' said Maryland Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., setting the tone for a day-long state summit on ways to curb nutrient runoff into the Chesapeake Bay, a sentiment shared by Chesapeake Bay Foundation President William C. Baker, who stressed, ''We want to bring the temperature down, stop the finger-pointing, work together. These solutions really should be mutually beneficial for agriculture and the environment.'' The 300 farmers, poultry growers, environmentalists, consultants, researchers and state officials in the audience gave the governor a standing ovation for his unity call, then split into forum groups that produced 80 recommendations, some redundant, some contradictory, reports Associated Press writer Gretchen Parker. Many reflected the frequent farmers' complaints about the burden of regulations, and the wish to make nutrient control plans voluntary and offer incentives for their implementation. With more than 500 million chickens grown on the Eastern Shore each year and much of nitrogen and phosphorus from the billions of pounds of manure running off into the bay, many farmers hope the governor remembers they voted for him last year, and will revise the state's 1998 Water Quality Improvement Act and ''help them keep their industries viable,'' the writer notes. But she also quotes a cautionary Chesapeake Bay Foundation news release that says the state won't reach its goal of halving nutrient runoff by 2010 if it relaxes regulations and warns, ''Now is not the time to find ways around taking responsibility for this pollution.''   8/6/2003

Resource(s): www.newszap.com/dover

Developer Explains Why Sprawl Is Bad for Business

''There will never be enough money or concrete for us to pave our way out of the traffic congestion,'' said veteran developer Steward Greenbaum, funding partner of Greenbaum-Rose Associates in Owings Mills, at a Baltimore County Planning Board speaker series forum, admitting that after years of ''conventional development'' he realized it ''doesn't work'' and found hundreds of reasons ''why sprawl is bad for business,'' which turned him toward mixed use, high density and other Smart Growth principles as the only effective remedy for road gridlock, loss of open space and a wasted sense of community. Impressed by the widely acclaimed neotraditional Kentlands in Montgomery County, he built the award-winning, 118-home Cobblestone neighborhood in Pikesville, Baltimore County, and launched the mixed-use, varied-income, 507-acre Maple Lawn development in Howard County, telling the audience, ''The CEO can live in Maple Lawn, and so can the secretary and the fireman.'' The problem, reports Towson Jeffersonian writer Bob Allen, is that Cobblestone required 1,200 zoning variances and Maple Lawn 32 zoning hearings, facing strong local opposition and splitting environmentalists -- with the Sierra Club against and 1,000 Friends of Maryland for the high-density project. The developer urged Baltimore County planners to visit Kentlands to fully understand ''the significance of the change'' in development patterns and the need to revise county zoning and make such projects easier. Noting that housing prices in Kentlands and similar developments ''have gone up faster than in conventional communities,'' he said his Maple Lawn will be successful, too, and the only mistake for any buyer would be to buy just one house, because ''(t)hey're going to go up in value dramatically.'' -- Jeffersonian   7/24/2003

Resource(s): http://news.mywebpal.com/index.cfm?pnpid=811

Developer Scales Back Kent Island Project to Meet County Growth Guidelines

Heeding the Queen Anne's County Commissioners' push for Kent Island growth curbs and courting community support, local developer John Wilson scaled down his 140-acre neo-traditional Gibson's Grant project from 750 to 417 homes, along with 65 small resort homes, a 60-room inn, a six-court tennis club and a general store, reserving 50 acres for public use and a 300-foot-wide buffer on Macum Creek for a nature trail, and promising to build only 45 homes a year to fit into the proposed 400-home annual countywide construction caps. Glad that builders are ''listening,'' but concerned about the county's wastewater treatment capacity, Democratic Commissioner Gene Ransom III said, ''(t)hey still have a ways to go, but they are heading in the right direction.'' On the other hand, reports Annapolis Capital writer Earl Kelly, Republican Commissioner Michael Koval voiced his preference for homes on one-acre lots, explaining, ''I am not a fan of smart growth because I don't like the density. I don't like being crowded.'' The writer also quotes local activists who have fought other big area projects with ballots and suits. Kent Island Civic Federation president Jack Broderick thought the scaled-down project is ''more reasonable,'' with the general public able to use its waterfront and other amenities. Kent Island Defense league president Rick Moser noted that developers are planning about 4,000 homes for the area, saying he has no ''reaction to the specific project, but when you combine that one project with everything else going on Kent Island ... (it) is outrageous.'' -- Capital   7/9/2003

Resource(s): www.hometownannapolis.com/

Howard County Replants Abandoned Road Spur to Minimize Storm Water Runoff

Since every little bit of soil and vegetation helps to reduce runoff into streams, floodplains and finally the Chesapeake Bay, Howard County officials decided to rip off asphalt from an abandoned 640-foot spur of Guilford Road in Columbia and plant in its place 200 trees and shrubs, with Ellicott City environmental center watershed planner Paul Sturm estimating the amount of rainwater that will filter through the ground instead of gushing into the nearby Little Patuxent River at 394,000 gallons annually. County Public Work Director James M. Irvin expects more removal of unused pavement ''left over for a variety of reasons,'' reports Baltimore Sun writer Jamie Smith Hopkins, also quoting Democratic Councilman Guy Guzzone, instrumental in the county's effort. A former Maryland Sierra Club director, he says, ''It would be easy to leave things -- leave the messes that we make and forget about them. But if we really care about our environment, we need to basically go and clean up our old mess. That's what this project's all about: cleaning up an old mess.'' -- Baltimore Sun   6/26/2003

Resource(s): www.sunspot.net/

Gov. Ehrlich Defends Dismissal of State Smart Growth Officers

Skeptical that Maryland needs a separate Smart Growth Office since ''Smart Growth is planning,'' Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said he dismissed its top officers and moved it under his Planning Department to avoid duplication and increase efficiency, but Senate Democratic President Thomas V. Mike Miller called the widely-emulated program former Governor Parris N. Glendening's ''greatest legacy'' and the move to undercut its land and resource protection strategy ''an example of politics over reason, partisanship over common sense, small-mindedness over what's best for the citizens of the state of Maryland.'' Conservationists and planners agree that Smart Growth should be a bipartisan cause, reports an unnamed Baltimore Sun writer, quoting Annapolis consultant Sandy Hillyer, who stressed, ''It's pro-business. It's pro-environment. It's pro-mobility,'' and Smart Growth America executive director Donald Chen, who said, ''Despite the losses of key personnel, it's still our hope that Governor Ehrlich will seize Maryland's existing policies and assets and make Smart Growth serve his goals.'' The writer notes that the governor has mentioned the possibility of expanding Smart Growth in areas such as wastewater management and that his planners are reviewing the program and promising their recommendations soon. Since abolition of the Smart Growth Office would need a vote in the legislature, which created it in 2002, Department of Planning spokesman Charles E. Gates Jr. said, ''The governor cannot just simply move that budget around or dispose of it,'' adding that it's safe to say he ''is going to do what he wants to do, which is going to be different from his predecessors.'' -- Baltimore Sun   6/23/2003

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Developer School, Park Impact Fee Increases Receive Scant Criticism in Carroll County

In the wake of their just-enacted partial development freezes, Carroll County Republican Commissioners increased developer school and park impact fees, from $4,744 to $6,836 for single-family homes and from $3,595 to $7,610 for townhouses, along with owner sewer connection fees and consumer water and sewer service rates, all increases starting July 1. The fee increase on townhouses was steeper, reports Baltimore Sun writer Childs Walker, because they add more to school rolls. In contrast to the outcry over the freezes, the increases drew little criticism even though developers intend to pass their impact fees to home buyers, the writer notes, citing commissioners' primary concern over the fiscal burden of excessive growth on present residents. They also believe residents want buyers of new homes to bear a greater share of additional service costs, to avoid a property tax hike like the earlier raise in the county income tax. Commissioner Dean L. Minnich said, ''I don't think it's up to us to make sure everybody has a place to live'' and Commissioner Julia Walsh Gouge stressed, ''We still have schools and roads to build, and we have no other way to pay for it.'' Owners of new homes, the writer add, will also pay about $600 more for a county sewer connection, but about $300 less for a water hookup, while new county water and sewer rates will cost consumers, most of them living in South Carroll, an average of about $120 more a year, with heavy users who exceed 160,000 gallons a year paying up to $300 more. -- Baltimore Sun   6/11/2003

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Editorial: Smart Growth Vital for Maryland, Despite Uncertain Future of State Office

Despite his verbal support for Maryland's landmark Smart Growth policy during last fall's race, Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich's dismissal of such key officials as Office of Smart Growth acting director John W. Frece, puts in doubt his interest in continuation of his Democratic predecessor's sprawl-containment course and if that's the case, says a Baltimore Sun editorial, he ''should take a good look'' at Baltimore suburbs and Central Maryland counties -- all seeking stronger growth controls -- with Carroll County ''a telling example of inaction's costs.'' Since the late 1990s, the editorial points out, two of Carroll County's three Republican commissioners have often defied state Smart Growth guidelines -- aggressively promoting residential development despite its crippling impact on the budget, schools and water supplies -- and paid for it at the polls last fall, both ''kicked out'' by voters. The reelected third commissioner and the two newly elected commissioners, all on a growth-control platform, just halted most residential projects for a year and commercial projects on industrial land for nine months, making developers ''cry foul and threaten suits.'' The editorial concludes with this cautionary moral: ''As sprawl continues to chew up the rapidly dwindling supply of land in Central Maryland, there's nothing to be gained -- and a lot of valuable time and land to be lost -- by putting your head in the sand, whether you're a Carroll County commissioner or the governor of Maryland.'' -- Baltimore Sun   6/10/2003

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Concurrency Law Invoked as Carroll County Commissioners Impose Subdivision Freeze

The three Carroll County reform-minded Republican commissioners, overwhelmingly elected last November to control growth, made their first hard move by imposing a one-year freeze on new subdivision projects covered by the adequate-facilities (concurrency) law that links them to local road, school and service capacity, along with a nine-month freeze on most non-industrial projects on industrial land, both giving officials time to craft permanent growth-management measures and both taking effect on June 10. The residential freeze, notes Baltimore Sun writer Childs Walker, will delay about 1,700 subdivisions with issued concurrency certificates, exempting projects already approved by the Planning Commission, located in the county's eight towns and no bigger than three lots. The industrial zoning freeze will delay most projects allowed under the more than 70 conditional land uses, including big stores, strip malls and other commercial facilities. Builders and land-use attorneys voiced shock and anger, the writer reports, quoting Westminster developer Dick Hull, who said he would be ''equally shocked if landowners don't go to the court to uphold their contracts,'' or concurrency certificates. Finksburg developer Bruce Wenworth, who builds only 12-15 homes a year, said the freeze tied up almost $700,000 he has spent after getting a concurrency certificate for seven homes slated for the planning commission's approval this month. Instead of suing, he will first ask the county for a hardship exemption. County planning director Steve Horn called his situation ''unfortunate,'' noting that ''whenever you close the gate, there will be people who are right on the other side'' and that low-income or federally funded projects would likely have the best chance for exemptions. The county's Chamber of Commerce has backed the freeze on non-industrial projects on industrial land until the commissioners removed an exemption for three-acre and smaller parcels. ''Without the exception,'' said its president Bonnie Grady, ''the chamber never would have supported this at all.'' -- Baltimore Sun   6/7/2003

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Dismissals Cloud Future of Maryland's Office of Smart Growth

Maryland's Office of Smart Growth -- created by former Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening in June 2001 as the first of its kind at a cabinet level nationwide -- is facing an uncertain future; acting director John W. Frece and deputy Danielle Glaros were dismissed and state Planning Secretary Audrey E. Scott given greater authority over its policies, with Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s spokesman asserting the governor's full support for ''the office and the idea of Smart Growth,'' but also each new administration's ''right and responsibility to review the personnel and mission of specific offices.'' Others, reports Baltimore Sun writer Eric Siegel, are more direct. Former Sun reporter Frece, who worked to steer development toward urban areas since the Smart Growth law's enactment in 1997 and took over the office after Harriet Tregoning's resignation this February, said, ''We tried to make the case that Smart Growth was a national initiative that had a Maryland brand. I'm afraid the administration considered it as a Glendening brand.'' Smart Growth America executive director Donald D.T. Chen called Frece ''one of the brightest and most dedicated people in the field'' and his dismissal ''disappointing.'' 1,000 Friends of Maryland executive director Dru Schmidt-Perkins observed, ''people are going to look at the dismantling of this office and are going to wonder how we are going to fight sprawl.'' And state Democratic Senator Brian E. Frosh added, ''We can't afford the kind of infrastructure for the kind of growth Maryland has experienced over the last several decades.'' -- Baltimore Sun   6/7/2003

Resource(s): www.sunspot.net/

Former Md. Smart Growth Director Sees Many Possibilities for Smart Growth Efforts in State

As signs mounted in early June that Maryland's ''Smart Growth fervor fades'' under Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., writes Baltimore Sun columnist Tom Horton, former Office of Smart Growth director Harriet Tregoning, who resigned and became the director of Smart Growth America's Smart Growth Leadership Institute in February, hoped for the best, saying ''there are any number of directions he (the governor) can go -- revitalization of older communities, infill development and redevelopment of existing urban areas and towns, historic preservation, recycling of brownfields,'' since all these help curb sprawl and fit with his campaign promises. She acknowledged that budget constraints will make land preservation harder, but stressed that ''Smart Growth is also about fiscal efficiency: more economic activity, more jobs, more people, all on less land with less infrastructure costs.'' Not yet ready to predict whether the governor will abandon Smart Growth, the columnist also quotes his Planning Secretary Audrey E. Scott, who asserts, ''Everything we do here every day, every way, is Smart Growth.'' Then, the columnist concludes, ''Smart Growth is a fundamental change in the way we use land, benefitting everything from air and water quality to wildlife habitat, traffic congestion and local tax bases. Making it the culture of Maryland, reversing decades of developer-driven sprawl, will take continued high- profile, high-level commitment. Right now that is hard to see.'' -- Baltimore Sun   6/6/2003

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Vote Expected Soon on Carroll County Development Freezes

In the minority at the Carroll County Commission's hearing on the proposed year-long residential and nine-month commercial development freezes, slow-growth advocate Maureen Ackerman told the Republican commissioners that's what's expected ''by the majority of Carroll Countians who elected you'' last November, but the landowners and developers making up most of the 200-strong crowd predicted home price spikes, warned about economic impacts and hinted lawsuits. On the hearing's eve, the county Planning and Zoning Commission voted 6-1 to recommend both freezes as crucial for updating and toughening growth controls. The residential freeze, reports Baltimore Sun writer Mary Gail Hare, would delay about 1,700 of the 2,200 lots already given ''concurrency'' certificates of compatibility with local road, school and utility capacities, many of them in various phases of a construction review process that can take three years. During that time, ''(s)chools, water supply, emergency services can all change, but according to the law, we can't stop a development that has its concurrency certificate,'' reasoned county planning director Steve Horn, suggesting an ''approaching inadequacy'' category for areas about to suffer overcrowded schools, water shortages and insufficient emergency services. The commercial freeze would suspend most non-industrial projects, including strip malls and big boxes, on the remaining industrial land, with about 350 of its original 2,700 acres already used for other purposes since 1983 and the county's industrial tax base of only 12 percent still the lowest in the Baltimore region. The county's Chamber of Commerce decided to support the freeze, reports Sun writer Childs Walker, provided it exempts three-acre or smaller parcels and office projects, exemptions just suggested by zoning administrator Neil Ridgley to pacify the business community. Still accepting written comments on the proposed freezes, the commissioners will vote on them early next month. -- Baltimore Sun   5/23/2003

Resource(s): www.sunspot.net/news/local/carroll/

Builders Blast Proposed Fee Hike for Anne Arundel Subdivisions

As state aid cuts make local officials scramble for new revenue, Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens aroused developers' ire with her 2004 budget proposal to hike subdivision review fees - - from $4,526 to $30,150 for a 25-acre residential subdivision and from $18,776 to $42,950 for a 50-acre commercial subdivision -- along with fees for building and grading permits, inspections and utility hookups. County budget officer John R. Hammond says, ''What we are trying to do is more adequately recapture our costs,'' while land-use and environment officer Robert Walker points out that the fees were last updated in 1992 and calls it ''premature'' to assess the impact on housing. With the county's already high single-family home median price of $398,500, builders see things differently, reports Baltimore Sun writer Lynn Anderson. Home Builders Association of Maryland co-director of government affairs Susan Stroud Davies thinks all the proposed increases taken together ''could add another $20,000 to the price of a new house'' and Sturbridge Homes Inc. president Michael DeStefano blasts them as a ''rip-off,'' adding, ''Only in government can they deliver a bad product and increase the cost by 650 percent.'' The association's county chapter president, Elm Street Development vice president Karen McJunkin, is more restrained. Noting that builders understand and support any new fees ''based on the Consumer Price Index'' but consider the proposed hikes too steep, she says that since each dollar in fees increases a new home price by $1.25, low-income buyers will be hardest hit. If all are approved by the County Council, the writer adds, the new fees could increase county revenue by about $2.3 million a year. -- Baltimore Sun   5/20/2003

Resource(s): www.sunspot.net/news/local/annearundel/

Baltimore Area Leaders Learning There Are No Simple Solutions to Combat Sprawl

Through most of Maryland, especially the Baltimore region, counties seeking ways and means to manage growth are ''all dealing with the sticker shock of sprawl,'' says Brookings Institution's Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy director Bruce Katz, warning that restrictions alone -- without regional efforts to make Baltimore at least regain the 100,000 people it lost in the 1990s -- will only strengthen the residential push outward and lengthen commute times. State planners and builders also worry about local over-reliance on restrictions, reports Baltimore Sun writer Jamie Smith Hopkins. Department of Planning infrastructure director Jim Noonan argues that local governments shouldn't use their adequate public facilities laws to block development, but ''ought to spend more money; that's the bottom line to get the facilities up to par.'' Home Builders Association of Maryland government affairs director Tom Ballentine says a false notion about growth not paying for itself makes some counties impose excessive impact fees, even though controlling home building to control service demand fails ''because there's not as close a relationship any more,'' which is best shown by traffic that is growing ''much faster than the rate of new home construction.'' Developer Steward J. Greenebaum cites the law of supply and demand, pointing out that cutting supply despite high demand inflates costs and that the Baltimore metro area's lot prices ''more than doubled every three years.'' -- Baltimore Sun   5/18/2003

Resource(s): www.sunspot.net/news/local/

Opportunities Abound for Baltimore Infill and Redevelopment

Hold the line on sprawl, appeals The Baltimore Sun to all involved in a fractious backstage land-use debate ''that could emerge as a full-blown political fight'' to decide ''if new housing scatters across the region or fills in developed areas around Baltimore,'' with the Home Builders Association of Maryland backing infills and redevelopment but complaining about the scarcity of lots within area growth boundaries, and planners ''who set these boundaries under former Gov. Parris N. Glendening's historic Smart Growth initiative'' asserting the boundaries encompass enough land for 20 years of residential construction. Although the builders, the state and some area counties are working separately ''to pinpoint the number of available building lots,'' they may calculate the infill and redevelopment potential differently and arrive at different results, the daily cautions, noting that a few years ago, the state estimated the number of such lots in Baltimore County at 60,000, but the county found only 20,000 and builders just 15,000. The county, the daily says, is now promoting redevelopment of older neighborhoods along the Beltway, but builders want to break through its long-established northern growth boundary into farmland protected by one-house-per-50 acres zoning. They slight new preliminary state findings that the region's growth areas can absorb the 170,000 new households expected in Baltimore's suburbs within two decades. In addition, the daily points out, Baltimore itself offers enough infill and redevelopment opportunities to absorb much of regional growth -- ''opportunities that, for all the state's talk of Smart Growth and all the city's recent gains, remain vastly and sadly undertapped.'' -- The Baltimore Sun   5/4/2003

Resource(s): www.sunspot.net/news/opinion/

Public Hearing Slated for Carroll County Building Permit, Rezoning Moratorium

In their first really bold move toward growth control since they won last November with pledges to curb sprawl, the three Carroll County Republican commissioners will hold a public hearing next month on proposals for a year-long delay both in processing the almost 1,150 residential building requests already submitted and in accepting several hundred more, and for a nine-month delay in commercial development on land zoned for industrial use -- which together would give officials time to revise and toughen the residential ''adequate facilities'' standards and the commercial ''conditional zoning'' rules. Worked out by new planning director Steve Horn and new zoning administrator Neil Ridgely, reports Baltimore Sun writer Childs Walker, the freeze proposals drew immediate fire from developers and property rights advocates, with their most vocal spokesman, Dick Hull of Westminster, seeing any delay of subdivisions that have met adequate facilities standards as a breach of contract with local landowners, and Chamber of Commerce official Wayne Barnes warning against a moratorium on rezoning industrial land for commercial use as detrimental to business. Commissioners and freeze proponents consider such warnings unwarranted, pointing out that the 1997 adequate facilities rules have missed the six-year goal of holding residential growth to 1,000 new homes a year, straining the county's services and depleting its budget, and that conditional zoning of industrial land for other projects has brought in strip malls and big boxes, but the county must secure the rest for more lucrative industrial development. -- Baltimore Sun   4/25/2003

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/carroll/

Report Rates Upper Eastern Shore Counties on Long-Term Smart Growth Issues

Although Maryland's 1997 Smart Growth legislation seeks to protect farmland, limit sprawl and save public money by allowing state aid for infrastructure expansion only in designated Priority Funding Areas (PFA), the new ''Smart Growth: How is Your County Doing?'' sectional report by 1,000 Friends of Maryland found that the five- county Chesapeake Bay's upper Eastern Shore will lose 13,668 non- PFA acres to another 13,086 homes by 2020, with Talbot County rated the best and Queen Anne's County the worst, for steering 75 percent and about 25 percent of their projected growth to PFAs, respectively. The Friends released this second biennial report -- after one on Baltimore area counties in 2001 -- on the April 15 tax return deadline, to remind taxpayers of the costs of sprawl, observes Easton Star Democrat writer Wendy Szakelyhidi, quoting the group's executive director, Dru Schmidt-Perkins, who said, ''The tax dollars are stretched. Counties have to look at raising taxes. Maybe we need to do something differently.'' The report, the writer notes, also grades the five counties on seven other issues, including rural preservation, affordable housing, public involvement in growth planning and car dependency. It praises Caroline County for farm protection and Kent County for strong agricultural zoning, but criticizes them for allowing too much future growth outside PFAs. Conversely, it welcomes Cecil County efforts to steer more growth to PFAs than in the 1990s, but regrets its weak rural zoning. -- Easton Star Democrat   4/16/2003

Resource(s): www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?brd=2101

Rapid Bus Lines May Run in Baltimore's Proposed Rail Routes, Say Maryland Tranport Officials

Confident that Baltimore regional transit can be built cheaper and faster with buses than rails, Maryland Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan restated his intention to look into the possibility of running rapid buses along some proposed rail routes, including the east-west Red Line corridor, saying a bus is ''a rail car with rubber wheels,'' while Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) planning director Henry M. Kay remarked, ''the Red Line could be a red bus,'' which would constitute a low-cost and ''tangible'' improvement, but rail would guarantee the region ''a certain level of service forever.'' Rapid buses, notes Baltimore Sun writer Stephen Kiehl, have about 130 seats instead of the usual 45 on city ones and run in dedicated highway or street lanes with fewer stops, but even their green-traffic-light timing sensors don't help them much in congested urban centers with gridlocked intersections. On the other hand, Baltimore light-light trains seat 168 and each Metro subway rush-hour train can carry 912 passengers. Since rail systems can be very expensive and city requests for federal transit funds multiply every few years, the writer reports, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), which received applications for 121 projects this year and recommended 26 of them for congressional funding, has established demonstration projects in ten cities and is ''pushing rapid bus lines'' as two-to-ten times cheaper than light rail. Still, some transit officials caution that operating costs can be higher for a rapid bus than for a rail system, because smaller buses' capacity requires more frequent runs and more money for gas and driver salaries. Former MTA chief John A. Agro Jr., co- chairman of the Baltimore rail plan drafting group, thinks officials should view rapid bus lines as introducing mass transit and popularizing its use, but be ready to convert them to rail once ridership increases enough. -- Baltimore Sun   3/16/2003

Resource(s): www.sunspot.net/news/opinion/

Gov. Ehrlich Submits Transport Bill for Maryland Road, Mass Transit

''We want to strike a balance between roads, highways and mass transit,'' said Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., sending Congress his ''wish list'' for funding from the six-year transportation bill this fall and hoping to obtain about $2 billion initially, including $800 million for the long-controversial Intercounty Connector (ICC) through Montgomery County to Loudoun County in Virginia, and $662 million for transit expansion. With Baltimore area officials calling transit crucial for the city's future, report Baltimore Sun writers Stephen Kehl and Tim Craig, state Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan said it's worth considering ''bus rapid transit instead of light rail'' under the Baltimore Region Transit Plan, ''to get more bang for our buck,'' since a big bus costs about $1.2 million and a rail car $3 million. Once the planning is funded and a bus or rail option chosen, perhaps in two years, the state will seek money for the first 10.4-mile Red Line segment of an integrated Baltimore area transit system, which could include construction of six light rail or subway lines in the next 20-40 years at a cost of $12 billion. Area lawmakers, officials and environmentalists welcome the focus on funds for Baltimore transit, with Mayor Martin O'Malley saying, ''This is a win for the region and it's a win for Maryland.'' Nevertheless, 1000 Friends of Maryland executive director Dru Schmidt-Perkins reflects, ''If we took that $800 million (for the ICC) and applied it to transit, think how many cars we could get off the road, how much cleaner the air would be and how much better off the Chesapeake Bay would be.'' -- Baltimore Sun   3/14/2003

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/

Neighborhood-Changing Infill Projects Cause Concern in Baltimore County

Smart Growth is politically popular in Baltimore County, where Executive James T. Smith, Jr. won in November by promising to revitalize older neighborhoods and where long-standing protection rules and scarcity make developers embrace infills, but the infills themselves often irritate local residents, reports Baltimore Sun writer Andrew A. Green. Developer Melvin C. Benhoff is trying to put eight houses on a one-home site with ''unused density'' in a ''stately'' Woodbrook neighborhood and replace an old bungalow with four houses in Ruxton, but in both cases neighbors are crying foul. Woodbrook attorney Steven A. Allen explains: ''When people buy a house in an existing, mature neighborhood, they are making an investment not only in the house but also in the neighborhood, with the assumption that the character of the neighborhood will remain stable.'' Allowing a project that will change local character, he adds, ''is essentially to diminish the investment'' the people make. The director of government affairs for the Home Builders Association of Maryland, Tom Ballentine, says its recent study found 90 percent of the county's fast-disappearing buildable land scattered in three-acre or smaller plots, which means that disputes over infills are likely to proliferate. ''People don't like sprawl or density, which is a Catch-22,'' he observes. County planning director Arnold F. ''Pat'' Keller III says his department's ongoing land inventory will identify a lot of one-home parcels that could accommodate more homes. -- Baltimore Sun   2/9/2003

Resource(s): www.sunspot.net/news/local/

Amendments Likely to St. Mary's County New Subdivision and Comprehensive Zoning Ordinances

Only last year, the St. Mary's County commissioners thought their new subdivision and comprehensive zoning ordinances, which require adequate public facilities for new housing and create development districts, were sufficiently balanced to ensure orderly growth, but they soon realized the need to hone them further, promising at two recent public hearings to start dealing with proposed amendments later this month. County planners, along with real estate and construction industry representatives, reports Washington Post writer Colleen Jenkins, propose to raise the designated school capacity rates from the state's 100 percent norm to 120 percent in development districts and 105 percent elsewhere. That, they maintain, would spur the economy and residential construction in development districts, which now are turning builders away due to the lack of public facilities, including school seats and other services. Without more home building, they warn, the Navy may relocate its Patuxent River Naval Air Station operations once the next base closures begin in 2005. But others oppose school capacity increases, pointing out that the schools are already overcrowded, which may deter the Navy from bringing more personnel to the county. They urged the county to build more schools and improve other infrastructure to secure economic development and orderly growth. ''If the zoning ordinance is to drive development in the development district,'' said County Chamber of Commerce president Vince Whittles, ''it will be necessary that the schools, roads, water and sewer system and other facilities actually be constructed in the development district.'' -- Washington Post   2/2/2003

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/

Carroll County Board Declines to Reverse Zoning Change

Under cold gazes from attorneys and owners of nine small Carroll County properties rezoned by two outgoing board members from agricultural to industrial and commercial use last October, the recently elected more moderate Republican board called the rezoning unfortunate but shrank from its reversal, with Commissioner Dean L. Minnich explaining, ''It would create more problems than it would solve'' and Commissioner Julia Walsh Gouge openly saying the threat of suits was ''certainly factored into our decision.'' One of the landowners' attorneys, Clark Shaffer, expressed satisfaction that commissioners ''chose to leave the zoning alone,'' promising full compliance ''with all the environmental regulations.'' The writer notes that the previous commissioners approved the rezoning against written recommendations by planning staffers, who opposed creating commercial and industry islands in residential or environmentally fragile areas.   1/29/2003

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/carroll/

Farmers Fear Carroll County Ordinance Will Erode Property Values

The rejuvenated Carroll County Republican Board of Commissioners has barely begun to implement its electorally successful pledge to rein in run-away growth, but already faces a backlash from farmers afraid that a tentative proposal to expand the county's adequate public facilities ordinance on subdivisions of three or fewer homes would erode their property values. Such tiny subdivisions and single lots carved from family farmland have traditionally been exempt from laws ''designed to keep residential growth from overwhelming school, water and road capacities,'' reports Baltimore Sun writer Childs Walker, quoting Medford farmer Daniel Strickler, who told commissioners, ''To take this from people who've lived in the community all these years and paid their taxes and have expected these rights, it's not justified, and it's not fair.'' Many of the 100 in attendance echoed the sentiment, faulting the county's eight towns for its rampant growth. Commissioners mollified the audience somewhat, with Commissioner Dean L. Minnich stressing that their goal was ''to get real numbers to work with'' on growth-management measures and taking the blame for the misconception, and Commissioner Julia Walsh Gouge adding, ''We never wanted to take any lots away.'' Commissioner Minnich said the proposal will be reworked to make clear it wouldn't affect farmers' development rights. -- Baltimore Sun   1/16/2003

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/search/entry/

Newly Elected Carroll County Commission Shelves Water Treatment Plant

The new reform-minded all-Republican Carroll County commission began its work last month by shelving a $16 million Piney Run Lake water treatment plant project -- opposed by Maryland planning and environmental officials as certain to unleash another round of sprawl in this fast-growing area -- and confirmed the fresh spirit in the last days of the state's Democratic administration with a letter to Governor Parris N. Glendening, pledging to sign a multi- jurisdictional agreement to protect the fragile Liberty Reservoir watershed, with an implicit hope for cooperation from the new Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. Maryland environmental officials told the previous hard-line county commission 18 months ago, reports Baltimore Sun writer Mary Gail Hare, that such a regional agreement would let the county draw more from the reservoir and drill several wells at the Springfield site in Sykesville, which would increase the county's water supplies from 3 to 4.5 million gallons a day. ''This letter,'' Carroll commissioners wrote, ''is an affirmation of the Board of Commissioners' commitment to work with other jurisdictions toward the best interest of the Baltimore Metropolitan Region.'' According to county environmental compliance specialist James Slater, the commissioners will publicly sign the regional watershed agreement next month. -- Baltimore Sun   1/10/2003

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/search/entry/

Gov. Glendening Pledges to Continue Smart Growth Work After Office

His second term expiring next month, Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening promised anti-sprawl activists at a Baltimore conference in honor of his leadership in the national smart-growth movement, to continue working with them in his ''next career,'' saying, ''I'm excited. I've got the next decade to work on exactly this issue.'' The governor declined to elaborate, but Washington Post writers Anita Huslin and Lori Montgomery note that according to inside sources his exploratory talks involve several Washington- based institutions, including Smart Growth America. The writers add that in a courtesy gesture toward Governor-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., the governor expressed willingness to leave the gubernatorial mansion early, so his successor's family can settle in before the January 15 inauguration. -- Washington Post   12/10/2002

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/

Editorial: Growth Management Essential for Maryland

''Growth is inevitable -- and welcome,'' but with another million people and a loss of another half million acres projected for Maryland within 20 years, it must be managed incessantly and ever more aggressively, argues The Baltimore Sun in six consecutive anti-sprawl editorials, expecting Republican Governor- elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., and indeed all future governors, to continue and solidify one of the ''most important legacies'' of outgoing Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening, his five-year- old Smart Growth initiative. The daily acknowledges the enormity of the challenge for the governor-elect, who ''doesn't disavow Smart Growth but doesn't like trumping local control, where key land-use decisions are made,'' yet it reminds him that this one issue ''links most Marylanders, cutting across the state's balkanized geography, competing interests and deep urban-suburban divides.'' Suburban voters from central Maryland who chose the governor-elect are no exception, the daily stresses, a point made particularly clear by local elections in predominantly Republican Carroll County, which deposed two old-guard growth-bent Republican commissioners who battled the state's Smart Growth efforts and elected reform-minded party candidates. Noting that even the state's Home Builders Association, ''once at odds with Smart Growth, now aggressively lobbies for more effective growth management,'' the daily says, ''If Smart Growth is a tarnished label, give it another name,'' but pursue new development patterns with even greater urgency, especially to boost density, Baltimore and transit. Fought almost everywhere, density requires ''a cultural revolution'' to become widely acceptable, but dense, mixed-use, neotraditional neighborhoods that save open space and reduce car dependency are the only viable and cost-efficient option for the future. Hit by a 30-percent population loss and a sharp poverty increase since the 1960s, Baltimore is beginning a slow recovery, but it needs substantial state reinvestment in land reclamation, infrastructure repair and school improvement to regain its full metropolitan role and stop feeding regional sprawl that diminishes quality of life, increases pollution and worsens traffic. As the Baltimore region's traffic volume grew by 23 percent and commuting time by 15 percent in the last decade, the answer isn't new roads, which would only induce more traffic and another round of sprawl, but a full-scale transit system, including light rail, which would both ease congestion and spark private redevelopment in the city and inner- ring suburbs. The daily concludes the series of editorials by countering Henry Ford's 1922 vow, ''We shall solve the city problem by leaving the city'' with its own growth-management credo, ''The path toward solutions goes back through Baltimore -- and must be led by the governor of Maryland.'' -- The Baltimore Sun   12/6/2002

Resource(s): www.sunspot.net/news/opinion/

Land Purchase Would Protect 25,000 Eastern Shore and Southern Maryland Acres From Development

After two years of negotiations to save another 25,000 acres of crucial southern Maryland and Eastern Shore forest from developers, the Department of Natural Resources, the Conservation Fund and the Glatfelter Pulp Wood Co., reached a $22 million deal at the sensitive time of a gubernatorial power transfer, with outgoing Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening seeking the outlay of $20 million already appropriated for open space and $2 million more as a smart investment in land and logger jobs, but Republican Governor-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. questioning the expense as extravagant in light of the $1.8 billion state budget deficit. Under the deal, backed by environmentalists and foresters alike, the Virginia-based national Conservation Fund would buy the land this month, selling the state 4,000 acres and development rights to the remaining 21,000 acres, which would be bought by the North Carolina-based Forestland Group for further logging. The deal, reports Baltimore Sun writer Sarah King, depends on the Board of Public Works, whose three members are Governor Glendening, his usually critical Comptroller William Donald Schaeffer and Treasurer Nancy K. Knopp. Many state lawmakers oppose the deal because of the budget crunch, a point made clear to the board by a joint letter from House Appropriation Committee Chairman Howard P. Rawlings and Senate Budget and Tax Committee Chairwoman Barbara A. Hoffman. The board vote is scheduled for December 18. -- The Baltimore Sun   12/6/2002

Resource(s): www.sunspot.net/news/local/

Outgoing Gov. Glendening Calls for Recommitment to Smart Growth Goals

Enacted into law in 1997, Maryland's Smart Growth is ''a comprehensive effort'' to reverse decades-long patterns of sprawl that brought the state a disproportional loss of green space, hurt air quality, intensified polluted runoff and left older communities with crumbled infrastructure and pockets of concentrated poverty, writes Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening in a Baltimore Sun opinion as he prepares the transfer of power to Republican Governor-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., calling for recommitment to Smart Growth goals, greater expectations and patience about results. Rejecting views of the agenda as ''no growth,'' ''slow growth,'' ''anti-suburb'' or ''anti-auto,'' the governor writes, ''Maryland's Smart Growth policies and programs were built around the recognition that growth is inevitable -- and vital for a healthy economy. The aim is to provide more choice in housing and transportation, not less. But equally important, Smart Growth acknowledges that the state can no longer afford to support development anywhere and everywhere, at any cost.'' Instead, the state is using fiscal policy and incentives to make development follow infrastructure and concentrate within designated growth areas. As an example of the policy's effectiveness, the governor cites Baltimore, which almost stabilized its population after a more than 30 percent decline since the 1950s, attracting about $135 million in private commercial investment over the past two years, completing major rehabilitation projects with 2,650 jobs so far, and pursuing redevelopment of the historic and long-neglected west side. Noting that grants and other aid are also helping revitalize small cities and suburban communities across the state, the governor concludes: ''Development patterns are a long-term phenomenon shaped by the complex interplay of public policy and private enterprise. We have a decision-making framework that is fiscally responsible and realistic about market forces. Going forward, we need to build on it. The health of our economy, our environment and every Maryland community is at stake.'' -- Baltimore Sun   11/20/2002

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/

Small Farms Count in Ho