Second Recreation Site in North County?

The Patuxent papers are telling us that County Rec & Parks my have another shot at the Yarema property in Maryland Line for an additional rec site. I wonder if they will try and foist an indoor facility on unsuspecting Maryland Line residents.

Heathcote builds first straw bale house in Baltimore County

Heathcote, the intentional community near Maryland Line is completing work on the first house in the county to be constructed of straw bales. Can't wait to see the pictures. A rare example of north county construction that compliments the environment.

Shelley's Fields - Settled?

The Freeland Community Association announced a settlement to the Shelley's Fields development issue last month. Apparently, the developer balked at the thought of having to continue the battle into the appeals process and was willing to throw the Hereford Rec Council under the bus so he could build his 17 houses on Cotter Rd.
For their part, the Freeland Association mounted a formidable opposition and did achieve quite a feat by reducing the sports facility from a massive indoor complex which would have been in operation all year to just four outdoor fields which can only operate during daylight hours - and of course, not during winter.
The fly in the ointment is a renegade group with more energy than brains that still thinks they can kill the whole thing and is practicing a dogged persistence in continuing the fight.

Hope they don't undermine the settlement deal or we'll be looking at the whole enchilada anyway...

Shelley's Deals

When the county goes through its quadrennial zoning cycle, our 3rd District Councilman is inundated with normally apathetic constituents who suddenly take an interest in the political process and want their councilman's ear so they can put their two cents in about how they don't want any new development in their area, or how they don't want to lose the right to subdivide their property (often these are the same people - go figure!) and I can imagine that many a deaf ear is turned on these people who have no focus for their concerns because they are ignorant of the process.
But there are always a few select individuals who will gain a politician's attention during this short time, when the County Councilman has the power to determine whether a speculative investment will reap gains or produce a loss for the developer. 3rd District Councilman McIntire has gotten an inordinate share of such power over the years, as his district contains the majority of Baltimore County's remaining rural land. To his credit, he has done much to ensure that the area between Sparks and Pennsylvania, between Upperco and White Hall remain largely rural in nature and accommodating to agriculture in particular. For those of us who see localized agriculture as essential to the quality of life of ALL metropolitan citizens, this course of action has been an essential ingredient in preserving a quality of life in what’s left of the Land of Pleasant Living.
But enough gushing over the Councilman's good deeds - there are a few fish to fry here....

As you may have read in previous posts, Councilman McIntire appears to have been rooked by a few savvy landowners/developers who have led him to believe that by retaining their zoning, they would have the opportunity to develop a smaller portion of their land than the zoning would allow, thus allowing them some small gain while preserving the majority of the undeveloped property.

But then there’s the deal of deals – Shelley’s Deals. Developer Randy Shelley – who has such a noble reputation as a builder who pays his subs on time and offers a quality product to prospective homeowners – gets the opportunity to build 19 houses on land on which he previously had difficulty getting approval for only eight. And he does it by offering – sacrificing – selflessly – over 100 acres of agricultural land that would have only netted two houses – for the purpose of developing recreational facilities “for the children.” Using the Hereford Zone Rec Council as a shill for his project, and the hapless County Council as a means to usurp the zoning process, Randy gets to do an end run around the process and look like a savior to the community he intends to trash before retiring to warmer climes…

If you want a quick primer on how an unholy alliance of developers, government and the press can hoodwink the citizens, check out these articles on the project, note the date of each and take note of what started as a few more houses and a few fields for sports teams became 19 houses and a major regional sports complex.

Start here:
http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?pnpid=806&show=archivedetails&ArchiveID=1087732&om=1
Then read this:
http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?pnpid=806&show=archivedetails&ArchiveID=1145581&om=1
And finally this:
http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?pnpid=806&show=archivedetails&ArchiveID=1202554&om=1


Further consideration and education leads me to believe that our Councilman has decided that tempering his preservationist ways will help secure a legacy he already had, at the expense of – well – the legacy he already had!
We are about to witness the political battle of the decade as far as the North County is concerned, now that the ire of the Freeland community has been stirred!

Continuing Fallout from the 2004 Zoning Cycle

During Baltimore County's quadrennial zoning cycle in 2004, there was much talk about the continued downzoning of agricultural land north of Cockeysville. From the landowner's point of view, there was a very real risk that they could lose their right to subdivide their property more than once. This has been an ongoing issue since the county instituted RC (Resource Conservation) zoning in the 80s. Every four years, many of the same people who decry the destruction of the rural area that is northern Baltimore County lobby their councilman ( T. Bryan McIntire is the Councilman for the majority of rural Baltimore County) to opt them out of any change to their zoning. Mr McIntire has developed personal relationships with many residents over the years and seems genuinely devoted to preserving the rural landscape, much to the chagrin of some landowners.

Whatever may be said in criticism of Mr. McIntire, he deserves credit for the fact that despite pressures from the south - and more recently, from the growing southern York county area - our neck of the woods can still be called "a neck of the woods" in the literal sense.

The last zoning cycle must have been hell on the councilman, because he made at least two decisions that are haunting him today. One was the decision to forgo a planned downzoning on a property over in Phoenix. The Kassolis property off of Dance Mill Rd was to have been downzoned to further protect the Loch Raven watershed, but our Councilman agreed to forgo that because he believed the owner would only develop four lots and put the rest into conservancy.

Well, that didn't happen.

The owner immediately began plans for an 11-house development and the result so far has been the organization of residents into the Dance Mill Association and the retention of lawyers to fight (or limit) the planned development.

This scenario repeated itself in a much more ominous way here in Freeland, where developer Randy Shelley worked out a deal with the Hereford Zone Rec Council to donate 100 acres of agriculturally-zoned land for a recreational facility if our Councilman would have two adjoining parcels rezoned to allow 19 houses on heavily wooded, low lying land, where 10 was the maximum before - and that was too much already!
Despite the increased zoning (which was accomplished outside the process, thanks to an alleged "typo error",) Shelley may have sailed through without too much issue, until it became apparent that the plans for the athletic facility included a large indoor arena and would require over 600 parking spaces to accomodate it! McIntire, of course, had no idea that the plan was anything more than fields for sports teams. Instead, the community is fighting a bona fide athletic club , which is clearly intended for a more intense use than just providing recreational space "for the children."
We all want to what's best "for the children," but for many, this was beyond the pale (but par for the course for Mr. Shelley, as many who know have attested.)
So lawyers have been retained and another battle ensues.

There are other examples of this phenomena - and I call it that for two reasons:

1. When a land use zoning cycle introduces the threat of losing previously held property rights, it is not unexpected that those landowners who survive the initial threat are likely to exercise those rights sooner rather than later, and...

2. Having survived the threat of a rezoning, a property owner is ripe for approaches from developers eager to place options on a property, which appears to have happened on Dance Mill Rd and probably on the Ashe Property here in Freeland as well..

As someone who appreciates the quality of life that can only be experienced in a low density, largely rural area, I find it hard to argue against limiting development wherever possible, but I also wonder whether the zoning solution hasn't been somewhat counterproductive by focusing developers' attention on landowners who may not otherwise be looking to cash in.

As for our Councilman, I respect him greatly, but we seem to have a unique situation here in the north county - having a politician who gets hoodwinked by the citizens instead of the other way around!
Of course, I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt here...

MTBE - coming soon to a well near you?

So it turns out that a chemical that gas producers were forced to add to their product as a result of the Clean Air Act has contaminated ground water supplies across the United States.

What irony (some would say it's typical of the federal gov't), that legislation to clean the environment caused an environmental disaster...

We've been reading about MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether) leaking from the tanks of rural gas stations and seen the results in Upper Crossroads, where the Exxon station at Rts 165 & 152 was removed and now in Jacksonville, where another Exxon has leaked its contents into area wells.
There only one other Exxon in our area that I know of, and that's at Exit 33 off I-83.
Keep an eye out - they've already detected MTBE near the old Parkton landfill (hopefully unrelated, as far away as it is.)

If one more Exxon station gets gigged for MTBE, it will start looking like a slow-motion Exxon Valdez disaster!

Exxon hasn't been entirely alone in this - Carroll Independent and Tevis Oil also have had MTBE issues.

So now all gas producers are switching to ethanol-based gasoline, which requires clean tanks with no water in order to store well. Two local stations decided that the cost to update their equipment for the change was not worth the investment, so there's no more gas to be had at Meadowcroft's or Troyer's. Of course, there hasn't been an MTBE problem from these stations either. They just can't justify the cost of changing over to cover Exxon's butt.

Personally, I think Exxon should finance the entire changeover. When local stations close due to the fallout from a series of Exxon leaks, why should we reward Exxon by removing their competitors from the scene? Will Exxon move in to fill that gap?

Of course, they'll have to pay Peter Angelos first.

Meanwhile, we will no longer enjoy the full-service fillup at Meadowcroft's (I haven't been to Troyers for gas - were they full serve too?) but we can enjoy the cold comfort of knowing that there's an Exxon still operating at I-83 that is officially safe (and overpriced)...

Rudder's in New Feedom is selling regular at $2.75 - Wally's went up to $3.11 yesterday.
What's up with that?

Here's a thought: If MTBE is the poison they say, what about urban areas - are we ignoring it there just because the groundwater is not consumed by humans?

A Blog to Discuss Happenings in Northern Baltimore County

Welcome to this first posting of the Freeland Occasional.
This blog was created for the discussion of land use and political issues pertinent to the community of Freeland, MD and surrounding areas. That said; not much will be considered off-topic, but keep it clean and refrain from ad hominem and your posts get to stay...
I will try to generate some conversation on issues that affect our community.

Enjoy!