1. IN THE REGION: 
    Transportation Panel Poised to Back Out of Commitment
    CBF Study Shows How Sprawl Hurts Bay 
    CPHA Report Promotes Ridesharing in Region 
    Calendar of Events 

2. ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY
    MDE Refuses Hearing on Mall Road Changes 
    USi Weighs in Against Big Box for Parole 

3. BALTIMORE CITY: 
    O'Malley Announces "Main Streets" Grant Recipients
    Parks and People Reports on Neighborhood Open Space 

4. BALTIMORE COUNTY
    Condemnation Bill Will Go to Referendum in November

5. CARROLL COUNTY 
    Commissioner Says She Will Sign Watershed Agreement

6. HARFORD COUNTY
    Bel Air Works to Revitalize Main Street

7. HOWARD COUNTY 
    Maple Lawn Farms Plan Alternatives Discussed

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1. I N  T H E  R E G I O N

TRANSPORTATION PANEL POISED TO BACK OUT OF COMMITMENT

At their monthly meeting on July 25, the metropolitan planning
organization (MPO) for the Baltimore region made clear that they intended
to hold only three meetings that include elected officials in the year
2000, reneging on a commitment they made to federal transportation
agencies only nine months ago. In a November 2, 1999 letter to the
Federal Transit Administration and the Federal Highway Administration,
Transportation Steering Committee (TSC) chair J. Craig Forrest and
Baltimore County Executive C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger stated that "the
elected and appointed officials along with the state agencies will meet as
the TSC/MPO at least four times a year." 

Similarly, at the July meeting TSC members approved new bylaws changing
the panel's name to the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board (BRTB) and
stipulating that the elected officials of the MPO shall convene at least
four times per year to consider "items of particular policy or funding
interest to the BRTB and the region" such as the five-year Transportation
Improvement Program (TIP). Despite releasing a revised schedule for
consideration of the 2001-2005 TIP which included a vote at the MPO's
September meeting, members indicated that they did not intend to urge
elected officials to attend. A September meeting with elected officials
would be their fourth of the year 2000, augmenting meetings already held
in April and June and one currently scheduled for November.

For more information contact Dan Pontious, Baltimore Regional Partnership,
at danp@balto-region-partners.org, or Jamie Kendrick, CPHA, at
JamieK@CPHAbaltimore.org. 


CBF STUDY SHOWS HOW SPRAWL HURTS BAY

In 25 years, more than 3,500 square miles of forests, wetlands, and
farms--an area 50 times greater than Washington, D.C.--will be converted
to urban land in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, according to a report
issued July 12 by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The report, Land and the
Chesapeake Bay, details how suburban sprawl, if continued at the rate
experienced during the 1990s, threatens to overwhelm progress made to date
to improve the health of the Chesapeake. It documents shifting population
patterns between Baltimore City and Baltimore County from the 1950s to
2020 projections, and it compiles economic realities of sprawl from Howard
and Carroll Counties. With the report release, CBF Maryland Executive
Director Theresa Pierno urged Maryland state capital agencies to invest
strategically in smart growth areas in priority locations, and called on
the Maryland Department of Transportation to create more transportation
choice in those same places. She also urged local governments to
encourage improvements in, and direct growth to, existing communities
while discouraging the conversion of open lands.

For more information, contact Lee Epstein, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, at
LEpstein@savethebay.cbf.org. The report is available at 
www.savethebay.cbf.org/library/news_room/press_releases/release00_07_12.htm. 


CPHA REPORT PROMOTES RIDESHARING IN REGION

The Baltimore region could do more to increase participation in
ridesharing programs, according to a report by the Citizens Planning and
Housing Association. In 1999, the five counties in the Baltimore region
had fewer than half of the number of ridesharing applicants (2,172
applicants) than did Montgomery County (4,562 applicants). Ridesharing
programs in the Baltimore region are coordinated by local government
agencies, with local, state, and federal funds. The report notes that
Maryland’s new $23 million Commute Smart program could be used to fund
improvements to local ridesharing programs. The report also calls for a
regional guaranteed ride home program, and an advertising campaign to
attract new car- and van-poolers, and the strengthening of local
ridesharing programs through the creation of transportation management
associations (TMAs) in areas such as Bel Air/Route 40 in Harford County,
White Marsh and Towson in Baltimore County, and Westminster in Carroll
County. Successful TMAs already exist in the BWI Airport area and
Annapolis in Anne Arundel County.

For more information contact Jamie Kendrick, CPHA, at
JamieK@CPHAbaltimore.org.


CALENDAR OF EVENTS

August 10:
*Transportation Opportunities Committee Mtg. Panel assembled to make
recommendations to region's public officials on regional transportation
priorities for 2001 General Assembly. 4:00-6:00 PM. Maryland Department
of Transportation (MDOT), 10 Elm Road, near BWI Airport.

August 14:
*Public release of revised Baltimore region 2001-2005 Transportation
Improvement Program (TIP), air quality conformity determination, and
amendments to 1998 Regional Transportation Plan. Baltimore Metropolitan
Council (BMC), 2700 Lighthouse Point East, Suite 310, Baltimore (on Boston
St. near O'Donnell St., in Canton). Visit www.baltometro.org and click on
"Transportation Planning" for more information. 
Partnership critique of April draft 2001-2005 TIP available at
www.balto-region-partners.org/2001_TIP_Comments.htm. For more general
Partnership information on TIP, Plan, and conformity, visit
www.balto-region-partners.org/advocate.htm.

August 16:
*Regional Resource Sharing Workgroup of CPHA's Committee on the Region.
6:00 PM (5:30 for new participants). CPHA, 218 W. Saratoga St., Fifth
Floor, Baltimore.

August 22:
*Baltimore Regional Transportation Board (formerly the Transportation
Steering Committee) monthly mtg. 9:00 AM. BMC.

August 24:
*Open House on amendments to 1998 Baltimore Regional Transportation Plan.
5:30 - 7:30 PM. Visit www.baltometro.org, and click on "Transportation
Planning" for location and more details.

August 28:
*Housing Workgroup of CPHA's Committee on the Region. 6:00 PM (5:30 for
new participants). Episcopal Diocese, Charles St. and University Pkwy.,
Baltimore.

August 29:
*Transportation Opportunities Committee. 4:00-6:00 PM. MDOT.

September 12:
*Transportation Opportunities Committee. 4:00-6:00 PM. MDOT.

September 14:
*Public Participation Forum on 2001-2005 TIP, air quality conformity, and
amendments to 1998 Plan. 5:30-7:30. BMC.

September 16-17:
*Jones Falls Valley Celebration 2000. 
Kayak the falls on Saturday morning. All other activities are on
Sunday: bike or skate the JFX, nature and neighborhood walks, rock
climbing, festival 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM in front of Baltimore Streetcar
Museum, 1905 Falls Rd. For more info, visit www.jonesfalls.com.

September 26:
*Baltimore Regional Transportation Board (BRTB) monthly meeting. 9:00 AM.
BMC. The BRTB anticipates approving their 2001-2005 TIP, air quality
conformity determination, and amendments to 1998 Plan at this meeting.

October 18:
*Regionwide Citizens' Assembly with the Elected Leaders of Metropolitan
Baltimore. For more information contact Matthew Weinstein, CPHA, at
MatthewW@CPHAbaltimore.org.

_____________________________________

2. A N N E  A R U N D E L  C O U N T Y

MDE REFUSES HEARING ON MALL ROAD CHANGES

The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) has declined to hold a
public hearing requested by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) on
recently disclosed environmental impacts for roads which will serve the
new Arundel Mills Mall. According to a recent notice of additional
wetlands impacts issued by MDE, SHA has proposed interchange modifications
will result in adverse impacts to an additional 11,594 square feet of
wetland, 9,238 square feet of regulated stream buffer and 1,689 linear
feet of stream. This brings the total impacts thus far to 1.6 acres of
wetland and 4,689 feet of stream. These impacts do not include those
associated with the future widening of I-295 for the mall or cumulative
impacts associated with future phases of development of the Arundel Mills
site, which MDE has not yet disclosed.

CBF reports that MDE's letter lacks information on the transportation
engineering reasons for road design changes or that transportation demand
management measures were considered to reduce traffic and avoid the need
for the road design changes. The letter only cites the alternative
locations the applicant considered for the mall in response to CBF's
questions on consideration of alternatives to reduce impacts as a result
of road design changes. CBF also believes the process demonstrates a lack
of coordination between MDE and the State Highway Administration resulting
in potentially missed opportunities to avoid impacts, the need to consider
traffic reduction measures as alternatives to road improvements, and the
lack of consideration of cumulative wetland destruction up front in the
wetlands impact process.

For more information contact George Maurer, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, at
gmaurer@savethebay.cbf.org. 


USi WEIGHS IN AGAINST BIG BOX FOR PAROLE

USinternetworking Inc., a fast-growing high-tech company located in the
Parole area of Anne Arundel County, just west of Annapolis, recently sent
a letter to County Executive Janet Owens opposing construction of a
big-box shopping center including a Wal-Mart across from its headquarters.
The company's Executive Vice President, Jeffery L. McKnight Sr., told
Owens that the company had decided to locate in Parole partly because of a
plan for a mixed-use town center development with restaurants, shops, and
open space on the Parole Plaza site where the Wal-Mart is now proposed.
Such an environment, McKnight said, would provide an attractive amenity
for potential employees. McKnight hinted that the company might consider
relocating, or at least slowing construction of a planned 13-acre campus
including five or six new buildings over the next few years, if the
current plan goes through. USi joins others who have objected to building
a big-box shopping center in an area designated for smart growth,
including the Maryland State Office of Planning, Anne Arundel County
Council member Barbara Samorajczyk, and 1000 Friends of Maryland. An
effort by Samorajczyk to cap the footprint of stores in the Parole Town
Center at 80,000 square feet failed last month on a 4-2 vote. 

For more information contact Adam Gordon, Baltimore Regional Partnership,
at adam@balto-region-partners.org, or Kristen Forsyth, 1000 Friends of
Maryland, at kforsyth@friendsofmd.org. July 26 Sun article available at
www.sunspot.net/content/archive/story?section=archive&pagename=story&storyid=1150380202499

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3. B A L T I M O R E  C I T Y

O'MALLEY ANNOUNCES "MAIN STREETS" GRANT RECIPIENTS

On July 27 Mayor Martin O’Malley announced that five neighborhoods will
receive Main Street grants from Baltimore City to improve their commercial
districts. Each neighborhood will receive a total of $260,000 over the
next five years to attract businesses, fix building facades, clean
storefronts and make other improvements. The grants announced were
awarded to the Belair-Edison business district (surrounding Belair Road
between Seidel Avenue and Sinclair Lane), the Federal Hill business
district (on Light Street between East Montgomery and East Ostend
streets), the Hampden business district (on West 36th Street between
Keswick Avenue and Falls Road), the Pennsylvania Avenue business district
(between North Fulton Avenue and West Preston Street), and the Waverly
business district (on Greenmount Avenue between East 35th Street and
Exeter Hall Avenue).

A Waverly Business Task Force has been meeting since June to draft a
commercial revitalization implementation strategy for Greenmount Avenue,
building upon past efforts, including the Charles Village Master Plan. A
series of focus groups have been held to collect community input. The
plan, which will include a property inventory and market analysis, is
expected to be complete by early 2001. The Main Street grant will help the
neighborhood implement this plan.

For more information contact Amy Menzer, 1000 Friends of Maryland, at
amenzer@friendsofmd.org, or David Garza, Acting Coordinator of Baltimore
Main Streets Program, at (410) 545-7367, July 28 Sun story available at
www.sunspot.net/content/archive/story?section=archive&pagename=story&storyid=1150380203466


PARKS AND PEOPLE REPORTS ON NEIGHBORHOOD OPEN SPACE

On July 24 at the Baltimore Streetcare Museum, the Parks and People
Foundation unveiled a report laying out ways to transform the thousands of
vacant lots in Baltimore City into urban parks and community gardens. As
the report notes, the city's population decline from 950,000 in the late
1950s to an estimated 665,000 in 1999 leaves massive housing vacancies and
vacant lots left by demolition. The Foundation has already issued many
small grants to communities looking to beautify a lot in their
neighborhood, and attendees at the event heard from five civic leaders who
spearheaded Foundation-funded efforts in various parts of the city. The
report recommends a more comprehensive approach, however, to begin to
address the estimated 14,000 vacant lost throughout the city. The report
urges Baltimore City to develop a comprehensive program to work with
existing organizations and community groups to identify, manage, and
"green" vacant lots. The report also recommends promotion of a greater
awareness of the benefits of well-designed and maintained open spaces for
quality of life.

For more information contact Guy Hager, Parks and People, at
guy.hager@parksandpeople.org, or Dan Pontious, Baltimore Regional
Partnership, at danp@balto-region-partners.org. Full copy of the report
available at www.parksandpeople.org/news/openspace.pdf. July 25 Sun story
available at
www.sunspot.net/content/archive/story?section=archive&pagename=story&storyid=1150370208966

___________________________________ 

4. B A L T I M O R E  C O U N T Y

CONDEMNATION BILL WILL GO TO REFERENDUM IN NOVEMBER

On July 19th, State elections officials confirmed that opponents of SB
509, the bill initiated by Baltimore County Executive Dutch Ruppersberger
to grant the county additional condemnation authority for redevelopment in
Essex and Middle River, had succeeded in forcing the bill to referendum
this fall. Opponents collected over 45,000 signatures, far more than the
24,136 needed to put the law on the ballot November 7 for possible repeal.
The new law would enable the County to acquire and repackage land to sell
to private developers in Essex, Dundalk, and Liberty Road. Currently, the
County can only condemn property for public uses such as parks, transit,
and schools. Broader revitalization plans for the Essex area are not
entirely dependent on expanded condemnation authority, leading
Ruppersberger to point out he will proceed regardless of the outcome in
November. A major streetscaping project for Eastern Boulevard, for
example, planned long before SB509 was introduced, is beginning
construction now. In addition, County Executive Ruppersberger announced
on July 28 the county's purchase of two properties listed for condemnation
in SB 509. Without the new county power, businesses and shorefront homes
listed in SB509 would require this type of voluntary sale, rather than
condemnation, and may remain outside the County's reach if owners refuse
to sell. 

For more information, contact Amy Menzer at 1000 Friends of Maryland, 
amenzer@friendsofmd.org, or Jackie Nickel, Essex-Middle River Civic 
Council, jackienickel@aol.com. July 20 Sun story on repeal signatures
available at
www.sunspot.net/content/archive/story?section=archive&pagename=story&storyid=1150370206550. July 29 story on County purchase of two properties included in bill available at
www.sunspot.net/content/archive/story?section=archive&pagename=story&storyid=1150380203841

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5. C A R R O L L  C O U N T Y

COMMISSIONER SAYS SHE WILL SIGN WATERSHED AGREEMENT

Carroll County Commissioners President Julia Walsh Gouge said late last
month that she would break with her colleagues on the three-member board
and sign the Watershed Protection Agreement for the Baltimore City-owned
Liberty Reservoir. As Carroll County's representative to the regional
Baltimore Metropolitan Council, Gouge would be the official to sign such
an agreement. Carroll is the only county to resist signing the agreement,
which has been approved by the executives of all five other jurisdictions
in the region. The effect of her signature is unclear, however, since the
other two commissioners, Robin Bartlett Frazier and Donald I. Dell, are
strongly opposed to the agreement and could potentially block county
action to comply. Their objections seem to center around a desire to
allow growth in county-designated growth areas within the reservoir's
watershed, while Gouge supports watershed protection and concentrating
growth elsewhere. To avoid signing the agreement, the two commissioner
opponents approved a $12 million water treatment plant at Piney Run Lake,
a much smaller county-owned reservoir that Carroll now uses primarily for
recreation. Gouge and many citizen activists oppose the Piney Run
facility.

For more information, contact Dan Pontious, Baltimore Regional
Partnership, at danp@balto-region-partners.org. July 23 Sun story
available at
www.sunspot.net/content/news/story?section=news-maryland-sun&pagename=story&storyid=1150370208224

___________________________________

6. H A R F O R D  C O U N T Y

BEL AIR WORKS TO REVITALIZE MAIN STREET

With decades of sprawling development along US 1 and MD 24 outside of Bel
Air's downtown leaving Main Street merchants struggling, community leaders
and town government officials have come together to look at ways to
revitalize the Harford County seat's core. The Bel Air town government has
commissioned a market study of the downtown area which will be completed
by September. Also in September, the city will hire, for the first time, a
manager of the street to bring together small business owners and town
officials in order to market the downtown as a regional destination. In
addition to being the government and office center of Harford County, Bel
Air also once was the county's commercial center. Merchants have visions
of creating once again a vibrant downtown shopping district which offers
services and an atmosphere which cannot be provided in a highway shopping
center, following efforts in other older commercial centers throughout the
region such as Ellicott City and Havre de Grace. "People are looking for
a little Main Street town," Bel Air town community development
administrator Elizabeth Carven told the Baltimore Sun in a July 24 story.
Carven noted the success of attempts to recreate such an atmosphere in
places like The Avenue at White Marsh, and said that instead of building
new "main streets," we can reuse the existing centers of towns.

For more information contact Adam Gordon, Baltimore Regional Partnership,
at adam@balto-region-partners.org. July 24 Sun story available at
www.sunspot.net/content/archive/story?section=archive&pagename=story&storyid=1150370208478

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7. H O W A R D  C O U N T Y

MAPLE LAWN FARMS PLAN ALTERNATIVES DISCUSSED

The months-long debate over the shape of Maple Lawn Farms, a 508-acre
residential, commercial, and office development on a former turkey farm
along Route 216 in southern Howard County, has taken a new turn. The
project, touted as a "traditional neighborhood development," features an
average residential density of 2.3 units/acre with a mix of single family
homes, rowhouses, apartments, and condominums, a pedestrian-oriented
commercial town center, a transit-served office park, and several open
space areas. Howard County Council members Christopher Merdon and Allan
Kittleman have proposed a plan which would reduce the development's
residential density to 2.0 units/acre, increase the proportion of the
residential development devoted to single-family houses rather than
apartments and condominiums. The measure would also increase the area of
the development devoted to office space from 77 acres to 119 acres while
reducing the density of office development by 28 percent. Council members
Vernon Gray and Mary Lorsung favor sticking to the original plan. Council
member Guy Guzzone appears to be the swing vote, having originally backed
the existing plan, but then voting with Kittleman and Merdon July 24 to
have the developer, Stewart J. Greenebaum, draw up a new plan based on the
alternate proposal for additional public hearing. A final vote will be
taken in late September.

For more information, contact Adam Gordon, Baltimore Regional Partnership,
at adam@balto-region-partners.org. July 25 Sun story available at
www.sunspot.net/content/archive/story?section=archive&pagename=story&storyid=1150370208941, although the Kittleman-Merdon proposal does not appear to add more moderate-income housing, as is mentioned in the Sun story.

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ABOUT THE BALTIMORE REGIONAL PARTNERSHIP AND NEWSLETTER

The Baltimore Regional Partnership is an alliance of five civic,
environmental, and anti-sprawl groups: 1000 Friends of Maryland
(www.friendsofmd.org), Baltimore Urban League (www.bul.org), Chesapeake
Bay Foundation (www.savethebay.cbf.org), Citizens Planning and Housing
Association (www.CPHARegionalCampaign.org), and Environmental Defense
(www.environmentaldefense.org).

This newsletter explores current issues, recent and upcoming events, and
ongoing deliberations that affect the region's quality of life through
transportation, economic development, and land use policy and planning.

We hope to link citizens in the region who are working to fight sprawl,
promote clean and efficient transportation, protect valuable farm and
forest lands, and revitalize urban areas, older suburbs, and historic
towns.

Has this newsletter been forwarded to you, and you would like to receive
it yourself? Visit our web site at www.balto-region-partners.org/news.htm
to sign up and to view past issues.

Send us information, too. Let us know about your work on land use and
transportation decisions that are affecting the Baltimore region.

Email information to Dan Pontious at danp@balto-region-partners.org.
Visit the Baltimore Regional Partnership website at:
www.balto-region-partners.org.