Zoning process doubts

If the developers who want to tear down the vacant Bendix factory don't get the zoning change that would permit them to build a home-improvement store in the Loch Raven area, they have a Plan B in place.

The project has already been approved for the planned unit development process, which eliminates some zoning and development regulations for projects deemed a benefit to the community.

Some community leaders are becoming increasingly wary about planned unit developments - PUDs - being used as an alternative to the highly scrutinized comprehensive zoning map process, or CZMP, currently under way in Baltimore County.

"The PUDs are eliminating the importance of the CZMP," said Donna Spicer, president of the Loch Raven Business Association and a community activist who has become an expert in county development. "The threat is, 'If we don't get what we want in the CZMP, we'll get it in a PUD.'"

This week, the county Planning Board will hold public hearings about comprehensive zoning requests in the County Council's 5th District, which includes Towson and Perry Hall; and the 6th District, which includes Fullerton and Bowleys Quarters. Community groups in both regions are concerned that the PUD process might undermine what is decided in the zoning process.

Robert A. Hoffman, the lawyer for Stevenson Taylor Investments, which wants to build the home-improvement store at the factory site in Loch Raven, said the deadline for submitting zoning requests was before the project on 15 acres near Taylor Avenue and Hillendale Road was approved as a PUD by the council in November.

Asking for both a PUD and zoning gave developers a "fallback option," Hoffman said.

In eastern Baltimore County, community leaders are leery of zoning requests that might allow developers to seek PUD approval. For example, several property owners are seeking changes from rural conservation zones to residential zoning - a change that could qualify them for PUDs, said Bill Lagna, president of the Bowleys Quarters Community Association.

"We're finding that generally, developers are asking for too much," Lagna said. "Part of the problem is the PUDs, which give them far too much latitude. We're petitioning for the PUD laws to be revised."

A large number of zoning requests in the Middle River area are being reviewed, including a request to change the manufacturing and industrial zoning on a former federal depot to allow for a large-scale commercial development. It covers 53 acres on the north side of Eastern Boulevard near White Marsh Boulevard.

Another request is to change the rural conservation zoning on 43 acres of the Turkey Point peninsula to allow for higher-density residential zoning.

In some cases, community leaders say developers are seeking zoning changes with more permissive land uses than the projects they are planning require.

For example, several developers are seeking zoning that allows for large commercial operations after telling neighborhood groups that smaller businesses, such as supermarkets, are planned.

"I think they're over-requesting as a negotiating tool," Lagna said.

In Towson, too, some residents are leery of that tactic.

The Riderwood Hills Community Association says it is concerned about a zoning request that would allow midrise apartment buildings and retail businesses in a nearly 24-acre area on Kenilworth Avenue that is already the site of an existing apartment complex called The Colony.

"I'm all for compromise," said Corinne Becker, a member of the neighborhood group, "But there comes a point where you have nothing left to give."

The Planning Board is due to make recommendations in May about the more than 500 zoning requests in the county. The council will hold public hearings in June and vote on the requests by mid-September.

laura.barnhardt@baltsun.com

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