Gov. Parris N. Glendening has told the Carroll County commissioners that he will not commit $70 million to build the proposed Manchester bypass until all the alternatives are considered, and he is confident that the county is complying with his Smart Growth anti-sprawl initiative.

Glendening was responding to an appeal by the commissioners to restore planning money for construction of a four-mile bypass around Manchester to relieve congestion on Route 30 -- one of five projects statewide the administration had not funded because they did not meet the Smart Growth law's criteria.

Another of the five rejected projects was a bypass proposed for Westminster.

In a letter dated Thursday, Glendening urged the commissioners to "strengthen considerably your local efforts to control sprawl" and thwart what he called "this destructive pattern" of development in the county.

"I want to be very clear that I will not restore any planning funds until I am reassured that all the alternatives have been full considered and that Carroll County is complying with the intent of Smart Growth," he wrote.

Efforts to reach the Carroll commissioners -- Julia Walsh Gouge, Donald I. Dell and Robin Bartlett Frazier -- were unsuccessful yesterday.

Last month, the commissioners wrote to the Board of Public Works -- Glendening, Comptroller William Donald Schaefer and Treasurer Richard N. Dixon -- requesting reconsideration of the decision not to fund the Manchester project in the state transportation budget. The board is scheduled to hear the appeal formally Wednesday.

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. concluded that while jurisdictions may ask the Board of Public Works to consider an appeal, the authority to include funds in the budget for specific projects lies exclusively with the governor.

In his letter, Glendening seemed to leave the door open to possible funding of the project.

"I look forward to learning what measures Carroll County intends to put in place to meet the requirements of the [law] and to make its growth patterns in the Manchester region and countywide consistent with Smart Growth," Glendening wrote.

The governor's letter did not address the state's rejection of a bypass for Westminster, which was scrapped in January.

That bypass was proposed to be 10 miles long and cost $200 million.