The conversion of the historic Oella Mill into luxury apartments appears likely to go forward after Baltimore County's Board of Special Appeals agreed yesterday with the conclusions of the county zoning commissioner.

A formal opinion will be released within 15 days, but the three-member panel agreed, after deliberating for 90 minutes, that opponents' concerns about parking, traffic, safety and recreational space did not warrant a reversal of Zoning Commissioner Lawrence E. Schmidt's decision in July to approve the project.

Forest City Residential Group, a Cleveland developer, intends to transform the 193-year-old building into 175 upscale apartments. The building houses a mix of art and antiques dealers.

Jon Wallenmeyer, vice president of Forest City, said construction could begin in February or March and would be completed in 13 or 14 months.

"It sounds good," he said of yesterday's meeting, "but we'll wait until we get a written opinion."

Opponents from the Greater Oella Community Association said they were outraged by what they saw as the unfair exclusion of their testimony about possible safety hazards.

Association President Lydia Temoshok said the roads in the area are so narrow and twisting that school buses cannot stay in their lanes and have to stop if a car comes in the opposite direction. Adding so many cars to the area would be a disaster, she said. "I'm entirely convinced that this is going to devastate our community."