Amid an uproar over what some say was County Executive Janet S. Owens' breach of a building moratorium for the Parole area, county officials have agreed to meet Tuesday with members of a committee charged with managing growth in the area off U.S. 50.
Members of the Parole Growth Management Area advisory committee - some of whom have been lobbying county officials to set up a meeting since August - said they were notified of the gathering Monday.
They said letters they received from a county planning official stated that Owens, a Democrat from Millersville, could be present to "address the committee's issues."
However, a spokesman for Owens said yesterday evening that the meeting was "not on her calendar," but that it could be added to her schedule.
Owens clashed with the Parole panel recently when members discovered that her administration had approved four building permits for a 28.6-acre commercial and residential development on Riva Road at Harry S. Truman Parkway, a few blocks south of Parole Plaza.
The two sides disagree as to whether the Riva Road project violates a promise Owens made a year ago regarding development in the area.
Some committee members said Owens pledged not to approve building permits for projects in the Parole growth management area until after design standards had been set - action which has yet to take place.
Owens maintains that her pledge applied only to plans for the shuttered Parole Plaza, a 1970s shopping mall slated for redevelopment.
John Fischer, co-chairman of the Parole committee, said yesterday that Owens' presence at next week's meeting - she hasn't attended since the county-chartered committee first met three years ago - could placate some members. He said that most members just want to know what is going on with plans to revitalize the Parole area.
"It would be nice if the county told us what ... is going on," Fischer said. "I don't think it matters who comes to the meeting, just as long as they catch us up on what is going on. From where we are sitting, we know nothing at all."
Fischer and other committee members have spent the past week trying to find out more about the Riva Road project. They learned last week that county Planning Officer Denis Canavan, an Owens appointee, had signed a "phasing" agreement with the developer of the project, Edward A. St. John, without their knowledge.
"We knew this project was coming. We just didn't know it was coming now," Fischer said. "We know none of the details. Even looking at the phasing agreement, I can't tell if they are being asked to adhere to design standards or not."
In fact, Owens vetoed legislation last fall that would have set design standards in the Parole growth management area - after signing a development agreement for Parole Plaza with owner Carl Freedman. He is negotiating to sell the shopping center to an Atlanta developer.
To try to reassure residents who opposed the veto, Owens said she would not approve building permits for the shopping center - a 34-acre site that many consider the hub of the Parole growth management area - until after design standards had been finalized.
Committee members say they understood Owens' statement to mean that she wouldn't approve building permits for the entire area, a much larger block of land that includes the Riva Road site.
St. John, president of MIE Properties Inc. of Catonsville, broke ground last month. He plans to build two restaurants, two one-story office buildings, a three-story office building, a bank and 28 townhouses.
St. John has said that his support of Owens' recent re-election campaign - he and his wife contributed $4,600 since 1998 - has nothing to do with his getting building permits.
Representatives of Owens also have denied that the developer received preferential treatment. The representatives also have said that Owens played no role in approving the permits, which were granted by the office of planning and zoning.