As open land disappears and real estate prices soar, communities built decades ago are becoming the next growth frontier in Howard County - to the dismay of some who live there.
Landowners are subdividing generous yards and putting up two, four, even six or more new houses where one had stood.
Ellicott City residents - complaining that this "infill" development is breeding sore-thumb buildings on odd-shaped lots that dump traffic onto roads meant for fewer vehicles - are demanding new laws to regulate small subdivisions.
A group will meet with the county planning director at 7:30 p.m. today at Northfield Elementary School in Ellicott City.
"We're trying to maintain our neighborhoods, maintain the integrity of the already-built environment," said Diane Butler, president of the St. John's Community Association, which represents roughly 900 households west of U.S. 29. "There's thousands of these lots."
Driving along narrow neighborhood roads that are flooded with cut-through traffic during rush hour, Butler pointed out more than 50 proposed infill houses in the area and a handful that have been built.
"The neighborhoods are only designed to take a certain number of houses," she said. "They don't have the infrastructure."
Her campaign is likely to strike both a chord and a sour note in older neighborhoods.
Laws to make development fit in with existing communities could decrease the number of homes allowed - less money for the small landowners who want to subdivide their property.
But other residents say infill can transform neighborhoods, and they do not want a change for the worse. In the tiny Crowder neighborhood west of Route 104, for example, the population could nearly quadruple if everyone subdivided.
Two residents looking at property maps this year found room in suburban Ellicott City for about 3,700 new infill homes, more than a sixth of the community's households. The area they studied excluded Waverly, Turf Valley, the historic district and the large-lot acreage west of Centennial Lane.
"It just was a real eye-opener," said Janice Bloodworth, part of the pair who worked out the rough estimate for the updated Ellicott City Master Plan.
The county's five councilmen say they are willing to consider infill standards, especially Christopher J. Merdon and Guy J. Guzzone, who represent the older eastern Howard communities that have the most infill.
"I think we do need to take a strong, serious look at infill development and the impact that it's had on the county over the last 10 years," said Merdon, an Ellicott City Republican. "I'm not interested in telling a developer or builder what color paint [to use], but there's a feel to a neighborhood, and if we can capture that feel and develop standards that would make future development consistent with that feel, that would be my goal."
Many older communities outside Columbia are zoned one house per half-acre, but some were developed with yards of at least an acre, Merdon said. He suggested that the council could consider a 1-acre zone to keep parcels from being split in half.
He wants to hold hearings next year to get homeowners' thoughts about infill laws.
Guzzone, a North Laurel-Savage Democrat, said he often gets complaints about infill at community meetings, and he thinks existing regulations are insufficient.
Rob Moxley, a principal of Security Development LLC in Ellicott City, pointed out that infill is championed by Smart Growth as a way to draw on infrastructure that is in place.
The council could require improvements if the infrastructure - such as roads - cannot handle more people, he said.
"The effect of new regulations is typically to make it more difficult for people to buy houses because the price goes up," Moxley added. "We always have this tension between adding further development regulations and at the same time trying to come up with ways to provide affordable housing."
Butler, who moved to Ellicott City two years ago, thinks her home is a good example of why infill needs more oversight. The house, built three years ago, is angled oddly to fit on the property, and a water pipe broken during the construction caused drainage problems for her and her neighbors, Butler said.
She wants the county to require sewer tests so old lines are not damaged like that. She is also frustrated that in her community, zoned R-20, developers can count unbuildable land such as steep slopes when they are calculating the number of houses they are allowed to add.
David Catania, a Wheatfield resident who is active in the Ellicott City Residents' Association, said rules for compatible infill need to be written soon because it hits closer to home than other development.
"It might seem small because they're small parcels," Catania said, "but these small parcels add up."