Once-a-decade rezoning process seen as pivotal

Howard is on the brink of countywide rezoning, a once-a-decade process infused with opportunity and risk. For the County Council, it is the chance to guide growth, attack problems and tinker with the tax base all at once - or set in motion troubles that could take a generation to correct.

For landowners and developers, it offers a tempting possibility of more profitable development - or less, depending on how the chips fall. For the average homeowner, it could bring community change.

Any zoning adjustment affects lives in this affluent county, where real estate is valuable and undeveloped land is expected to run out within 20 years. But planners and council members expect fewer changes than in the last comprehensive rezoning, most of them focusing on the U.S. 1 corridor.

Soccer league, appellants compromise on new fields

Howard County is one of Maryland's soccer meccas, with roughly 8,000 players competing in every nook and cranny of open space. Now, long-awaited extra space appears to be on the way. An agreement was reached Monday night to end a long legal struggle that threatened to indefinitely postpone construction of the largest privately owned soccer complex in the state.

The Soccer Association of Columbia/Howard County, which had approval from the county Planning Board for 10 fields, agreed instead to build eight fields now and wait three years before applying for the rest.

The three residents fighting the complex because they worried about traffic have agreed, in turn, to drop their appeal.

Planning director to take comparable job in Arundel

Howard County's longtime planning director, a lightning rod for criticism from slow-growth advocates in one of Maryland's fastest-growing counties, is leaving his post after 12 years to take the same job in Anne Arundel County.

Joseph W. Rutter Jr., 56, is moving on after 36 years working for his native Howard County, despite attempts by Howard County Executive James N. Robey to keep him.

Rutter said Tuesday that he stayed in Howard County for the chance to help write a new county general plan, a once-a-decade exercise, but that now a bigger challenge in Anne Arundel beckons.

Councilman leaves law firm representing school board

When Howard County's school board met in closed session to talk about extending school Superintendent John R. O'Rourke's contract last month, County Councilman-elect and lawyer Ken Ulman was among the meeting's harshest public critics.

"I find this matter to be quite troubling and just think these actions clearly violated the intent of the law, which is to be an open process," Ulman told The Sun last month.

But Ulman's comments resonated in an unexpected way because his firm, Hodes, Ulman, Pessin & Katz, is defending the school board in court against a citizen's open-meetings lawsuit. As a result, the 28-year-old west Columbia Democrat has resigned from the firm, where his father, Louis, practices law.

Man found guilty in crash that killed 4-year-old girl

A Hyattsville man who was legally drunk when he crashed his Jeep into the back of a car on a Route 100 ramp in Howard County during the summer was convicted Thursday of auto manslaughter.

Marcos P.S. Amaya, 34, also was found guilty of 17 other alcohol and driving offenses related to the crash July 13 that killed Nadine Younis, 4, and seriously injured her two sisters, Nouran, 6, and Yara, 19 months.

Howard Circuit Judge Diane O. Leasure, who tried the case, noted Amaya's high blood-alcohol reading - 0.19 - as well as evidence that he had been driving erratically for several miles, and that he apparently never braked to try to avoid the Younis family's car.

Amaya, a Honduran immigrant, could receive a maximum 16-year prison term at his sentencing Feb. 14.

Panel advises outlawing estimated water-billing

A Howard County government advisory board recommended Thursday that the County Council outlaw the practice of billing apartment dwellers for water based on estimated use within 10 years, sharply limit the size of service fees charged by billing companies and require metered billing on all new apartments.

If the recommendations are adopted, Howard would be the first Maryland municipality to regulate estimated water-billing.

Apartment tenants in Howard and elsewhere across the nation have complained that estimated bills are unfair because they do not reflect a tenant's water use.