For all its antique charm, Main Street in Ellicott City's historic district can be a puzzle, especially when it comes to adding modern necessities like a parking garage to the narrow, twisting commercial stretch leading down to the Patapsco River.
Where can a garage be built without seriously disrupting dozens of small businesses? And if Howard County's plans for a new office complex and courthouse go forward, is there a way to tie a new use of the current historic courthouse high above Main Street into the businesses and tourism sites below?
Still, finding a solution to the chronic parking problem apparently can be a unifying factor for a diverse group of elected officials.
Howard County Executive Ken Ulman, a Democrat, and Republican Del. Gail H. Bates, for example, don't agree on lots of things - such as taxes and spending, for starters - but when it comes to more parking for historic Ellicott City, they sound like allies.
Both, along with county Councilwoman Courtney Watson, an independent-minded Democrat whose district includes Main Street, want a parking garage built as soon as possible - and no one is objecting to Ulman's emphatic belief that it should not be constructed atop the current lot behind the old stone U.S. post office.
"It will not be built here, for the next four years at least," Ulman vowed, standing on the lot during a recent walking tour of Main Street with a phalanx of county department heads and several business owners.
The executive said that building a multilevel garage on that lot would so severely disrupt business during construction that some stores and restaurants might go out of business.
He appeared to favor building the garage on a lot across Main Street, along Fels Lane behind the 1790 Thomas Isaac Log Cabin.
"We're going to ask the revenue authority to study the feasibility of putting a garage here," he said, standing next to the historic cabin and gesturing at the Fels Lane lot. The county's new revenue authority is expected to begin operations late this summer. A parking garage - or two - for the historic district likely will be the first order of business.
Bates sponsored unsuccessful state bond bills the past few years requesting money to start planning a garage, while then-County Executive James N. Robey pushed for the creation of a revenue authority with power to sell bonds and get the job done.
The tough part is finding a location for the parking garage in the dollhouse-fragile, crowded business environment in the historic district.
"I honestly don't care where it goes, just so we can get it," said Bates, a former top aide to former County Executive Charles I. Ecker during the 1990s.
"Just pick a spot. I was just trying to get the money to get it started," Bates said. She says the lot behind the post office probably isn't the best spot for a garage, but that's not her decision to make.
Watson said, "I tend to agree there are better options."
The Ellicott City Business Association has never voted on a location for the garage, said Owen Hanratty, president of the group, but some members strongly oppose the post office lot location.
Randy Neely, 42, and Steve Archuleta, 39, who live in a home on Old Columbia Pike overlooking the rear of the post office lot and operate a small garden store at the bottom of a hill behind their home, both feel a garage there would kill businesses.
They told Ulman and Police Chief William J. McMahon that drunken local patrons are taking their partying into the lot after the bars close, fighting, cursing, screaming and throwing bottles. After they settle down, the skateboarders show up - sometimes at 3 a.m.
"It's just a brawl - they get very violent," Neely said. The hills surrounding the lot create a bowl effect, he said, magnifying noises and keeping residents awake.
Sherry Fackler-Berkowitz, who with her husband, Len Berkowitz, operates a business on the street, strongly agreed that the garage should not be built there. She, too, favors the Fels Lane lot.
"This is a beautiful town. By putting things not in the center [of town], but at the end, people will walk" instead of trying to park directly in front of a place they plan to visit.
Ulman said he is determined to get a recycling program restarted for Main Street businesses, despite logistical problems.
James M. Irvin, the county public works director, said that past attempts have foundered when people put trash and furniture in the recycling bin, contaminating the collections. Business leaders said they would try to come up with a new plan.
"We pledge to work on it. We are going to bring recycling to Main Street," Ulman said.
Ways to economize
General Assembly leaders in Annapolis are talking about possible state budget cuts that would trim funding for county governments to make up for a predicted $1.3 billion state shortfall.
That possibility has Ulman looking for ways to economize, he said.
The executive said he and several department heads met with county school officials last week to discuss ways to cut costs - like jointly bidding for health insurance coverage.
"We were going over a lot of things, from information technology to facilities and maintenance," he said.
Ulman, like most local government leaders, argues that the state's budget problems were not caused by counties, so counties should not have to suffer cuts. But realistically, he said, he expects some to trickle down.
Ulman said he hopes the county will avoid major budget cuts, but "we do know there will be some cuts," he said.
larry.carson@baltsun.com