Howard County Planning and Zoning officials are waiting for the new county executive to present his priorities before enforcing zoning and design requirements for the Route 40 corridor improvement.
“I don?t want to make promises about what?s on the front burner,” said Bill Mackey, Planning supervisor in the planning and Zoning Department, to residents at the Howard County Citizens Association meeting Tuesday.
Ken Ulman will be sworn in as the county executive Dec. 4.
Parts of the Route 40 corridor were rezoned under the controversial Comp Lite bill, which went into affect in July after efforts for a referendum and judicial review. Included in the bill are the expansion of a church on St. Johns Lane, addition of a Rite Aid on a baseball field on Route 40 and construction of senior housing in Marriotsville.
The design manual, which would be codified by the County Council, would address those changes.
However, a task force made several recommendations two years ago, such as reducing sign clutter and planting trees, but little has been done.
“We have no influence, because there is no document to make people do things,” said Angela Beltram, task force member.
Because therecommendations are voluntary, she said Howard should be negotiating with business to see some improvements now.
The manual will take time to develop because it would include the group?s recommendations and county and state standards, said Mina Hilsenrath, county?s chief of environmental and community planning.
In the meantime, Mackey has been talking with developers about the recommendations.
“There?s enough in the report itself to get us a seat at the table in negotiations,” Hilsenrath said.
