Smart Growth

'Smart Growth' good policy, but will next gov think so? Even if Maryland's next governor is more of a road-builder than Parris Glendening, we still don't expect his successor to reject the idea known as "Smart Growth. " It may be called something else, but there are too many reasons to like it to dump it after only four years in effect. Smart Growth in effects restricts growth to those areas where the infrastructure - water, sewer and roads - are already in place to handle it. Instead of development further from the urban centers, Smart Growth trims expenses by using what's already there.

Delegates evaluate Smart Growth By LAURA ERNDE / Staff Writer ANNAPOLIS - Maryland's anti-sprawl Smart Growth policy has been in place for nearly four years, but local officials say it has been difficult to determine its effect in Washington County. The biggest impact has been in downtown Hagerstown, where the state built a new District Court building and is about to renovate another building for a satellite campus of the University System of Maryland. The location of both projects resulted largely from the Smart Growth policy.

Letters to the Editor 1/26 Museum needs state leadership To the editor: An open letter to the Governor: Dear Gov. Parris Glendening: We have a good deal for you. Include $3 million in your supplemental budget for the Civil War Museum, and we will deliver for Hagerstown: $23 million in private sector investment in the downtown. Smithsonian affiliation. Smart Growth redevelopment of two city blocks. $6 for every $1 of state money.

New courthouse seen as 'smart' By LAURA ERNDE / Staff Writer photo: RICHARD T. MEAGHER / staff photographer As Gov. Parris Glendening officially dedicated the J. Louis Boublitz District Court Building in downtown Hagerstown Tuesday, he offered a glimpse of the city's future. continued Glendening said he wants the state to help pay for improvements such as lighting and sidewalks in downtown Hagerstown and in other urban centers across Maryland.

Smart growth touted at forum By BOB PARTLOW / Staff Writer, Martinsburg MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - People in communities can work together to achieve "smart growth" instead of passively letting sprawl eat up their land and increase their government budgets, Steve Lerner, an author who has studied growth-related issues, said Monday at a forum on growth. continued Lerner, who works in Washington, D.C., for the Commonwealth Sustainable Futures Project, said smart growth is putting development where systems such as sewer, water and roads already exist to handle it. Providing areas of open space while growth is occurring is another way in which growth can be handled wisely, as is clustering development around undeveloped land, he said.

Mail Call for 7/17 "When is the city going to require residents to trim back shrubbery along the alleys so cars can be driven safely through?" "Hagerstown has been trying for years to make it look good. They will never succeed because they are in the real estate business. Another thing, if Funkstown does not want a Wal-Mart, believe me, we do! Come on down to Sharpsburg, Keedysville and the Boonsboro area, we would love to have you. We need something down here.

A study made public Tuesday says three of the five buildings in the Baldwin House complex, which is to be used for a state education center, can't be renovated or reused, contradicting comments made by the governor's assistant for smart growth. cont. from front page One of the three buildings that should be demolished is the four-story Baldwin Hotel, according to a structural evaluation of the proposed site for the University System of Maryland Hagerstown Center. The report by Whitney Bailey Cox Magnni, consulting engineers and planners from Baltimore, was paid for by the city of Hagerstown and the Washington County Commissioners.

ANNAPOLIS - A Maryland Senate subcommittee is questioning Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening's decision to locate a University System of Maryland Education Center in downtown Hagerstown and has asked for a study comparing all sites that had been considered. cont. from front page Some members of the local legislative delegation are worried the subcommittee's action could hurt the project's chances. Sen. Thomas M. Middleton, D-Charles, said he wants the University System of Maryland to compare all the sites that had been considered before the Bowman House complex was selected and report back by Oct. 1. The report is to include an estimate of student demand at each location.

Here's a dilemma if you're the Washington County School Board administration: Do you stay in hideously cramped and outdated and ugly quarters on Commonwealth Avenue in offices that have been patched together like Legos in the hands of Calvin and Hobbes where the roof leaks, the floor gives beneath your feet and you're ashamed to bring even the most low-level job prospect? Or do you move to downtown Hagerstown? Hold on, we're thinking. To move downtown, immediately you have to figure they better offer some plush digs with all kinds of amenities including - oh, I don't know, maybe a whirlpool.