Marks to Block Apartment Proposal

A proposed plan to develop the former site of the Bill Bateman's restaurant on Harford Road near Cub Hill Road appears to be scrapped after failing to gain the support of an area councilman.

In an email to Patch Thursday morning Fifth District Councilman David Marks said that he has told the developer that he will not support a planned urban development which includes apartments at the site.

"I will not introduce any resolution before the County Council that allows for a Planned Unit Development with apartments," Marks said in the email.

A Planned Unit Development or PUD provides more flexible zoning regulations for mixed-use projects than what would normally be allowed in return for specific community benefits.

Roughly one week ago the Northwind Homeowners Association met in a closed meeting at Cub Hill Bible Presbyterian Church to discuss the proposal.

A call to the Baltimore County Department of Planning was returned by Lynn Lanham, chief of the county's development review division, said the project was in the early stages and no one in the department had heard anything about it yet.

Marks' opposition to the development effectively blocks the development completely from the PUD process, which would require a council resolution introduced by Marks to begin in earnest.

"While I hope that the Bill Bateman’s site can be cleaned up and redeveloped, I agree with residents that a multi-storied apartment complex would be too dense and imposing at this location. The residents of Cub Hill and Carney told me to block this proposal, which is what I have done."

Strong opposition to the proposed PUD was voiced even in the early stages by area residents who felt that high-density housing was not what their neighborhood needed.