Former County Executive Dale Anderson knew how to work things to his benefit, including getting rid of a tree that hampered his golf game.
Former County Executive Donald Hutchinson during the Dec. 4 meeting of the county Revenue Authority board told the tale of a bout between a 150-year-old oak tree on the grounds of the Rocky Point Golf Course then-County Executive Anderson in the 1970s. (more…)
What happens to the theater at Towson Circle III when it closes for good?
It’s true, ground hasn’t even been broken on the Heritage-Cordish project that includes a county-subsidized and county-operated parking garage, but members of the Baltimore County Revenue Authority board are thinking of the future.
Under the agreement with the authority, Heritage can convert the space so long as it meets zoning requirements and generates at least 70 percent of the parking the theater would have, George Hale told the board in response to a question asked by Hannan Sibel.
The agreement prevents Heritage or a future owner from converting the theater into operations that would be less profitable for the garage, such as a self-storage business.
“As a practical matter, what we all know is that the theater ultimately will close,”Donald Hutchinson said during the board’s Sept. 25 meeting.
Hale and others agreed.
“A lot of them don’t make it as long as they think they are going to make it,” Sibel said.
“On the other hand, they are a pretty good anchor for an investment property,” Hutchinson said.
Heritage was in discussions with up to three theater operators. That number is now down to one. The term of the lease could be 10 to 20 years, Hale told the board.
“And the length of our relationship with Heritage is?” Hutchinson asked.
“Kind of perpetual,” Hale replied.
“It’s like a marriage, only we can’t get a divorce,” Pittler added.
A war is coming over the proposed conversion of the Gunpowder Falls Golf course into a 200-acre park in Kingsville.
That’s Revenue Authority Board Member and former County Executive Don Hutchinson’s prediction about community reaction.
“There will be a war over it,” Hutchinson told his colleagues on the board at their Aug. 28 meeting. “And the people, the wrench throwers that haven’t started to throw wrenches yet, won’t be seen for several months. And you just have to understand that.”
Hutchinson monologued about the issue for nearly six minutes.
“I speak of this from two perspectives” he said. “I lived there right next door to the golf course for several years. I don’t any more but I lived there, in Kingsville, so I know the community. I lived on Cedar Lane, right around the corner.”
“And, as a guy who’s been through those wars, representing that district in the legislature, that was my district for 10 years, and then having been county executive for eight I can just tell you, there will be a war over this and it will be like Roland Park and the Baltimore Country Club.”
Hutchinson wasn’t alone.
Hanan Sibel, chairman of the authority board, pointed out the lack of a road network around the property.
“I can’t imagine for the life me these people will be very happy with ball games being over at night, that these people will be happy with all the traffic driving through their neighborhoods,” Sibel said.
“They won’t,” added Les Pittler, another board member.
Hutchinson said, “Mt. Vista Road, Raphel Road and Bradshaw Road will all be affected, in my opinion.”
Still, Hutchinson said, those considerations should not stop the authority from transferring the property to the county if it makes sense.
“Again, our conversation has to be what makes sense for the revenue authority and, one, our partnership with the county; two, what makes sense for us from a revenue perspective,” he said. “We have to, in spite of what I said at the outset, we have to disengage ourselves from the political conversation because that’s for the politicals. It’s not for us.”