Bees, Signs, Designs, Veterans and Broadband: Howard County Council Delays Some Decisions, Moves Forward On Others

With several major topics before them on a single evening – the proposed creation of a veterans' commission, and bills concerning sign regulations and design guidelines in downtown Columbia, and a bill about backyard beekeeping in the county – the Howard County Council decided it needed more time before making other decisions.

The council voted Monday evening to push those decisions back until after they've heard once more from area residents. Public hearings have been scheduled for Jan. 18.

The additional weeks will also give more time to staff to flesh out what council members are looking for in the bills – time that the staff didn't have between days off for holidays and the mandatory furloughs they had to take at the end of 2010, according to council Chairman Calvin Ball.

The council had last heard from the public about the so-called "Bee Bill" and the downtown Columbia sign regulations on Dec. 20.

The bee bill, if passed, would give more people the ability to keep honeybees on their properties legally.

Under the current county zoning law, animal shelters for anything other than household pets must be at least 200 feet away from homes on adjacent lots.

The proposed new law – sponsored by council members Greg Fox, R-Fulton, and Mary Kay Sigaty, D-Columbia – would make an exception for apiaries, which hold beehives.

If the law is passed, apiaries could be placed in side yards and back yards as long as the hives are kept at least 25 feet from neighboring properties. Other measures could allow for people to have the hives as close as 10 feet away.

More information on the bee bill .

The proposed design guidelines for downtown Columbia will be necessary for the planned revitalization of the area, which will see several new neighborhoods constructed there.

They "will ensure that what is built in the downtown will be attractive, aesthetically coherent, practical and of beauty and value," according to a printed introduction to the proposed guidelines.

More information on the design regulations at this link.

And the proposed changes to sign regulations would allow for more types of signs downtown, including marquee signs, signs projecting from a building over the public right-of-way, signs placed toward the top of tall buildings, and directional signs that, ideally, would better help people find their way around Columbia.

The council had initially been split on whether to create a veterans' commission – with Fox in favor of creating such a commission, while Calvin Ball, Mary Kay Sigaty, Jennifer Terrasa, and Courtney Watson had wanted more information first before choosing to do so. Those four council members had responded to Fox by putting forth a bill to create a task force that would study what such a commission would be.

But on Monday the council instead decided against voting on the task force – instead opening up to Fox's original idea of creating a commission.

Fox has been revising his original bill since its introduction in September, he said.

"The new bill is an improvement over the original bill," Watson wrote on her Facebook page after Monday's meeting. "And I agreed to cosponsor it based on the input received from our VFW [Veterans of Foreign Wars] and American Legion chapters."

Ball said that the council was committed to its veterans. "We're working to find the best way to demonstrate that," he said.

"I just want to get this bill through," Fox said afterward. "It's just important for the veterans."

The veterans' commission will be discussed at a Jan. 18 public hearing.

The council did pass one major bill on Monday, voting to transfer $73 million in federal grant money for a project that will install broadband cables in Howard County and several other counties in Maryland. Howard County has taken the lead on managing the project.