By Kevin Owen
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Restaurants within 250 feet of a residential building in the eastern and western subareas of the Honeygo overlay district would not be permitted to operated between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. under a bill before the Baltimore County Council.
The legislation would affect standard restaurants, which are defined by zoning regulations as a facility or part of a facility used primarily for serving meals and beverages to persons seated at tables on the premises of the establishment.
This includes cates, cafeterias, tearoom and outdoor cafes but not catering halls or fast-food establishments.
County officials said the bill comes in response to a Denny’s that is being planned for The Shops at Perry Hall at the corner of Belair Road and Honeygo Boulevard, where a 24-hour Wawa is already located.
Councilmen David Marks, R-5th District, who proposed bill 72-25, said he is concerned for residents who purchased homes in the area and will suddenly be faced with a restaurant operating all day.
“What would you think if you bought a home and then suddenly found out the restaurant that you were promised would be open for 24 hours a day?” Marks said during a meeting on the legislation Tuesday.
Marks added that the bill is not aimed at any specific restaurant. He said his intent is only to ensure that restaurants operate during reasonable hours.
Residents said that the Wawa currently operating at the shopping center has brought many negative effects to the area, including excessive noise and public-nuisance issues. Residents who spoke during the council meeting last week said they believe the opening of Denny’s will only worsen those problems.
“Who wants to walk 5 feet from your house, and you are walking in the parking lot of the Denny’s,” local resident Raymond Maskell said during the council meeting.
There was opposition to Mark’s bill by those who said the company had many friendly conversations with the residents near the site, including those who purchased homes after the opening of the 24-hour Wawa.
The bill will move to formal voting in the next legislative session on Monday.
The council also discussed a resolution (49-25) that would ask the Maryland Department of the Environment to deny a new permit that would allow Days Cove Rubble Landfill to double its daily wastewater discharge into the Bird River.
Days Cove operates an 83-acre landfill within the Gunpowder Falls State Park in White Marsh, adjacent to the Eastern Sanitary Landfill. It recent applied for a permit to increase its discharge of “leachate” from 12,500 gallons a day to 25,000 gallons a day.
Leachate – also known as “trash juice” – is a technical term used to describe wastewater running through a landfill that collects chemicals, toxins and other liquids that must be treated before being discharged into surface water.
The trash juice that is being created is currenlty being discharging into the nearby Bird River, a side stream of Gunpowder River.
The resolution seeks to stop the landfill’s proposed discharge permit from moving forward.
The resolution was sponsored by councilmen Marks and was co-sponsored by Councilmen Izzy Patoka, D-2nd District, Todd K. Crandell, R-7th District, Mike Ertel, D-6th District and, as of the meeting, Councilman Wade Kach R-3rd District.