press


HCC to Unveil Revised Plan For Wider Use Of Belmont

Susan DeFord, Washington Post Staff Writer
Originally published January 12, 2006

The historic barn at Belmont would be renovated and kitchen and classroom space added as one of Howard County's most famous 18th-century estates becomes a busier conference center and academic facility for Howard Community College.

Eventually, the 81-acre property near Elkridge would acquire water and sewer service, an access road, a 40-room inn, additional academic laboratories and a conservatory, according to a reworked master plan to be presented at 7 tonight in the Instructional Lab Building at the college's Columbia campus.

HCC President Mary Ellen Duncan said this week that the college wants "to keep Belmont alive and truly alive. HCC wants to generate enough income to take care of it. We don't want it to become a burden."

The plan does not include an earlier idea for senior citizen housing, which drew considerable criticism from residents.

The college intends to ask the Maryland Higher Education Commission to approve the plan. That step is required before HCC can seek money from the county and state governments and private donors to begin renovations

The college's educational foundation purchased Belmont in 2004 for $5.2 million from the American Chemical Society, which had operated the estate as a private retreat and conference center. HCC wants to increase business at Belmont and use it as the laboratory for its new culinary arts and hospitality management program, which now enrolls 80 students.

"We'll try to make the business work. We'll try to make the academics work. We'll also try to make our donors come to the table," Duncan said.

The first projects on the college's list are renovating an 18th-century barn for meeting space, expanding the carriage house to accommodate a large classroom and full-service kitchen, and building walkways and patios for the manor house's gardens.

Belmont carries a preservation easement that limits the kind of development that can occur. On Tuesday, Randy Bengfort, HCC's director of public relations and marketing, emphasized that the college proposes "no plans for housing, no plans for student housing, no plans to put a full-service college campus on Belmont."

"The Columbia campus is the focus of our growth," Bengfort said.

Burnet H. Chalmers, who lives near Belmont, said the college still is ignoring Belmont's primary mission -- preservation.

"It was given as a gift to the nation," Chalmers said.

He was referring to 1962, when the Smithsonian Institution acquired Belmont as a gift from private owners. The Smithsonian sold Belmont 20 years later to the nonprofit American Chemical Society.

Chalmers said the college has been arrogant with neighbors who have questioned its plans for the property. "They continue to try to push to see what they can do," he said.

HCC officials said they reworked their plans for Belmont after neighbors criticized a draft presented in August. New buildings and additional parking were moved to less prominent locations on the property, and a proposed loop road was eliminated.

Residents don't want the college to widen the estate's narrow, privately owned entrance road near Interstate 95. HCC wants to add water and sewer service to the estate, now served by a septic system, and build an access road off Landing Road to the west.

"It does have to be more accessible, because that's part of our mission," Duncan said.