Zoning Law

Workshops, hearings to be scheduled on zoning law changes Revisions to Carroll County's zoning law and ordinance on subdivision standards will be considered at public workshops and hearings expected to be held in the next few months. The county commissioners voted yesterday to forward the proposed changes for public discussion. This is the latest action in the county's efforts to revise growth laws during a yearlong freeze on residential development. Last month, county planning director Steven C. Horn presented changes to the adequate public facilities law, and the commissioners voted to schedule a public hearing.

Carroll County planning officials identified yesterday the four South Carroll subdivisions where development will be halted because of crowded elementary and middle schools. In an unprecedented move, county planners announced last month that they would deny building permits to four proposed developments in Sykesville, Mount Airy and Eldersburg - a practice that has been common in Howard County for a decade. They delayed naming the subdivisions until they had mailed a letter to the developer of each.

The tumult surrounding a Carroll zoning ordinance passed in September has mostly died out, with county residents and state planning officials expressing satisfaction during a hearing last night at proposed amendments to the law they once reviled. "Quibbling over details aside, I think we're at a meeting of the minds here on the larger issue," said state Secretary of Planning Roy W. Kienitz, who a few months ago described the original law as one of the worst blows ever to Maryland's land preservation efforts.

The Carroll commissioners approved yesterday the county planning commission's revision of a controversial zoning law that critics say will add thousands of homes to the county's rural land. The commissioners will schedule a public hearing on the law. This signals the probable end in late March or early April of a six-month discussion about potential changes to the law, passed in September. Gone under the revised law would be several provisions that critics say will prompt a rise in development across the county's rural land.

Carroll Commissioner Donald I. Dell has scant experience being the swing vote on contentious county issues. He and fellow Commissioner Robin Bartlett Frazier usually vote together, even in the face of biting criticism from the third commissioner, Julia Walsh Gouge, and Carroll community leaders and state officials. It seemed that routine would continue in September when Dell and Frazier voted for a divisive zoning law over objections from Gouge and state leaders. But in the months since, Dell has backed away from aspects of the law to the point that he's leading a movement to compromise with state planning officials by amending it. Dell says he wants the law amended because after months of considering criticisms from county staff members and Carroll residents, he realized it might have unintended consequences.

Impressed with the Carroll County commissioners' willingness to compromise on a contentious zoning law, the state secretary of planning has delayed a Jan. 15 ultimatum that the county change the law or lose $400,000 in state money for farmland preservation. Secretary Roy W. Kienitz met with the commissioners and county planning staff members yesterday and left feeling "that there's every sign we're moving in the right direction" in negotiating changes to a law many say allows out-of-control development on the county's agricultural land.

The Carroll Planning and Zoning Commission told Ed Primoff yesterday that he can use a contentious new zoning law to create a subdivision plan for his Woodbine farm. The commission stressed, however, that its action constituted neither approval of Primoff's plan nor a position in the debate over the law. The law in question allows landowners to transfer development rights from land zoned for conservation to their agricultural land, meaning landowners could develop one residential lot for every 3 acres instead of one every 20 acres, as is normally allowed under agricultural zoning.

THE STATE'S move to cut off farm preservation funding for Carroll County because of a controversial local zoning law sets a serious precedent. It expands the range of state funding powers that can be used to influence local government decisions on zoning and development. Under the 1997 Smart Growth laws, the state's primary threat to curb local sprawl development had been denial of funds for infrastructure projects, such as roads, water and sewer, and schools. But the state planning department has told Carroll authorities to repeal the new zoning law or lose farmland preservation money.