A New County Bill to Allow Up-zoning Without Oversight…

A new bill has been put forward regarding development around “Town Centers”. It suggests the option of Higher density within two miles at the sole discretion of the office of Planning and Zoning.  It also changes the mix of development allowed from 50/50 industry and residential to 25/75 favoring residential.  There are some changes being drafted by our Councilman Dick Ladd to specify the town centers involved to stop unexpected expansion to other areas.  Here is the position on the bill from the BCC:

I have been looking over the proposed legislation in Bill No. 81-13 (http://www.aacounty.org/CountyCouncil/Resources/2013/81-13.pdf).  W find it to be an open invitation to blinkered decision making, and a removal of community input and oversight for major development.

We believe the Department of Planning & Zoning, which would be in charge of making these massive development decisions without input from the public, has proved they do not have sufficient skill and knowledge to approve development that is compatible with existing infrastructure and and community needs –  without input from the community.  Two examples on the Broadneck you may well know are the insulated decision made to modify zoning for marinas globally within the county code, and more recently the Patel Childcare facility on College Parkway-  using limited or no traffic information other than car counts at intersections located a great distance from the subject property– with poorly matched student enrollment restrictions based on the size of the property. We see how “market studies” always support the developer’s desired outcome. If the communities could successfully influence the decision by the Board of Appeals and the County Code was properly written to safeguard the peace and tranquility of neighborhoods, neither of these two detrimental decisions would have been rendered.

Allowing exceptions to agreed upon development levels without allowing the community to point out problems and dangers for a particular area is not a sound strategy. A two mile radius around a shopping mall/”town center” (one million square feet of commercial space) is 12.5 square miles of land. This is a huge area to place under the sole control of Planning & Zoning to make exceptions to the rules with no oversight of individual decisions that are not within the current master development plan’s zoning allowances.  Development is being allowed with inadequate transportation planning….it seems an afterthought after the zoning change and/or special exception decision has been delivered.

Legalizing explosive development of townhouses on 4 acre patches near these town centers can lead to very fragmented patches of townhouses by different developers–right in some community’s backyard. This would likely lead to fragmented road planning and street access, and fragmented protection of existing communities from new small development. We would suggest that the minimum amount of land for these townhouse developments be 8-10 acres to insure uniformity of planning in a wider expanse.

We believe that if the Department wants to make the case for smart growth up-zoning, it should be in conjunction with community input through the special exception process at a minimum, and detailed decisions should be based on ground truth – not global generalities insulated from the communities who know what the reality is. It should be planned out in the open where everyone has a say and good decisions can be made together on density and transportation. It is just this sort of insulated decision making that leaves the County’s citizens begging for the mess to be cleaned up after the horse has already left the barn on overdevelopment and transportation.

Please do not pass this bill in its present form. Do not leave such large decisions to the staff of Planning & Zoning without the need to listen to the community.

Britt Griswold
Vice President of the Broadneck Council of Communities