CZMP OP ED

KEEPING BALTIMORE COUNTY GREEN THROUGH CZMP
CZMP – DEMOCRACY AND OPEN SPACE

 By Irving Spitzberg, President of North County Preservation and Janet Schollenberger, Sierra Club Greater Baltimore Group Political Chair

Color Baltimore County green!!  The County has now begun the Comprehensive Zoning Map Process (CZMP) for 2008. Every four years, preservationists can identify strategic properties to be downzoned to protect our natural environment.  Time is of the essence!!

This distinctive Baltimore County zoning review process allows every resident to identify the properties that are most strategic to preserving the natural resources of northern Baltimore County. Then, through their local community associations, individuals acting collectively can bring these properties to the attention of the County Council, with the goal of assuring that they are zoned at the lowest appropriate level. This quadrennial exercise in reviewing the zoning of all properties in Baltimore County harnesses the essence of American democracy to enhance land preservation in the public interest. 

The American Constitutional requirement for zoning, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, is part of protecting the general welfare through the legislative and regulatory process.  Zoning is meant to assure the public interest while respecting private property.  CZMP invests all residents with the opportunity to inform legislative deliberation about our environment through zoning.

The Sierra Club has been actively working with the North County Preservation (NCP), an umbrella non-profit in northern Baltimore County, to encourage intelligent land use planning and preservation.  The hallmark of our efforts is a newly created support system for community associations and County Council as they proceed through this important exercise.   This year, through the good offices of David Sides of Towson University and the NCP Technical Committee (in which the Sierra Club serves), NCP created a geographical information system database that allows community associations (and the Planning Department and the County Council) to identify the properties that have the greatest impact on the natural environment.  We can identify, for example, the properties that  would have the highest risk of harming Brook Trout or disrupting Green Infrastructure. 

 Highlights of our recent CZMP consultation activities include:

• Sparks Glencoe Community Association’s efforts in preserving land along the Gunpowder River, NCR trail, and specific RC5 zoned properties.
• Community Environmental Defense Services’ (CEDS) under President, Richard Klein, efforts with the Greater Kingsville, Long Green Valley, and Sparks Glencoe associations in identifying vacant RC5 properties in their respective areas.
• Sierra Club’s outreach to community associations inside the Urban Rural Demarcation Line (URDL) that are concerned about in-fill development and environmental devastation on local streams and woodlands. 

We view the launching of Sierra Club’s collaboration with likeminded organizations, such as NCP, and other environmentally progressive community associations as just the beginning for real positive change on land use throughout Baltimore County.  Plans are already underway to create a database that will identify environmentally sensitive features of parcels of land inside the URDL.  We have met with several community associations within the URDL.  All have expressed an interest in using this informational database as a tool for preserving the remaining open space in their neighborhoods. Encourage your local community association to protect the essential natural resources of the Baltimore County and to partner with the Sierra Club in keeping Baltimore County a healthy livable green.

For more information or assistance or to volunteer to help with these activities, contact Janet Schollenberger at 443-386-5054 or jscholle4@yahoo.com or Irving Spitzberg at 410-357-5982 or ijs@northcountypreservation.org.  Check out information on the internet at www.northcountypreservation.org or at www.baltimorecountymd.gov.  Richard Klein’s Community and Environmental Defense Services also has a wealth of free information at www.ceds.org/bcmd.