North County Preservation

Baltimore County’s Comprehensive Zoning Map Process (CZMP) occurs every four years. The process is beginning NOW with the open filing period for rezoning proposals September 4 – October 15 and concludes with new zoning maps in November 2008.

North County Preservation and the Baltimore County Office of Planning sponsored a CZMP community association workshop on August 23, to explain how to identify potential properties for rezoning. Baltimore County’s CZMP presents a unique opportunity for citizen involvement, because anyone, upon payment of a fee, may propose any property for rezoning.

Jeff Mayhew, Director of Community Planning, explained the following procedures for filing rezoning “issues”:

· First, a civic association must register with the Office of Planning by September 4 and must cover the area in which the property is located, in order to qualify for a significantly lower filing rate of $75 per issue. Otherwise, the fee could be as high as $1,565. To qualify, an association may not be an ad hoc association formed for CZMP, but must be incorporated and have bylaws or a charter defining the association’s boundaries. Contact your community planner at 410-887-3480 to register or update your information. Jessie Bialek, at jbialek@baltimorecountymd.gov, is the community planner for the 3^rd Council District in the northern County.

· Second, you need to register on-line as an applicant or an applicant’s representative. Go to the CZMP home page at www.baltimorecountymd.gov/go/cmzp. Click on the icon to become a registered user and request first a user name and then a password. You will receive email replies with both.

· Fourth, pre-file a CZMP 2008 application as the property owner or someone else. Complete the applicant information, the property information including the property’s councilmanic and election districts, and the zoning request. Review then submit the request and print the confirmation page.

· Fifth, schedule a meeting at the Office of Planning with the community planner for the property’s Council District.

· Sixth, meet with the community planner to complete the application process—pay the appropriate filing fee, map the area proposed for rezoning, provide additional requested information, and sign the “issue map.” Take to the meeting your confirmation page from the pre-application, the property’s election district and tax number, and a plat or tax map or whatever information you can get to define the property’s boundaries. If you have difficulty filing the request, the community planner will help as necessary. You will receive an issue number.

o The property’s tax account number can be obtained from the Maryland State Assessment Office Real Property website at http://sdatcert3.resiusa.org/rp_rewrite/.

· Seventh, select and pay a sign poster to post a sign on the property at least 15 days before the scheduled Planning Board Public Hearing for the Council District. The contractor will provide you with a photograph and certificate of the posting.

Baltimore County 2007-2008 CZMP Schedule

· 9/4 – 10/15: Open filing period when the public and Planning Director file “issues” proposing properties for rezoning

· 10/1 – 10/31: Planning Board and Planning Director file issues

· 11/1 – 11/30: County Council members file issues

· 12/1/07 – 2/29/08: Planning staff analyzes the issues and publishes summary data and preliminary staff recommendations about each issue in the “Log of Issues”

· 3/1/08 – 3/31/08: Planning Board holds public hearings on the proposed issues and recommendations—for Council District 3 on March 11 at 7:00 p.m. at Loch Raven Senior High School

· 4/1/08 – 5/15/08: Planning Board has work sessions, which are open to the public

· By 6/2/08: Planning Board’s recommendations are transmitted to County Council and a revised Log of Issues is published

· 6/2/08 – 6/30/08: County Council holds a public hearing in each councilmanic district.

· 7/1/08 – 9/15/08: County Council reviews Planning Board’s recommendations and public comments.

· Before 9/16/08: County Council votes on each issue and adopts by legislative action the revised Comprehensive Zoning Maps, which take effect 45 days after being signed into law by the County Executive

· 11/08: Office of Planning prepares the final official amended Zoning Maps and publishes the final edition of the Log of Issues, showing the County Council’s decision on each issue

In the CZMP process, the County Council has the sole authority to adopt new zoning maps and establish the zoning classification for each property in the County. Because the Council usually defers to the recommendation of the member where the property is located, each Council member has substantial power in zoning decisions. Since the zoning maps are adopted as a bill, the County Council’s determination may not be appealed. This process is frequent—every four years—and has a tremendous impact on land use.

According to Richard Klein, President of Community and Environmental Defense Services (CEDS), winning rezoning battles is 90 percent political and only 10 percent technical or legal. It does not matter how well you research the property and develop your arguments for rezoning or preservation, unless you use those arguments to aggressively organize political support for your proposal with the property owner and/or adjoining owners, community associations, local businesses, Planning Department staff, Planning Board members, and, most importantly, the County Council member representing the property’s district.

North County Preservation (NCP), Inc. is available to assist individuals and community associations with researching properties of concern for preservation or downzoning. It is a coalition of community associations, dedicated to the preservation and protection of ecologically and historically significant landscapes and structures in the northern county. Its area of interest is located above the Urban Rural Demarcation Line (URDL) established by the County’s land use master plan—from Hunt Valley north to the Pennsylvania line and from Harford County west to Carroll County. Research papers are available on NCP’s website about the importance of brook trout and green infrastructure corridors when considering land for preservation.

NCP hosted a North County Institute during last fall and spring to obtain information in preparation for the County’s CZMP beginning in September. Its CZMP Technical Planning Committee developed a Geographic Information System (GIS), so citizens and associations may examine any property in the northern county. This information may be used to identify properties important for downzoning or preservation and to build a case for submitting an “issue” during the open filing period and/or for lobbying Office of Planning staff, County Council members, community associations, business interests, and property owners. NCP has been working closely with the Maryland Department of Planning and the Baltimore County Planning Office in the GIS’s development and implementation. Members of NCP’s Technical Committee are trained in the GIS’s use and are available as consultants to community associations, to help them narrow the list of potential properties for downzoning and to prepare queries for the GIS.

This GIS is designed to assist community associations with making strategic decisions about properties to submit as “issues” for downzoning. “Layers” from multiple government databases are selected by the user to obtain information about specific property and about neighboring properties. The GIS includes current maps for zoning and property ownership and information about each property’s current use (e.g., farm, housing, forest), preservation status, historic structures and districts, and natural and environmental features. The overlay map created based on the user’s specifications can show if there are any endangered species, green corridors, nearby conservation easements, or other salient features that require a property to be downzoned in order to conserve open spaces. Other factors favoring preservation that can be shown are whether the area is dominated by working farms; the property has prime, productive farm soil; there is poor well yield for water; the property is unsuited for a septic system; the area lacks parks and recreation; the nearby road network is nearing capacity; or the neighborhood schools are over-capacity.

Additional Information and Assistance

Richard Klein of CEDS has access to the NCP’s GIS and is also available to help citizens or community associations research properties without charge. He may be contacted at 410-654-3021, www.ceds.org/bcmd, or Help@ceds.org. He has a free 280-page book, “How to Win Land Development Issues,” available for download from the CEDS web site.

Information is also available on the Baltimore County web site at www.baltimorecountymd.gov. A click for “My Neighborhood Zoning” may be used to look up any property’s current zoning and to see what issues have been filed. The web site includes “A Citizen’s Guide to Zoning in Baltimore County,” the current zoning regulations, and much more information. You can get on the distribution list for a twice monthly CZMP update e-newsletter for your Council District. The County Executive also has an e-newsletter.

Jessie Bialek, the community planner for the 3^rd District, says that each property has a story. When developing recommendations for a rezoning issue, she visits a property at least once, talks with community associations, and gets comments from other County agencies. She checks whether the proposal is consistent with the County Master Plan 2010 and any community plan for the area, whether the property or adjoining area is a land management area or a historic district, and determines the potential impact on the road infrastructure, local schools, water and sewer, etc.

Most of northern Baltimore County, which is above the County’s Urban Rural Demarcation Line (URDL), is rural and zoned for a resource conservation zone to conserve land and limit population growth. RC 4 and 5 are more permissive than RC 2, 3, 6, or 7. Criteria to look for when identifying properties worthy of downzoning or preservation include:

Act Now To Preserve Baltimore County Property:

Additional Information and Assistance