Counties’ plans for guiding new development should be strengthened to avoid rampant growth and preserve open space, advocates say.
“Those plans should carry the weight of law. Unfortunately they don’t,” said Brad Heavner, state director of advocacy group Environment Maryland.
Requiring local governments to stick to comprehensive growth plans is one of a few reforms needed to the state’s development laws, according to a coalition of smart growth and environmental advocates.
The advocacy groups collected nearly 7,000 signed petitions calling for development reform. The petitions, which advocates began delivering to lawmakers this week, called for three specific changes:
• Ensure local zoning matches comprehensive development plans.
• Require stronger rural zoning and designate preservation area, allowing no more than one house per 20 acres in those areas.
• Encourage public transportation use through the development of regional transportation plans.
“The way we get this done is strength in numbers [and] holding our politicians accountable,” said Aaron Mintzes, of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, standing at the edge of Druid Hill Lake in Baltimore Wednesday.
The growth plans — developed after a long and public zoning process — are “too often tossed out the window” by local governments willing to approve new development, Heavner said.
One stark example is the Terrapin Run development in Allegany County, where developers want to build 4,300 homes 25 miles away from the nearest city center, he said.
A resident group challenged the development, but a judge found the county’s growth plan was only a “loose guide” and not binding, Heavner said.
The interest in smart growth has been increasing, perhaps because of soaring gas prices and the rising cost to maintain spread-out communities, said Jennifer Bevan-Dangel, deputy director of 1000 Friends of Maryland, a smart growth advocacy group.
But often residents feel overwhelmed by the zoning process, and developers have a stronger voice in local growth decisions, she said.
“It’s a complicated issue.”
