The Harford County Council wants to give residents more information and more of a voice about proposed new development.
Councilmen Jim McMahan, a Bel Air Republican, and Dion Guthrie, a Democrat representing Edgewood and Joppatowne, have introduced a bill that would require developers to hold a meeting to present their plans to the community surrounding a proposed project.
A public hearing on the bill is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. March 20 in council chambers.
Currently, the first public presentation about a new project occurs at a Development Advisory Committee meeting ? well after the developer has paid for detailed plans.
“Any community input at that point is nonexistent,” Guthrie said.
The bill also requires that notice be given at least two weeks before the meeting to adjacent property owners, the county?s Department of Planning and Zoning, the County Council and any community associations in the immediate area.
The meeting would also have to be held close to the development during a time when most people could make it ? a weekday evening or midday Saturday. This condition resulted from people complaining about Development Advisory Committee meetings occurring when they were at work, McMahan said.
Based upon development laws already in place in Howard County, the bill would give residents a chance to voice their opinions but would not require developers to heed the public?s suggestions, though doing so would be in their best interest to prevent opposition, Guthrie said.
“If you get in early and the developer wants to please the community… I?ve talked to plenty of developers who have been willing to bend a little,” he said.
McMahan said he had also spoken to developers willing to make the extra effort.
Senior housing projects would be exempt from the bill?s requirements ? an exception that irked frequent development critic Carolyn Hicks of Joppa.
“Developers have way too much wiggle room when it comes to ?housing for the elderly,? and this will certainly give them an out,” she wrote in an e-mail to the council.
