Finally, a glimmer of hope in Baltimore County. John “Johnny O.” Olszewski, Jr., who’s entering his sixth year as county executive and recently announced plans to run for Congress, has introduced his first bill aimed at bringing the county’s notoriously dysfunctional laws on planning, zoning and development into the 21st century.
Bill 3-24 creates a mixed-use zoning designation that overlays other zoning districts, making it easier to develop mixed-use projects in underutilized manufacturing and business districts with access to transportation. For example, the designation would allow redevelopment of the derelict Lutherville Station shopping center into a transit-oriented, mixed-use development without further action by the County Council.
Parking requirements and maximum floor area ratios would be relaxed for mixed-use projects that include affordable housing units. Mixed-use projects receiving financial support from the county would be required to include a percentage of affordable housing units in their development plans.
Grassroots political pressure to reform the county’s land use laws has been building. A group of county residents known as We the People was formed in 2021 to encourage the adoption of a predictable and transparent development approval process that promotes “attractive, livable and sustainable complete communities with decent, affordable housing options for all.”
Despite the support of We the People and other efforts, however, Olszewski’s bill faces an uphill battle. The bill threatens something near and dear to members of the County Council: Their longstanding and legally questionable roles as virtual land use czars within their own councilmanic districts.
The bill reduces reliance on the planned unit development (PUD) process for approval of projects that include uses not allowed in the zoning districts in which the projects are located. A council resolution is required to allow the process for approving a proposed PUD to proceed.
Because the practice of “councilmanic courtesy” is held sacred in the county, that means no PUD is approved without first being blessed by a resolution introduced by the council member who represents the district in which the proposed PUD is located. The difference in profit from a project allowed by the underlying zoning and from a PUD can be substantial.
That’s a lot of power in the hands of a single member of the council. And therein lies the problem. That power appeals to council members looking for opportunities to wield their influence in exchange for political support. It is the same power that individual council members enjoy during the comprehensive zoning map process (CZMP).
County planning director Steve Lafferty acknowledges that comprehensive zoning should occur once every 10 years following adoption of the 10-year master plan. Instead, the CZMP occurs every four years and corresponds to the election cycle.
Attorney Nick Stewart, co-founder of We the People, points out that current law “doesn’t make a whole lot of sense because there’s nothing really tied to the election cycle except for influence and politics and money.” Unfortunately, Stewart describes exactly what makes the CZMP so popular with council members.
Council members have even found a way to create opportunities for influence peddling in between CZMPs through the much-maligned practice of legislative “spot zoning.” They try to skirt the legal prohibition against legislatively changing the zoning of a single property by bills that change the uses allowed in the applicable zoning districts but impose locational conditions on the changes, effectively limiting them to the targeted properties. Each such bill is introduced by the council member representing the district in which the property is located.
The net effect of so much power in the hands of individual council members is ad hoc decision-making dominated by the financial interests of developers and the desires of NIMBYs. The long-term best interests of the county as a whole are an afterthought at best, and the ill-conceived nature of development in the county is the result.
Convincing council members to surrender any of that power won’t be easy, and the fight is already getting ugly. Councilman Wade Kach told constituents that Bill 3-24 would result in the “urbanization of substantial portions” of the county, referring to the “thousands of new apartment units” that the bill would bring. He failed to mention that two-thirds of the county is outside the Urban Rural Demarcation Line (URDL) and off limits to intense development, and “urbanization” sounds a lot like the kind of racist dog whistle heard too often in the county.
Olszewski took a step in the right direction by introducing Bill 3-24. The question remains whether he will expend the personal effort and take the political risks necessary to get it passed.
David Plymyer retired as Anne Arundel County attorney in 2014 and lives in Catonsville. His email is dplymyer@comcast.net; Twitter: @dplymyer.