Town Meeting on Rezoning Draws a Crowd

Attendees at the June 13th town meeting at the Cape St. Claire Clubhouse were given a map of the Broadneck peninsula with 49 little red stars on it.

Each of those stars represents a property where the owner has requested a zoning change. Some of the proposed changes are dramatic.

If the application survives the county’s once-a-decade Comprehensive Rezoning Process, where one house sits today, five could sprout up in the future. Or a property that’s zoned residential today could become a shopping center tomorrow, if the zoning is changed to allow commercial development.

It’s all in the numbers: R1 to R5; R2 to C3 and so on.

With rezoning in the northwestern and western areas of the county now finished, county planners and elected officials are turning their attention to the remaining applications among the 355 rezoning requests under consideration countywide. Over the next two months, they’ll bear down on properties in districts 6 and 7, covering the Annapolis Neck peninsula and south county. In August, the focus will turn to District 5 from Broadneck to Severna Park, as well as properties in districts 2 and 3.

Local community groups are trying to stay one step ahead of the process. Last night’s meeting was co-sponsored by the Broadneck Council of Communities (BCC) and (APC) and included District 5 County Councilman Dick Ladd. About 100 people turned out to hear an overview of the rezoning process and share their concerns about individual properties.

To Pat Lynch, president of the BCC, one of the most distressing aspects of the process as it now stands is that people living next door or down the street may not know that a zoning change is pending that could impact their quality of life.

“Anybody can request rezoning and not notify their neighbors. You have no idea they’re trying to build three more houses, put in a small entry road and have a small development,” she said.

The community groups have divided up the list of properties under review and are contacting nearby homeowners to spread the word. They also plan to hold additional community meetings this summer.

In addition, the Magothy River Association is circulating a petition opposing additional commercial development on Route 2 that does not conform to the 2009 General Development Plan (www.rt2rezone.org).

While the county’s web site lists zoning proposals, recommendations from the county’s Office of Planning and Zoning, and dates of public hearings on the zoning bills, amendments can be added late in the game, giving community groups little time to react. The zoning bill for districts 1 and 4 contained 26 amendments.

To help improve transparency, Ladd said at last night’s meeting he would not propose any amendments that had not been given a public review, a statement that elicited applause from the audience.

Mary Daniels and Michele DeFrancesco were motivated to attend the town meeting because they’re concerned that a property on Shot Town Road where they live may be “upzoned” from R2 to R5, which would allow five houses on one acre instead of two.

“They can put townhouses on R5,” said Daniels. “I like peace. We moved there for peace.”

DeFrancesco worries that a change could contribute to crowded classrooms and bring in more traffic. “It’s a narrow, winding road. If you put a townhouse development back there, it would be a disaster,” she said.

For more information about the county’s comprehensive rezoning process and to view a map-based web interface of properties under review, visit the county web site: http://www.aacounty.org/PlanZone/LongRange/CompZone.cfm.