Terrapin Run redux
This may be the year when Marylanders learn whether the development plans their leaders must appove every six years are worth the paper they're printed on.
As I reported in The Baltimore Sun today, Gov. Martin O'Malley is expected to seek legislation spelling out that counties and municipalities must follow the comprehensive plans they adopt. It's a move to reverse - or at the very least clear up - a decision last year by the Maryland Court of Appeals that cast doubt on the plans' importance.
Ruling in a dispute over the 4,300-home Terrapin Run development proposed next to a state forest in mountainous western Maryland, the state's highest court said local governments were not required to follow their comprehensive plans in deciding on individual projects. A group of Allegany County residents had challenged a special exception granted to the developer to build in a rural area far from public water and sewer. The O'Malley administration and environmentalists joined the opponents in their appeal.
In its opinion, the court's majority sided with the county government, saying it need not follow its plan. The majority also brushed aside a 1992 state planning law that says local zoning and land use laws and regulations shall be "consistent" with the plans, and that the plans themselves must adhere to eight "visions" of good growth, including building in existing population centers and protecting sensitive and resource areas.
Though at least some local officials saw the ruling as a narrow, technical one, critics - including many planners, environmentalists and growth management advocates - said the court's ruling cast doubt on the value of the development plans, which are revised every six years after extensive input from the public. "Why bother to have a plan at all?" asked one.
"Correcting" the court's ruling is one of the recommendations of a task force on future growth in Maryland appointed by O'Malley, which is due to formally report to the governor today. State planning secretary Richard E. Hall said the administration wants to clarify and reaffirm the requirements in state law for local zoning and land-use rules to follow the plans.
Even as the General Assembly is being asked to clear up the questions raised by the appeals court's Terrapin Run decision, the court itself may speak again. It is scheduled to hear arguments in a Queen Anne's County development dispute that revolves around enforcability of local comprehensive plans.
The case, Grasslands Plantation Inc. v. Frizz-King Enterprises, is one of the first to come in the wake of the Terrapin Run decision. In this case, the Eastern Shore county's planning commission and board of zoning appeals had approved a 275-acre housing development outside of Chestertown.
But county officials elected on a slow-growth platform subsequently adopted an ordinance that took effect early last year requiring that developments "conform" to the county's comprehensive plan. Since this project is outside of the county's designated growth area, opponents argued its approval ought to be invalidated. But lower courts have refused to overturn the earlier approvals. The opponents' lawyer, Philip Hoon, argues that this case gives the court an opportunity to clear up if, when and how plans are to be used in deciding specific land uses.
I report on the environment and Chesapeake Bay. A native of West Virginia, I have focused mainly on Maryland's environment since moving here in 1983. Along the way, I've crewed aboard a skipjack in the bay, canoed under city streets up the Jones Fall from the Inner Harbor, and gone deep underground in a western Maryland coal mine. Recently, I have been covering the growth and development transforming the landscape. I love seafood, rambles in the country and good stories. I hope to share some here.
Comments
The local Comp Plan must be enforced and state requirements on the planning elements tightened - ultimately the state should even take a broader management hand in local growth, or we will never realize environmental improvements and smart growth scenarios - every deviation from selected dense growth results in further sprawl.
Posted by: Jack Lynch | January 12, 2009 4:01 PM