Dear Neighbors and Residents,
Region 4 Comprehensive Rezoning was introduced last night and will have its first public hearing on May 20th. I will share information on this legislation, but first, I want to update on Bill 26-24.
The County Council had a very large volume of emails on Bill 26-24. I am still responding to emails on the bill. I have gone into detail on what this bill does and does not do, and why members of the council felt it necessary in order to serve our constituents, NOT the developers like some are saying. I understand why this is being said. I saw the fallout from the last comprehensive rezoning as a regular citizen learning about the local government process. I vowed to always communicate and never to commit to backroom deals if I were to be on the County Council. I will continue to operate with that focus, but I have never done comprehensive rezoning, and neither have my colleagues, so the general public is distrustful. I get it.
M
y colleague, Pete Smith (District 1), was a sponsor of Bill 26-24, and he put together a presentation during our public hearing last night that explains the challenges that current regions have faced with timing. You can view the discussion on the bill, which I find to be very helpful, here: County Council April 15th Meeting (time stamp 3:49:28).
You can also see my additional comments at time stamp 4:13:20, which is an example of a scenario where our area would be stuck with an up zoning situation where I would want to introduce a lesser zone after hearing testimony from the public, but the sign requirement would prevent me from doing that.
My closing comments can be found at 4:43:48.
The Council did pass an amendment to make the sign requirement 10 days instead of 7, as proposed by the bill. This was a compromise to give more days for public notification, but still allow the council to have time to fulfill our duties during comprehensive rezoning, if a scenario arises that we need the time. Please keep in mind that someone applying late for a zoning change, may never see the light of day with an amendment. It is the councils decision on what late zoning requests will move forward as an amendment. Several late requests have already been told "NO". Any developer trying to pull a fast one in our district, hasn't been paying attention to how I operate.
Bill 26-24 passed with a bi-partisan super majority vote and will become effective in the coming days.
***IMPORTANT***
Region 4 Comprehensive Rezoning has been introduced!!!!
Region 4 includes areas of District 3 (Pasadena) and District 5 (Severna Park, & the Broadneck Peninsula to include Arnold and Annapolis 21409).
For each region there are two sister bills. One bill updates the General Development Plans to coincide with the zoning changes proposed in the second bill.
Bill 27-24 updates the Region 4 plans of the General Development Plan based on the proposed zoning changes in Bill No. 28-24
Bill 28-24 has two kinds of zoning changes. Ones that were requested by the property owner, and ones proposed by the county, without owner application. All of the proposed changes can be found in the link above with the bill, or for ease, here:
Consistency changes are ones where the map lines do not align on the digital map. In cases where these are small adjustments, I do not have concerns. In circumstances where half of a large lot changes its zoning, I do have concerns and will be looking at these closely.
The interactive map to view these proposed changes can be found below. Please note it would be helpful to spend some time navigating the map to understand how it works, using the tools on the left hand side of your screen as well as the instructional tool.
Public review starts NOW.
These two bills will be voted on within 95 days. The first hearing for both bills is on Monday May 20th at 7pm.
This office represents over 80,000 constituents, but only a fraction are signed up for my newsletter. If you live and work in our district, I ask that you share this information and ask your friends and neighbors to review these proposed changes. A lot of them make sense and have been vetted through the 18 month public process, including review by the Stakeholders Advisory Committee (volunteer citizens), the Planning Advisory Board (volunteer citizens), and the Office of Planning and Zoning. But I don't want to leave any stone unturned.
Reach out to ask questions, I am happy to answer them. I will be working diligently to examine every proposal.
As always, you can reach out to this office with any questions, concerns, or thoughts on legislation.
Please include my aide, Pam Scarbro at
Sincerely,
Amanda C. Fiedler
