Catonsville residents said they want a judge to have the final say on a developer?s plan to squeeze 13 homes on just over two acres, but hope to reach an out-of-court settlement first.
Members of the Westview Park Improvement & Civic Association filed notice Tuesday of their intent to appeal in court the Baltimore County Board of Appeals? March decision to approve the “clustering” of new homes ? cramming the maximum number of homes allowed on a given land parcel even if portions are unbuildable.
“There are so many other rules the county needs to consider ? impact on infrastructure like schools, fire and police,” said Association President Stephen Whisler. “This concept of clustering homes goes against so many other county codes.”
Development firm Skirven Enterprises wants to build 13 homes on a 5-acre site on Rolling Road just north of Crosby Road. But one-third of the property is covered by wetlands, meaning the homes must be crammed into the remaining space, Whisler said.
And that?s OK, county officials said. For decades, they said, they have used the entire site?s acreage to calculate density and do not regulate lot sizes. Instead, the county emphasizes how homes look and function instead of how much space they occupy, said Pat Keller, the county?s planning director.
“We have to use land efficiently,” Keller said. “When 90 percent of the county?s residents live on a third of its land, we have to build wisely.”
Since 1970, the county has required homes to have at least 25 feet of open space in the front, 30 feet in the back and 20 feet between buildings, he said, and allows architects to figure out how to maximize the buildable space with longer or narrower homes.
But Whisler said that in this case, county officials neglected to consider regulations that require new homes to be consistent with existing ones. The proposed lot sizes of what he estimates to be one-eighth of an acre contrasts with existing 1-acre lots in the neighborhood.
If the county?s decision is reversed in court, Whisler said the ruling would force the county to consider all zoning regulations, not just setback distances to property lines and density limits alone. He said Skirven in considering eliminating two lots and buffering the site with trees in their negotiations.
