Developers building homes in Baltimore County may have a tougher time adding lots to approved plans under a proposal before local lawmakers.
Builders who want to add homes to approved plans must re-enter the county?s development review process ? rather than an expedited process used for minor plan refinements ? under a bill scheduled for a council vote Monday. Bill sponsor Bryan McIntire, a north county Republican, said developers are frequently allowed to build under plans approved years earlier despite zoning changes on the site.
“It could have been approved in 1929 or 1980,” McIntire said.
Current legislation requires “material” plan changes to follow recent laws regardless of when the original plan was approved, but doesn?t define “material.”
The law, if passed, could represent a policy disagreement between the council and the Board of Appeals, which has continually approved major changes to development plans as “refinements,” McIntire said.
The board last year approved a nine-story condominium building on the outskirts of the Hunt Valley Towne Centre, for example. The project ? 218 condominium units and 450 parking spaces ? was first proposed as a “refinement” to the 1979 plan creating the Hunt Valley Mall.
Council Chairman Kevin Kamenetz, co-chairman of the proposal ? which would exempt plans in the approval process ? said the legislation will clarify the council?s interpretation.
“There?s nothing more material than adding lots,” Kamenetz said.
But Towson-based development lawyer Dusky Holman said the county has adhered to an unwritten rule that considered an addition of less than 10 percent of homes a “minor amendment.”
“Under this scenario, if I just added one more unit, it would be deemed material and I would have to go through the full development process again,” Holman said.
Michael Harrison, government affairs director for the Home Builders Association of Maryland, said the organization supports the proposal.
“The association is glad it?s finally being clarified so we know what to do and can work within the system.”
