More than 100 Anne Arundel County roads are now off limits to “intense” development, since county code now officially designates them scenic and historic roads.
The County Council passed Council Member Cathy Vitale?s scenic or historic roads bill Monday night to preserve a scenic atmosphere in some parts of the county.
Developers will now have several options: leave existing vegetation, minimize the removal of vegetation or make a long entranceway into the development.
“I think the community [as a] whole benefits,” Vitale said. “One of the beauties of our county is you can go almost anywhere and feel like you are taking a step back in time.”
“The scenic and historic roads bill guarantees you that.”
Twenty-two roads in southern Anne Arundel had already been designated as scenic and historic rural roads ? a definition that imposes tighter restrictions on what developers can do to the land.
This law took roads from an inventory conducted in 1997 by the Scenic and Historic Roads Commission and added a few more, and now dictates development guidelines for 154 roads in the county.
The law seeks to “lessen the impact of new development on these roads,” said Lois Villemaire, the county?s assistant planning and zoning officer.
“We have some very, very old roads,” Vitale said. “At one point, they were nothing more than dirt roads.”
Some protected roads
» Old Dairy Farm Road
» Dairy Farm Road
» White?s Road
» Jennings Road
» Glenns Road
» Wigley Avenue
» Forest Avenue
» New Cuty Road
» Portion of OldMill Road
