County development rules will get update, overhaul

Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith signed an agreement Thursday that will require the county to make as many as 80 changes to its development requirements and review process within the next three years.

The pact is the product of a yearlong review that examined how the county could reduce the environmental impacts and construction costs of development. More than 60 representatives of the environmental, government and development communities, who have been meeting since June 2005, drafted what officials called a “collaborative” document.