From Friends of Harford:
Bill 15-036 MO – District – must not pass.
It significantly changes the intent, quality and purpose of the MO designation defined in the Zoning Code and 2012 Master Plan, defeating MO’s primary purpose.
Bill 15-036 defies:
– the purpose for which MO-Mixed Office was created, and
– the reason MO was sited on Route 543 (2 adjacent areas) and Route 22 (1 area near HEAT).
Harford’s Zoning Code defines MO as:
This district is intended to promote major economic development opportunities, including corporate offices, research and development facilities and high-tech services which create significant job opportunities and investment benefits. It promotes high quality uses with high quality amenities. This area may also include retail uses to service the employment center. Designated at strategic I-95 interchanges, development will be subject to specific performance, architectural and site design standards.
To the currently allowed uses in MO, Bill 15-036 will add:
Commercial amusement and recreation; nightclubs, lounges, bars and taverns; Theaters, indoor; Theaters; outdoor; schools, colleges, and universities; Garden apartment dwellings (3 stories) ; Mid-rise apartment dwellings (4 – 5 stories); Townhouse dwellings; Hotels and motels; Nursing homes and Assisted living facilities; Agricultural retail; Shoppers merchandise stores (a.k.a. “big box”); Business services, including commercial schools.
In violating the stated purpose of MO, Bill 15-036:
Provides little employment: The MO “areas” were created to be a source of ongoing, high-value, high-tech employment. This Bill switches to uses like townhouses, which do not create ongoing jobs. Thus there will be no “promotion of major economic development”.
Disregards the Development Envelope: The Zoning Code permits only single family homes outside the Development Envelope; MO areas are outside the Envelope. This bill reverses the express prohibition on apartments in MO, allowing 55% of the entire project to be condos and townhouses. This flies in the face of the Development Envelope’s purpose, too, by extending new public water and sewer outside the Envelope to serve new, high-intensity housing and commercial development. This sets a dangerous precedent.
Flouts the ongoing HarfordNEXT Master Plan process: The draft of HarfordNEXT is expected this winter, and the public will have an opportunity to review and comment on it. Because Bill 15-036 seeks to cause far-reaching changes to land use, it should be part of the ongoing Master Plan update, not a separate Bill. These major changes deserve to be carefully reviewed at length by the entire County, and in proper context as part of the County’s overall Master Plan process. A change of this gravity deserves to be discussed and decided upon in a greater venue than afforded by the 60-day legislation procedure for this Bill.
Conclusion.
Bill 15-036 should be either be voted down or allowed to die. As written, it violates Harford’s current Master Plan and Zoning Code. If the changes this Bill proposes make sense, let them be properly reviewed as part of the ongoing HarfordNEXT Master Plan process.
Further, if MO is to be completely redefined, then the currently approved James Run MO site needs to be grandfathered to the prior definition, and the two remaining MO candidates need to be canceled and reevaluated for suitability by the ongoing Master Planning process.
Action. If you agree with this conclusion, tell the County Council to vote down Bill 15-036. Here’s how:
Testify at the public hearing Tuesday, December 1, 6:30pm in the Council chambers (3 minute limit)
Email all Council members at once
Call individual Council members
Note: The existing, DAC-approved site plan for James Run MO will be unaffected and can be built.
Who is sponsoring or introducing this bill?
Follow the money, right?
Thank you Friends of Harford! Your continued efforts to keep the residents of Harford County apprised of legislation and government activities is greatly appreciated. Our elected employees certainly need to be mindful that concerned citizens are keeping their fingers on the pulse of Harford County government.
Clearly they weren’t getting enough bites on the apple following the rules so we just change the rules. Instead of the high-tech center we’ll have strip clubs, liquor stores low rent condos because it’s so the same. What a joke. Why even have a master plan – these guys treat it like bird cage liner. Thanks FOH for paying attention.
This is another facet of the “zoning creep” I referred to in other comments on this site.
Then in 5 or 10 years they will look at what gets built there and say, “well look, here’s a fast food restaurant and a bar in this zoned area, so we better change the adjoining zones areas”.
And that’s how the Master Plan means nothing.
Don’t know how long you’ve lived here or how long you might have been following this process but you’re dead on and its been handled this way forever and I’m not sure if it’s just sloppiness or a strategy. We develop a master plan…we develop zoning and then we allow a variance outside the master plan and then once that’s allowed the next time the lines are drawn it justifies moving the lines and changing the zoning. That’s what they call a recipe for sprawl.
I’ve lived in Abingdon for about 8 years now, so I’m in the middle of the soup and nuts. I’ve been fairly closely monitoring development across the county for about 4-5 years now. I’ve understood how this system works, and doesn’t work, for at least 3 years.
It really doesn’t take a lot for the average person to see what’s really going on. I believe it’s intentional by design. It greases the wheels for everyone to make money and do favors when they need to.
We just need more people to start paying attention.
You’re very reasonable. You ought to consider running for office or at least being formally involved in the process. We need citizen involvement and fresh voices and ideas.
“You’re very reasonable. You ought to consider running for office ”
Is that still possible, to be reasonable and elected? Color me skeptical.
Unfortunately, I have to work for a living, and I can’t afford to take a pay cut or take obscene amounts of time off work to do the job right, so no thank you.
“at least being formally involved in the process”
That’s another one of our problems. That’s easier said than done. I’ve written and expressed interest in participating in a couple different boards, but nothing ever happens. I heard people have even recommended me. But that’s not how it works. It’s who you know. Scan the names on the boards. You’ll recognize a lot of them– ideally you shouldn’t.
“We need citizen involvement and fresh voices and ideas.”
That’s it. That’s the reason I even bother posting on the Dagger at all. If people will take an interest, I believe there’s enough in the nuts and bolts of the regulations to take some control back from the good old boys.
And if enough people are paying attention, trying to fix things, everyone gets held accountable, we change laws, makes new ones, and things get better. Then it doesn’t matter as much who holds the elected office.
Who is more powerful… one council person, or 10,000 citizens? Right now it’s the council person because we allow them to be.
To be reasonable and elected? Good question…perhaps initially but it sure seems to wear off fast, not sure why and perhaps afraid of the answer. It’s a perfect storm in this county of once lots of available land, a population largely conservative and therefore more prone to absolutism in terms of property rights, local politicians deeply embedded with developers in a crony system that’s run deep for at least 50 years. I do find it funny that we’re going to supposedly waive what an MO is just like that and to be almost any category including liquor stores and bars but we won’t let a guy keep ducks because he has .02 less than the required amount of land. You can’t make this stuff up.
The politicians have the power because the voters don’t take the time to study the issues and see where the candidates stand on them. Back in the 90’s we had a council woman who was the Development Queen. She kept getting re-elected by airing commercials of herself in a cow pasture, proclaiming that she wanted to preserve our rural heritage. Since the majority of people are rather stupid and lazy, she kept getting re-elected because the voters couldn’t be bothered to do any work to find out how she voted the straight developer ticket in the past. You get the government you deserve, I guess.
Interesting sequence of events. Glassman announces his interest in the US Senate seat coming vacant and a few weeks later, there’s a proposal to change the zoning rules in favor of the developers. Coincidence?
Thank you all for your well reasoned and observant comments. I hope you’ll follow through and voice your opinions to the County Council. Friends of Harford works to keep you informed. However,
democracy depends not only on an informed public, but an actively involved one.
To answer Pavel314’s question, the bill was introduced by Council President Slutzky at the request of the County Executive, meaning it was sponsored by the County Executive.
Morita Bruce
President, Friends of Harford