Members of the Charles County Planning Commission debated the Sustainable Growth and Agricultural Preservation Act of 2012 (SB236) and the impact it would have on the Comprehensive Plan process during a meeting on Monday night. The discussion was whether Tier Four implementation would cause a delay in the process.
The legislation requires the counties to establish mapped “Tier” areas for sewer and septic use throughout the county or, if they do not volunteer to adopt the tiers, no residential major subdivisions greater than five lots are allowed to be built outside of sewered areas.
During the meeting, Vice Chairman Joe Richard, who was acting chairman for the meeting since Planning Commission Chairman Courtney Edmonds was absent, played ‘musical chairs’ with Secretary Bob Mitchell. Richard would relinquish the chair to make a motion, in accordance with Robert’s Rules of Order and Mitchell would take over as chair until the motion was finished. The process occurred so frequently, even in cases where they would relinquish the chair to comment, that it became hard to figure out who was chair.
The discussion over SB236 went on for over two hours, where Planning and Growth Management Director Peter Aluotto and Planning Director Steve Ball found themselves reminding the planning commission, several times, that they had no say in the process and could only make recommendations.
The debate occurred over a provision regarding density requirements in “Tier IV” and what the planning commission’s recommendation would be to the county. Richard and Mitchell expressed frustration over the discussion, saying that the planning commission has to expedite the comprehensive plan process. “Tier IV” areas are described as areas planned or zoned for agriculture, resource protection, preservation or conservation, dominated by agriculture, forest lands or other natural areas or areas that are Rural Legacy and Priority Preservation Areas
The commission debated whether to suspend the comprehensive plan process until the commissioners were briefed on the implementation of SB236. The commissioners will decide on the implementation; however the planning commission felt the tiers and the bill itself resulted in downzoning in the county. Richard commented that he felt the plan punished rural counties and areas like Charles County and said SB236 has no impact on Baltimore, Montgomery County or Prince George’s County.
The tiers ultimately decide what density requirements will be for zones in the county in the future, which would have a direct impact on the comprehensive plan. If the comprehensive plan were to go forward on its scheduled timeline, the county would have to come back later to amend the comprehensive plan to implement the tier requirements. Since the planning board has no say over the implementation of the density requirements, it could delay completion of the comprehensive plan until 2013.
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