Friends of Harford is dedicated to a vision of Harford County as a community where an exceptional quality of life is achieved through respecting the environment and the needs of all citizens, by protecting natural resources, improving neighborhoods and preserving open space and our rural character.
Friends of Harford provides information to help you influence land use decisions being made about your community and the rest of the County. It is your decision whether and how to use this information to guide your county officials in making good choices.
Current News
- PlanMaryland Presentation (May 8, 2012) On Thursday, May 31, Richard Josephson, MD Dept of Planning, will present PlanMaryland at 7:00 pm at Harford Community College, Chesapeake Center Dining Room. The event is sponsored by AAUW and LWV Harford. Bring your questions.
- FOH Annual Report for 2011 (April 17, 2012) Read the highlights of our prior year.
- Master Plan Amendments (Mar 17, 2012) On February 21, the Harford County Council publicly introduced 42 amendments to the Master Plan. Since amendments can make huge changes to a bill, it's crucial that the public be able to read them. Since the County has not posted these amendments on their website, we are putting them on ours. They were provided by Councilman Joe Woods, District B.
The text of the amendments is on the title line link above. Three amendments say "as shown on the attached maps" Those links follow:
Amendments 43 through 50 were added later before the Master Plan (Bill 12-01) was approved by the County Council on March 6. Amendments 31 and 39 were withdrawn and replaced by (weakened) Amendments 49 and 50.
Amendment 42 was disapproved in spite of its strong defense by Councilmen Dion Guthrie and Joe Woods. This means the detailed Community Area Plan developed by the Joppa/Joppatown Community Council, and which has been part of the last two Master Plans, has been killed. The similarly-detailed community-developed Edgewood Community Area Plan has also been eliminated.
All other amendments were approved and are now part of the Master Plan.
- 2011/12 Master Plan and Land Use Element Plan: TOO LATE TO ACT! (Feb 18, 2012)
The draft 2012 Master Plan (link on title) was released on January 3, 2012 under Legislative Bill 12-01 for final public review. Please note that the term "Master Plan" actually includes the Master Plan itself, the Land Use Element Plan, specific Community Area Plans for each of Harford's 12 "Community Areas", and an Implementation Plan of actions to be taken. The public hearing was held on February 7 in the Council Chambers. Read our testimony.
Friends of Harford's major concerns still remaining include:
-- The Land Use Map must provide adequate detail. It's impossible to tell from the current map where individual property lines are with respect to the boundaries of the development envelope, rural villages, low intensity vs. industrial use areas, etc.
-- The proposed expansion of the Development Envelope between Aberdeen and Havre de Grace should not be allowed. Expansion now is unneeded, cripples revitalization of existing areas and destroys farms.
-- The Plan must call for our properties to be protected from unwarranted and intrusive lighting, glare, noise, vibration and dust/fumes/smoke. Unless the Plan specifically identifies the need for these quality-of-life protections, they will likely continue to be ignored.
- Visit Friends of Harford's Master Plan page to learn more.
- Read Friends of Harford's final comments to the County Executive on the Master Plan, dated Nov 9, 2011. Most of these comments are still valid.
- Read Friends of Harford's Guiding Principles for Master Plan Development.
- Visit the Harford County Master Plan Update page for all the supporting documents and history of this plan development.
- Maryland Watershed Implementation Plan (Feb 3, 2012) In December 2011, the preliminary draft of Maryland’s Phase II Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) was provided to the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) to review the draft and confirm that the proposed strategies would meet the Bay TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) goals. Based on comments from EPA, the draft of Maryland’s WIP was released for public review and comment on January 26, 2012. The public review and comment period is open from January 26, 2012 through March 9, 2012. Harford County's plan is here.
- Harford 2013 Annual Transit Plan (Jan 25, 2012) Each year, Harford Transit LINK develops a plan outlining transportation goals for Harford County. This year, they are using the new technology of SPIGIT to get your input about these goals within our 2013 Annual Transit Plan. Share your thoughts. This community will close Friday, January 27, 2012 at 4 pm EST.
- Harford County 2013 Budget (Jan 25, 2012) The County Executive will take recommendations from the citizens, the Spending Affordability Committee, Director of Administration, Budget Office, and Treasurer, and will submit the FY 13 Proposed Operating and Capital Budgets on April 1st to the County Council. Citizens may take advantage of this on-line community link to provide comments by Thursday, March 15, 2012 at 4 pm EST.
What You Can Do
You can influence these decisions, but only if you choose to get involved. Once you decide that you want to actively work to improve our quality of life, we urge you to study the issues, then contact county decision makers, write your local newspaper and attend and participate in:
- Community Council meetings scheduled monthly for your area
- County Council meetings held most Tuesday evenings in Bel Air
- Zoning hearings or
- Community Input Meetings scheduled for your area.
JOIN US or DONATE. Help preserve our quality of life.
Friends of Harford
P.O. Box 1005
Abingdon, Maryland 21009
Email: Comments@friendsofharford.com