Comprehensive Zoning Review

Background

(Read A Citizen's Guide to the Harford County Property Development Process by Friends of Harford to see how the parts of land use planning and the development process come together.)

Harford County has completed the 2008/2009 Comprehensive Zoning Review cycle. Any property owner wishing to change the zoning classification of his property could request it be considered. The approved changes should be consistent with the Master Plan and Zoning Code, but there are always surprises, as was true this time. The rest of the page documents the 2008/2009 process and may be of interest to the reader. Apologies for any broken links, but we are not spending much effort on it, as the CZR is over.

As of October 15, 2008, persons interested in rezoning their property were able to pick up an information package at Planning & Zoning. All applications were due by December 15, 2008 along with an $800 application fee. After an evaluation process led by Planning & Zoning, including public review hearings in April 2009, a draft bill with proposed rezoning actions went to the County Council in mid-June. The Council held public hearings over ten days in July, introduced their ammendments on August 4, 2009 and and voted for the ammended bill on August 11th.

Friends of Harford Perspective

Friends of Harford actively participated in the current Comprehensive Zoning Review process, as we did in 2005-2006. We congratulate our members for their involvement! We are still evaluating the effect of the zoning changes adopted by the Council and approved by the Executive.

Read the Friends of Harford  Report on the Comprehensive Zoning Review. See our assessment of the over 300 rezoning requests presented to the County Council.

Council meeting on August 4, 2009. The Council strictly followed In-district voting: the zoning amendments were only brought by the Council rep for his District; the Council votes were all unanimous in support of each amendment offerred by that Councilman. The entire bill was approved on August 11, 2009. There are victories and losses for each District.

Friends of Harford  does not yet have an easy to understand format for the CZR Issues and Amendments list, but here is our current complete list for your review. The first column indicates where FOH disagreed with the Planning and Zoning position in the bill as submitted to the Council. The Council President seems to have everyone in line and orderly with their issues. This was a first.

Published Plans, Reports and links