Residents of agricultural (AG) or rural residential (RR) zoned land around the County from Perryman to Joppa to Whiteford have noticed new housing developments that do not conform to current AG/RR zoning. That is caused by “grandfathering” old lots. Back before the county was “discovered” as a bedroom community and before the creation of the interstate to pave the way north, locals wanted growth. The opening of the first chain grocery store on Main Street in Bel Air was cause for excitement. No longer did one have to drive to Baltimore for large grocery selections. The first housing developments brought delight with new neighbors to welcome. For very little money landowners dreamed up subdivisions on their small and large properties and submitted the plans to the County. Wetlands, adequate public facilities, overcrowding, congestion, zoning categories and minimum lot sizes were unknown words. Aside from the towns of Bel Air, Aberdeen and Havre de Grace, the county was almost all agricultural land. And then in 1957 came zoning, rules and regulations. Frontier days were over.
Current zoning law gives a development plan a 2 year shelf life (with some extensions available) before it is no longer valid. But there’s a loophole or two. In 1977, the zoning code was amended to allow all those old development plans to be built any time in the future that the landowner, his heirs or any person who purchased the property desired. The development had to be recorded prior to February 8, 1977. Those special developments submitted prior to 1977 only required a lot size of 20,000 square feet instead of current lot and density requirements required by Harford County’s current Zoning Code. We suspect that this provision was inserted in the zoning code for perhaps a short time to allow landowners to develop the properties they recorded in good faith without unduly penalizing them with the much more stringent new laws.
Friends of Harford believes that it is now time to stop this forgiveness for development. It is time to make everyone adhere to all the laws and regulations that have been crafted. 26 years is long enough! 26 years is ample time for these parcels to have been developed. There have been 26 years of Master Plans and Comprehensive rezonings from which these old plans have been sheltered. We ask the County Council to make a sane revision of this section of the code. There have been at least three new developments built under these old rules and more are bound to come. Let’s clean this up before we attempt a Master Plan since we do not know where or how many of these time capsules exist.