Woody Guthrie sings, “This land is your land. This land is my land.”
As a county executive, I prefer to sing it as, “This land is our land.”
When we love where we live, we don’t just sing about it. We also take care of it, preserve it, and even fight for it. But we don’t always agree on what should be done with it. That’s why so much of what local government does is land use policy.
The County Council is in the midst of comprehensive rezoning for a third of our land. They just finished two of nine regions and will vote Monday night on the third. In the next couple of years they will approve Region Plans and Rezoning Bills for the final six regions.
Our Office of Planning and Zoning has in my view done extraordinary work implementing our Plan2040 through Stakeholder Advisory Committees in the nine regions. I engage in the process in limited ways as region bills are put together for introduction to the Council, but after the Council amends and votes, I have the option of issuing line-item vetoes of those amendments. My vetoes can be overridden with five of seven Council votes.
This week I had some difficult land use meetings. I visited two groups of residents on Shot Town Road with opposing views on a recent Council amendment that I am considering vetoing. The same day I met with a landowner who succeeded in getting six Council votes to upzone land near Lake Waterford to expand an industrial business. I’m considering a veto of that as well.
That evening I met with some pretty upset residents near Homeport Farm Park off the South River. They oppose a proposal to allow a rowing club to operate there. I also had a discussion with a representative of the United States Navy about plans for their Navy Dairy Farm in Gambrills, and as I write this, I’m about to join 150 residents to discuss plans for Crownsville Hospital Memorial Park.
Decisions will be made on all of these parcels, making some folks happy and others disappointed. It’s easy to see how elected leaders of the past, and maybe some current ones, made these decisions based on self-interest. That could be as general as making friends in high places, or as specific as campaign contributions, job offers, or even gifts.
Those of us in office who abhor that kind of decision-making do our homework. We learn about the principles of land use planning and the public policy tools that reflect our values: smart growth, transportation planning, environmental protection, economic development, access to housing for all, reducing carbon emissions, and equity. We learn the strategies, and we work hard to teach them, so that the public will support implementation even when there is no short-term personal benefit.
My friends who lead Howard County, Baltimore County, Prince George’s County, Montgomery County, Charles County, and Frederick County for the most part share my values and work with similar land use tools. A few weeks ago, I was on a bus with many of them touring Baltimore County, including both sides of a thing they call the Urban Rural Demarcation Line, the URDL.
I asked County Executive Johnny Olszewski if the line is controversial, if some advocates for increasing housing supply want the land opened up to development. “They do,” he said, and went on to explain how he, an advocate for production of what he calls attainable housing, became a true believer in the smart growth principle that protects areas for farmland and open space while targeting development to where the infrastructure exists. County Executive Calvin Ball said something similar when we toured Howard County the year before.
Anne Arundel’s Plan2040 won the Maryland Department of Planning Sustainability Award. It gives us a roadmap to navigate these issues, but I know that the decisions will be even more controversial in the next two years.
We don’t have an URDL, but we have a Keep South County Rural tradition that has been challenged by developers and elected leaders from other parts of the county. Just as some of us have been educated by them on strategies for housing, redevelopment, and better infrastructure, the South County folks, particularly the farmers, will educate others about strategies for preservation and environmental restoration. Ultimately, we’ll have to do greener, smarter, more equitable development strategies everywhere, but it’s essential that we accept each others’ diversity of experience and approaches.
My visits this week with groups in the midst of land use battles were all truly constructive, for one reason. We listened to each other.
It’s what we all need to do, from the President on down.
Until next week…
Steuart Pittman
Anne Arundel County Executive