Local Land Use Planning and Zoning in Maryland

This plan inventories the community’s make-up: who lives there, what the businesses and industries are, the population’s demographic make-up, that sort of thing. To create this, we survey the community’s physical and economic assets, The plan will include a budget and a designated start date for all such budgets

budgeting for long-term projects

Regulate the zoning and permitted land use documented by a comprehensive plan.

Rules that include minimum lot size, dwelling size, setbacks and boundaries. A calculation for the number of people who can reside in a given space

The physical features and contours. This includes the type of soil, the location of wetlands and springs, floodplains, rocks, trees, other vegetation. These features are relevant to where units can be built, where the utilities and pipelines can be located, and their presence or absence also impacts the overall look of the subdivision.

Fees the local joes will charge you to offset any environmental impact to the area

usually mixed use that allow both residential and commercial development

This is filed with the planning boards and show all uses within the development.

halts the construction of a project or projects

a permitted deviation in the requirements of the zoning ordinance. It could be something as small and insignificant as a nine-and-a-half-foot setback where a 10-foot setback is required. Or it could be something more significant. A property owner who wants a variance

__ allows the owner to use the land for a purpose that would otherwise be prohibited by the current zoning. To get a use variance approved, the owner has to show that the current zoning restrictions are causing the owner unnecessary hardship. The owner would have to prove four specific criteria:

That the economic benefit or use of the property is eliminated due to the zoning. This claim would have to be accompanied by financial evidence of some sort.
That the hardship is unique to this property and not something endemic to the neighborhood.
That the requested variance will not alter the essential character of the neighborhood.
That the hardship that is being claimed is not self-inflicted.

allows the owner to use the land in a way that is not normally allowed by the physical or dimensional requirements of the current zoning. We had one come up just last week where the owner of a lot wanted to build a home on a property that was zoned for 10,000-square-foot lots. The lot was only 9,585. We had to determine if the variance would be:

Undesirable or a detriment to the nearby properties
Achieved by any other means
Substantial
Detrimental to the physical or environmental conditions in the neighborhood

if someone wants to use a property in a way that isn’t really in accordance with zoning regulations, but provided a service that was in the public interest, like a golf course.

When zoning is first placed in an area or an area is rezoned, so the zoning is new