The Harford County Council approved the appointments of five residents to the Planning Advisory Board, four of them newcomers, during its Tuesday night meeting.
One of the new appointees is James Thornton, a county Board of Education member who was an unsuccessful candidate for county council president last year, losing in the general election to Richard Slutzky.
The other new members are former Bel Air mayor Geoffrey Close, Lizabeth Boyson and Walter Tilley. Louis Hamel Jr. is the holdover member.
The five were appointed by County Executive Barry Glassman and their terms will run with his, expiring Dec. 3, 2018. Glassman will name the board's chairman. Board members are not paid.
Established by the Harford County Charter, the planning board makes recommendations to the planning director and the County Council related to master plans, zoning maps and rules related to planning and zoning.
Board members also prepare general guidelines for use by the planning and zoning department in creating or revising master plans at least every eight years.
Another important function of the board is to review capital project requests of all county departments during the annual budget process and make recommendations on which projects to fund. This is likely to take on more significance under Glassman, who has said he wants the county to spend less on new buildings and other facilities and to reduce reliance on borrowed money.
The charter requires the board to meet at least 10 times annually.
Though all of the board's recommendations are considered advisory, the charter requires that they be transmitted to the county executive and made public and, in the case of comprehensive zoning review, be part of the record acted on by the County Council.
The last comprehensive zoning review was completed in 2009.