All five Howard County Council members want to limit the times county zoning regulations can be changed, even as they struggle with a difficult example of the practice they want to restrict.
A bill set for introduction April 7 would restrict the introduction of Zoning Regulation Amendments, known as ZRA's, to September and March in an attempt to impose order on what chairman Courtney Watson said has become a distracting stream of proposals.
A zoning regulation amendment changes the use of all land in one zoning category, a device used in the past by county zoning officials to clear up an ambiguity or alter the use of an entire zone.
But in the past few years, zoning lawyers have started asking for ZRA's on behalf of clients who want to use a single plot of land for a purpose it's not zoned for.
The more common way to change zoning on one lot is to go before the county Zoning Board and prove that the current zoning is a mistake, or that the neighborhood has changed substantially since the zoning was assigned.
Some, like former County Council member Angela Beltram, have charged that the practice of using ZRA's has become a back-door way to do spot zoning, which the county has tried to avoid. It argues such changes can have unintended consequences because it has such a broad effect on various parcels.
"I have a concern over any red-headed Eskimo ZRA," said Watson, describing proposals to change a law to benefit one person. "I believe even zoning attorneys will tell you that a ZRA is a viable way to change the zoning on a property."
By restricting the times such changes can be introduced, county officials and residents groups can study them in a more organized, comprehensive way, Watson said.
"We sometimes feel besieged by the number and complexity of the ZRAs, particularly when they occur randomly amid all our other legislative work," Watson wrote to constituents in an e-mail Thursday announcing that the bill would be introduced.
Beltram said she supports the bill.
"I think it's a good idea because we're getting all this piecemeal stuff and I think the council ought to take a global view."
Ironically, council members are to vote on the kind of proposal the new bill would regulate at the same April 7 meeting.
Daniil Kostovetskiy, owner of Emilia's Acrobatics, Gymnastics and Cheerleading of Columbia, wants to build a larger facility on land near U.S. 1 in North Laurel where current zoning would not allow it as a free-standing building.
He's requested a change for the entire zoning category, called Corridor Employment, that includes the site he wants.
The council discussed the case at a work session last week and several members seemed sympathetic despite recommendations to reject the bill by both planning director Marsha S. McLaughlin and the Planning Board.
Council members Calvin Ball and Jen Terrasa, both Democrats like Watson, seemed sympathetic to Kostovetskiy's plight, noting that his project would take only two acres and that the CE zone is new and might need changes.
Sang Oh, the gym owner's lawyer, argued that zoning changes the county made along U.S. 1 several years ago to encourage redevelopment have made land so expensive, his client couldn't find another parcel he could afford. Oh had no immediate comment on Watson's bill.
larry.carson@baltsun.com