Harford County's development envelope could be stretched for the first time in 14 years, while patches of residentially-zoned land in the rural Fallston area may be taken back to agricultural zoning.
The county's planning and zoning department recently released online its draft master plan for 2012, and will hold an informational workshop on it from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday at Harford Community College's Chesapeake Center.
The plan is available at http://www.harfordcountymd.gov/PlanningZoning, under the heading "2012 Master Plan and Land Use Element Plan Update." Comments are being accepted until Nov. 10.
Major land use changes include opening up several pockets of land, totaling about 730 acres, for low-intensity development in the Havre de Grace and Fallston areas; moving five pieces of land in Forest Hill and Fallston from the rural residential designation to agricultural; and acknowledging the expansion of Harford Community College west of Thomas Run Road.
The biggest change targets an area between Havre de Grace and Aberdeen that Pete Gutwald, planning and zoning director, said has already been marked for development by both cities.
It includes two sites in the southeastern pocket between I-95 and Route 155, backing up to Havre de Grace city limits.
In Fallston, meanwhile, about 30 acres at the eastern corner of Routes 147 and 152 would be designated for medium-intensity development. Two smaller pockets on either side of Route 1, just south of Route 152, however, have been changed from high-intensity development to agricultural land.
Both the Havre de Grace and Fallston changes are outside the development envelope.
The stretches of land that would be removed from the prospect of development, meanwhile, are plots in Fallston and Forest Hill that have long been zoned as rural residential, around the junction of Route 152 and Pleasantville Road; west of Routes 165 and 152; the junction of Routes 165 and 23; and an area north of Jarrettsville Road and Route 24.
Gutwald said the last time the development envelope was pushed was in 1997, when it was extended along Route 22.
While the master plan is often presented as a vision of what the county would like to see, this one may be more reactive.
Many of the land use proposals this time are reflections of zoning changes that have already been made or development patterns that are already happening, Gutwald acknowledged.
The addition of more low-intensity development parcels in Havre de Grace "is a recognition of what's going on in the municipality…They recognized that as their growth area," Gutwald said Tuesday.
The addition of developable areas around Route 1 is also in recognition of existing zoning in the Fallston commercial corridor, he said.
"Usually land use follows land use, but it was a combination of further defining the commercial corridor and what's out there," he said. "It's always been a question of what's going on out there."
Gutwald said although the master plan technically expands the development envelope, the expansion is in areas where it would not be considered surprising.
"A lot of people won't consider that expansion," he said, adding he believes anti-sprawl groups like Harford County's branch of 1000 Friends of Maryland would not object to the land use changes.
"Whether you agree or disagree the development envelope should be expanded, it was obviously a topic [of conversation]," he said.
Gutwald also said he thinks other land-use goals and implementation programs outweigh the potential cost of expanding development.
"What we did was recognize existing plans and programs that are out there right now that are addressing some of those concerns," he said.
He said whether the 2012 plan makes drastic changes could be open to interpretation.
"I think the rural residential [areas], taking them off the map, that could be viewed as a significant change," he said.