The Midshore Riverkeeper Conservancy announced that in a fourteen page opinion issued last week the Queen Anne’s County Circuit Court ruled against the QAC County Commissioners in their rezoning of nearly 600 acres of agricultural lands for commercial and residential development.
The Court’s decision, treating the County’s Comprehensive Plan as binding on such zoning actions, is an important victory in the State-wide effort to prevent rural sprawl from destroying productive farmland.
Tim Junkin, Executive Director of Midshore Riverkeeper Conservancy reflects on the decision: “MRC is gratified that the court has taken an important first step and overturned, by summary judgment, the Queen Anne’s Commissioners’ illegal attempt to rezone the 213 acre Whalou property located across Route 50 from Chesapeake College, and to require county justification for the other rezonings. The citizens of the county, after a deliberate and thoughtful process, adopted a Comprehensive Plan that restricted that property to agricultural use. The county commissioners acted beyond their authority in cavalierly rezoning the property in a way that is inconsistent with that plan. Going forward, all local governments must be mindful of the essential need for smart growth planning, and not be subject to the pressures of individual corporate or industrial interests.”
In November of 2011, the County Commissioners enacted the rezoning by a 3-2 vote, over the objections of Commissioners Dunmyer and Simmons and of neighboring residents adversely affected by the changes. Four parcels of farm property, two near Wye Mills, one in Chester, and one near Queen Anne, were rezoned. The rezoning would have opened the way to drastic alterations in the rural landscape that could diminish water quality and increase traffic congestion.
Following the Commissioners’ vote in November, fourteen residents, joined by four environmental/conservation organizations, filed their lawsuit alleging that the rezonings were invalid because they were not consistent with the county’s own Comprehensive Plan. That Plan designates these lands for rural agricultural uses and not for intensive development. The plaintiffs relied particularly on the requirement in Maryland’s Smart and Sustainable Growth Act of 2009 that local jurisdictions must implement and follow the comprehensive plans they adopt.
The case was heard by Judge Sidney S. Campen, Jr. in March of 2012. In his opinion earlier this week, he ruled in favor of the plaintiffs’ contention that the Comprehensive Plan was controlling and that land use decisions had to be consistent with the Plan. Judge Campen invalidated one of the rezonings outright, concerning the 213 acre Whalou farm, and ruled that the county commissioners would have to provide evidence that the other three were consistent with the Comprehensive Plan in order to support their actions.
Plaintiffs Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), The Midshore Riverkeepers, Chesapeake Wildlife Heritiage, and Queen Anne’s Conservation Association all expressed their satisfaction with the ruling.
“We hope that all Maryland jurisdictions are paying attention to this case,” said CBF Maryland Executive Director Alison Prost. “Judge Campen’s decision is significant because this is the first test of legislation passed in 2009 designed to ensure that local jurisdictions’ zoning decisions are consistent with the county’s comprehensive plan. That is important because comprehensive plans protect the quality of life and rural fabric of local communities. Comprehensive plans protect against unchecked growth, which could damage efforts underway to reduce pollution and restore water quality as part of Maryland’s blueprint for clean water.”
“We are extremely pleased with the decision of the Circuit Court in Bilek v. County Commissioners of Queen Anne’s County, said Jay Falstad, Executive Director of Queen Anne’s Conservation Association. “ The Court has ruled, in clear and concise terms that leave no room for misunderstanding, that zoning decisions by a county must be consistent with the county’s Comprehensive Plan — as the Maryland legislature mandated in 2009. This decision is a significant victory both for good land use planning State-wide, and for the protection of agriculture in Queen Anne’s County against harmful development. Of the four rezonings at issue in the Bilek case, the Court has issued a final order invalidating the rezoning of the Whalou property at Routes 50/213 and has ruled that the rezonings of the other three properties are prima facie invalid under the standards in the 2009 legislation. Because the County Commissioners did not, and cannot, claim that their rezonings comply with these standards, we are confident that these three rezonings will meet, after trial, the same fate as the Whalou rezoning.”
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