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2. The following Capital article
is about House Bill 661 sponsored by Wheeler Baker. To contact Delegate
Baker e-mail him or write him: wheeler_baker@house.state.md.usMaryland
State Delegate
Critical bay law slipping By TIM HYLAND, Staff Writer Of all the obvious threats to the Chesapeake Bay, maybe none seem so innocuous as 18 boat slips that will soon be built along Maynadier Creek in Crownsville. But to environmentalists and some lawmakers, three recent court decisions -- including one that allowed Belvoir Farms residents to build the slips -- are threatening the 1984 landmark Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Law. Bills before the General Assembly, however, may help repair the damage. Dels. Michael H. Weir, D-Baltimore, Wheeler R. Baker, D-Kent Island, and George W. Owings III, D-Owings have sponsored a bill in the House to clarify Critical Area rules and make it more difficult for variances to be granted. "I think the Critical Areas program is the cornerstone of the bay cleanup," said Mr. Weir, who has served as House chairman of the Joint Committee on Chesapeake Bay Critical Areas since the law's passage. "Anybody who thinks that we can clean up the bay without sticking to the requirements of the Critical Area law has got to be out of their mind." The bills would toughen the law by: Forbidding a zoning board from comparing pre-law uses of property with proposed new ones in determining whether an applicant is being denied a use common to others in the Critical Area. Requiring applicants to prove they are suffering unwarranted harm; are being denied a use commonly enjoyed by others; haven't created their own hardship, and the variance would be in harmony with the spirit of the law. Requiring zoning boards to consider the entire parcel, and structures already existing on it, when determining if the applicant is suffering an unreasonable deprivation. The identical Senate version, sponsored by Sen. Roy Dyson, D-St. Mary's, passed last week. The House bill, however, remains mired in the Environmental Matters Committee. Mr. Baker said the bill's intent is simple: to save the Critical Area law, and the bay, from possible damage wrought by judicial interpretation. "We think the law was put in place for a good reason," he said. That's certainly the opinion of the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Commission, which regulates building in the 1,000-foot buffer along the bay and its tributaries. The three court decisions sent the panel reeling. "What the court did is change 50 years of zoning law," said Executive Director Ren Serey "They said variances may be granted if the standards (of the law) are met only generally." On Oct. 30, the county Board of Appeals approved the request by the Belvoir Farms Homeowners Association to build 18 boat slips along the tributary of the Severn River. In July, the board decided a Crownsville man could build a house on the southern end of his 2.3 acres along the Severn. The commission also lost a third case last year, similar to the Belvoir Farms case, involving a Talbot County waterfront property. The commission argued unsuccessfully that state and county laws prohibited the three projects. It appealed the July decision. A decision could come at any time. Robert Shade, president of the Belvoir Farms Homeowners Association, said residents already had boating access to buoys in the creek. But he said boat slips -- which concentrate boats in fewer areas -- are more "environmentally benign" than the buoys. He said residents never expected to be involved in a precedent-setting case. "We're not looking to be pioneers," Mr. Shade said. When originally passed, the Critical Areas law declared the shoreline a "valuable, fragile and sensitive part" of the watershed, and that "human activity can have a particularly immediate and adverse impact on water quality and natural habitats." It mandated that all projects within 1,000 feet of the bay and tributaries meet standards to mitigate such impacts. It was, and is, a landmark land use law, Mr. Serey said. Assistant State's Attorney General Marianne Mason said the recent decisions fundamentally changed how zoning law has been interpreted. Courts are now allowing applicants arguing they would be "deprived of a use" permitted to others to cite structures built before the Critical Area law. And applicants must only show they are being denied a "reasonable" use. "It's reasonable if they can convince the regional zoning board that it is," said Ms. Mason, counsel to the Critical Area Commission. A strong state law, invulnerable to weakening interpretation, is essential if continued efforts to clean the bay are to be worthwhile, Mr. Weir said. "When the program fails, we might as well pack our tents and forget about cleaning up the bay," he said. Published March 26, 2001, The
Capital, Annapolis, Md.
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