Annual Meeting: The Annual Meeting of the Greater Fallston Association will take place on Thursday, December 3, 2009 at 7:00 pm at the Grandview Christian Church, 2022 Fallston Rd, Fallston, MD 2104, 2nd floor meeting room. All are welcome to attend! |
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is Comprehensive
Rezoning and why should I be concerned? Approximately every 8 years, Harford County undertakes an
extensive review of zoning categories and allows any property owner to submit a
request for a change in zoning. This
is the largest potential change in zoning at any one time.
Unlike other requests for a change in zoning that are usually handled by
Planning and Zoning meeting the strict guidelines of Planning and Zoning law,
these zoning changes are legislatively approved or denied by a vote of our
elected County Council representatives. The
County Council has the power to put any zoning category in any area. The only
criterion specified in the law is that the
zoning changes must comply with the intent of the Master Plan. While we respect the integrity of all our elected Council members, strong lobbying efforts by property owners and developers and the lack of community opposition can lead to unwanted consequences. What is the Master
Plan and what are the provisions for Fallston? The Master Plan a policy guide reviewed and revised every eight years and is used by the County to defines the long term goals for Harford County and provides direction for addressing future growth, revitalization, adequate public facilities (roads, schools, libraries, etc.) economic development and the protection of natural resources, agricultural lands and historic resources. Each community, such as Fallston participates in formulating the Master Plan and sets priorities for its area. 2. “Maintaining the quality and safety of the waters delineated by the Water Source Protection Areas in the Winters Run Watershed is also a priority”. 2. “…expansion of the Development Envelope and Rural Villages is not supported by this Plan”, 3. “…no additional commercial zoning will be supported…unless...it is determined there is a need for additional commercial land.”. What is a
Transfer
of Development Right or TDR? Under § 267-53 of the
Zoning Code, agricultural landowners, in general, are allowed subdivide their
property into smaller 2 acre lots according to the following Table 1.
Instead of developing
(i.e. building houses on the property), an agricultural landowner may decide to
sell (transfer) the development rights to another party, permanently forfeiting
the ability to develop his or her agricultural land in the future.
This is a tool used by the County to preserve agricultural land.
The agricultural landowner or farmer receives a significant sum of money
in exchange for agreeing not to develop on the agricultural/farmland. The party
that buys the development right (now a transferred right), uses that right to
develop or build houses in certain areas of the County (a Transfer Development
Right (TDR) receiving area) that
requires a development right in order to have permission to build in these
designated areas. These areas
are designated as rural residential infill areas on the Land Use Map of Harford
County (located in Fallston, Joppa, Jarrettsville and Forest Hill) What is the Rural
Residential (RR) Infill/Overlay Area |
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