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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Zoning

Comprehensive Rezoning

Master Plan

Transfer of Development Right

Rural Residential

Zoning Categories and Uses

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What do we mean by Zoning?

 As a property owner, we tend to think, for the most part, that we can do what ever we want on our own land.  However, imagine the disorder if your neighbor decided to convert his or her property into a gas station in the middle of a residential area.  Zoning is the process by which local governments control the physical development of land and the kind of uses allowed on that land.  The purpose is to insure orderly development, clustering the scale and intensity of certain types of residential, commercial, business and industrial uses together with an orderly transition between these uses.  For example, even in residential zoning, it regulates whether single-family homes, townhouses or condominiums are permitted. Essentially, the purpose of zoning is to protect adjacent or nearby property owners from incompatible uses.

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. 

  The latest Master Plan for 2004 specifically lists only two priorities for Fallston:

  1.      “Maintaining the rural character is a priority”,

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”.

  The 2004 Master Plan for Fallston notes only the following three specific criteria:

  1.      “…the plan does not support expansion of the Rural Residential areas.”,

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.

  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

  Areas on the Land Use Map of Harford County  http://www.harfordcountymd.gov/PlanningZoning/Download/203.pdf in pale yellow  (see legend on map) are designated as rural residential (RR) areas (aka RR overlay or RR infill areas).  This means that the County has decided that these are the rural areas where housing will be permitted at a density of 1 house for every 2 acres.  Many properties located within the RR overlay or infill areas are still zoned agricultural.  Owners of agricultural land in these areas may choose not to rezone to RR for several reasons.  Agricultural landowners may want to continue to farm the land.  A landowner may want to defer rezoning to RR if he or she has no developer/buyer since taxes are significantly higher for RR zoned land than agricultural land.  Some agricultural landowners may decide to place their properties into agricultural preservation in exchange for payments made by the County or State.

Copyright © 2007 Greater Fallston Association, Inc.
Last modified: July 6, 2009.