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Garrett Park authorizes mayor to work on multi-municipality letter seeking amendment to state land-use law
Summary
The council authorized Mayor Keller to work with neighboring municipalities on a letter urging the Maryland legislature to remove a 'single-family' constraint in the state law that limits municipal regulation of multi-family construction; Councilmember Bennett asked to reword a paragraph referencing county planning's Attainable Housing Strategies.
Garrett Park’s Town Council authorized Mayor Keller on Sept. 9 to work with other municipalities on a multi-jurisdictional letter to the Montgomery County state delegation seeking a technical amendment to Maryland’s land-use enabling statute (Land Use Article §20-509).
Mayor Keller explained that a 2006 state law gives municipalities authority to set certain setback and floor-area-ratio requirements for single-family housing, but that same enabling language applies only to single-family construction; as a result, towns may lack equivalent authority over duplexes, triplexes and quadplexes if county or state rules change multi-family allowances. Several Montgomery County municipalities are coordinating to ask the state legislature to remove the 'single-family' constraint so municipal regulations can apply equitably across housing types.
Councilmember Todd Eisenstadt moved to approve the draft multi-municipality letter and Councilmember Lisa Max seconded. Councilmember Gerilee Bennett said she was concerned with language in the third paragraph of the draft, noting Garrett Park did not have an established position on Montgomery County Planning’s Attainable Housing Strategies. The minutes record that the council authorized Mayor Keller to work with the other municipalities to reword that section of the draft letter.
The minutes do not record a detailed vote tally for the authorization; they record the motion, the expressed concern and the authorization to reword the paragraph prior to wider circulation.
