Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Agency Review topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
County staff: state environmental reviews may apply but county site‑plan approval still requires months of work
Summary
Planning staff said applicants have submitted material to state agencies but not to the county; detailed site‑plan review and public meetings make it unlikely an approval could occur in under six months, and county-level agency comments and conditions can require additional studies or conditions.
Jason Brinkley, Calvert County director of planning and zoning, told the joint work session that applicants had submitted materials to state agencies but ‘‘none of them have filed for any application with the county’’ and county detailed site‑plan review — once submitted — typically takes at least six months and often longer.
Staff and Environmental Planning Division staff (Colleen Brumman) explained the layering of reviews — DNR for forest conservation, MDE for environmental controls, and sometimes a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers jurisdictional determination for wetlands — and said those agency reviews may trigger mitigation but do not remove the county’s ability to impose zoning conditions such as requiring independent third‑party studies or decommissioning surety. Brinkley said some conditions (for example requiring an independent study selected or reviewed by the Environmental Commission) could be written into approvals or placed in the zoning ordinance as conditions.
Why it matters: Planning staff said the county could not reasonably finish local approvals in a matter of weeks; absent submitted applications the earliest feasible approval timeline is measured in months, giving the county time to consider text amendments or conditions but leaving residents concerned about a fast‑moving process.
