Text Amendments Proposed to Make Zoning Rules Fair

By Kenneth C. Rossignol
ST. MARY’S TODAY

LEONARDTOWN (Dec. 11, 2007) --- Those who have been trying to upgrade their mobile homes and have run into a brick wall of the St. Mary’s zoning laws will finally get a fair deal.

At the Tuesday meeting of the Board of St. Mary’s Commissioners, Commissioner Dan Raley (D. Great Mills) stated that he will be working with the county’s land use director to prepare a text amendment to the county zoning ordinance to allow upgrading of existing mobile homes.

When the last revision of the zoning ordinance was accomplished, mobile homes located outside of mobile home parks were designated as non-conforming uses. 

Therefore, when a homeowner wishes to remove an older mobile home and replace it with a newer one or a double-wide, the homeowner is limited to a replacement that is no more than 50 percent larger than the old one.

Marquerite Barnes, of California, attempted to replace her old 1960’s model single-wide mobile home located on Millstone Landing Road with a new one last summer and followed the proper procedure for obtaining a permit by applying for a variance with the St. Mary’s Board of Zoning Appeals.

Barnes was turned down by the board despite a statement at the meeting by Land Use and Growth Management Director Denis Canavan that the Board had the authority to grant a variance.

Raley noted that Commissioner Jarboe has stated he favors this change and Commissioner Kenny Dement expressed his support as well at the meeting.  Raley said he would be working with the land use director to draft the amendment so as to not prevent people from upgrading their homes, many times which have deteriorated to the point of being unsafe.

St. Mary’s Commissioner Larry Jarboe (R. Golden Beach) has proposed a similar change to the county’s zoning laws which would help homeowners such as the Helldorfers of St. George’s Island who were denied the ability to restore a mobile home to their land following the devastating damage done to their property by Hurricane Isabel.

Jarboe said that the zoning ordinance which currently only gives homeowners one year to replace their non-conforming use structures should be changed to give property owners five years instead.

“We never contemplated such involved processes going through the various agencies,” said Jarboe.  Jarboe noted that when the land use regulation was first drawn up, there were not such agencies as the Critical Areas, FEMA, MEMA, the National Flood Insurance Program or any idea that replacing one’s structures would be so difficult or involved. 

“It is much more intelligent and realistic to give property owners more time to restore their property and not have government play ‘gotcha’ with a rule that doesn’t make sense,” said Jarboe.