Rural task force zeroing in on zoning priorities
Draft agritourism bill to be proposed
The task force established earlier this year to propose changes to Charles County’s land use policies and regulations that affect agricultural businesses met last week to continue developing their list of recommendations, buoyed by the news that an agritourism bill they crafted will be submitted to the General Assembly next year.
Task force chair Brianna Bowling presented a list of five issues that she believed represented the highest priority items from among the 93 individual suggestions previously submitted by task force members. Bowling said the list represented a synthesis of the key concerns expressed by members of the task force’s legislative subcommittee.
“We have a great opportunity in front of us in terms of trying to make some positive changes for farmers, and I want to make sure that happens,” Bowling said. “The day that we end this task force is the day that [the Planning and Growth Management Department] and the [county] commissioners will get to work on actually enacting our recommendations. Until we end this task force, they can’t start work on it.”
The items introduced by Bowling included proposed changes to the county’s guidelines for private and public roads, formal definitions of agritourism and ecotourism, the establishment of an agriculture advisory council, designating someone within PGM to serve as a liaison with the county’s agricultural community and pressing ahead with the comprehensive overhaul of the county’s zoning ordinances and subdivision regulations.
Tim Lessner, a board member representing the Waldorf-based planning and engineering firm Lorenzi Dodds & Gunnill, proposed several items for inclusion on the high priority list as well. The members approved Lessner’s suggestion to recommend the county commissioners review the section of the county code dealing with the construction of “accessory uses and structures,” which encompasses the proper placement of barns, horse stables, produce stands, campers and storage buildings, among other structures.
The task force also approved Lessner’s suggestion to recommend a review of the size limitations on subdivisions built on land that the county’s septic tier map identifies as Tier 4, or appropriate for preservation or conservation. The task force will review other items suggested by Lessner in a future meeting.
Just a day earlier, the Charles County Board of Commissioners voted to include a draft bill proposed by the task force in its legislative package for the 2020 General Assembly. The proposed bill would amend the state’s public safety code to exempt Charles County property owners from some building code requirements for structures that are used for agritourism functions.
As of Oct. 1, state law exempts 10 counties from requiring property owners to obtain a building permit before they can convert part of an existing building for agritourism uses, provided that occupancy is capped at 200 people. Task force members had argued that Charles County should be added to that list as a way to encourage the growth of agritourism businesses.
“I think the biggest victory so far is getting the ... state legislation to go forth to the state level,” task force member Bonnie Hochman Rothell told the task force. “That will allow us to have agritourism facilities on agricultural property ... without needing to comply with normal building code requirements.”
Rothell said that she believed the success of the proposed amendment to state law could hinge on whether the task force can agree on a definition of “agritourism,” which it is still in the process of hammering out.
So far, the task force has also identified several long-term concerns that it would like to see the county commissioners address at some point in the future, including the establishment of an appeals process for planning decisions and changes to the county code that more accurately and clearly define agriculture related terminology.
The resolution that established the rural planning and zoning task force requires it to submit its recommendations to the county commissioners no later than Nov. 1.
The task force is scheduled to meet four more times before then.