On July 22, 2024, the County Council’s Planning, Housing, and Parks [PHP] Committee held its third Work Session [WS] on the Attainable Housing Strategies [AHS] report submitted by the Planning Board to the Council on June 14. [Ed note: These notes were prepared by Clare Murphy, a member of the PRA AHS committee.]
As in the first two Work Sessions, the three committee members participated in the meeting: Andrew Friedson, Committee Chair and President of the Council; Will Jawando (via zoom), At Large Council Member [CM]; and Natali Fani-Gonźalez, District 6 CM. The Committee expects to make final recommendations to the full Council in the fall.
As in past sessions, the WS was led by members of Council staff, including its Legislative Attorney and Legislative Analysts who presented their assessment of the last three sections of the Planning Board’s report. Staff gave their suggestions to accept Planning’s proposals or to make changes to them. Planning Board and Department employees were there and provided clarification and information when asked by Committee Members or staff.
The July 17th Memorandum from the committee staff to the committee members details the Report sections discussed at this WS.
Planning Report Sections Discussed:
- Large Scale Attainable Housing [AH] – four-story [or more] mixed-use, live/work buildings, stacked flats, and small apartment buildings. Planning recommended and Council staff agreed to use the master plan process to identify opportunities to rezone properties along the Growth Corridors for higher intensity residential development. [Ed note: This could include portions of Parkwood.]
- Plan Reviews and Subdivision Process. – Planning recommended and Council staff agreed to revise site plan reviews for some large scale development and to streamline subdivision approval process for projects of 19 or fewer units. This included allowing some projects without frontage.
- Parking. Planning recommended and Council staff agreed to several plans to reduce the minimum parking requirements for AH development but stressed that there’s no prohibition to providing more parking. CM Friedson stressed that parking is a big issue with residents and should be further reviewed.
- Residential Driveway Standards. Planning recommended establishing narrower widths for AH projects. CM Friedson questioned this recommendation and suggested that Planning get more data on latest construction projects.
- Street Trees and Tree Canopy. Planning recommended exploring ways to reduce tree spacing in the right of way. CM Friedson said this issue needs a “deep dive beyond AH” and needs to be analyzed further.
- Fire and Rescue Standards. Planning is concerned that Commercial Standards, which are stricter than residential, will be applied to AH multiplex projects, thereby reducing the number of housing units built.
- Storm Water Management. Planning recommends updating the current code to require SWM for multiplex buildings. [Ed note. There wasn’t much discussion on this topic.]
- Catalyst Policies and Programs. Planning recommended several programs to incentivize homeowners to convert their properties to multiplexes, such as tax refunds, loans, and development of a “toolkit”. CM Friedson said this issue is much broader than zoning and should be removed from the AH plan. He said it’s an economic issue. CM Fani-Gonzalez said it will be addressed soon.
- Impact Taxes. Planning noted that minimizing taxes on AH projects will “accelerate” production of them. This matter will be addressed at the Council’s 2024-2028 Growth and Infrastructure Policy this fall.
- HOAs and Municipalities. Council staff and CM Friedson stressed that the County can’t override these entities’ zoning controls. They suggest exploring ways to remove prohibitions to AH and to educate municipalities on AH. [Ed note. There was a lot less emphasis on getting the State to address these issues than there had been in earlier Work Sessions.]
Council Members’ Questions and Concerns
- CM Jawando attended via zoom and didn’t make any comments or ask any questions.
- CM Fani-Gonźalez made a few comments and didn’t ask any questions.
- CM and Committee Chair Friedson led the Work Session and asked a lot of questions of the Council staff and Planning employees.
Next Steps
- The Council plans to hold a series of “listening sessions” in the fall of 2024 to obtain additional feedback from stakeholders. After consideration of input from these work sessions and public listening sessions, proposed legislation is expected to be transmitted by the Planning Board to the Council to implement the various recommendations and zoning changes.
- The Council will also conduct public hearings and hold further work sessions to review the legislative proposals before enacting any changes. More details on this schedule will be available in the coming weeks.
- Planning started its three-part “Speaker Series’ on July 18th. Two others are scheduled for Sep.19th and Oct. 17th. Most of the speakers are from communities that have implemented a form of AH, research organizations and developers.
Parkwood Residents Association 