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Politics & Government

Council Will Block Leopold's Zoning Bill Withdrawal

The County Executive wants to stop the comprehensive zoning process to reform the process, but some council members say they have no intention of derailing the talks at this point.

County Executive John Leopold said he intends to block a bill that would make sweeping rezoning changes to the central and southern parts of the county, but county council members stand in his path.

The county is currently going through the steps necessary to update their comprehensive zoning plan for the next decade. Nearly 50 rezoning proposals in Districts 6 and 7 are on the table for council review later this month.

The District 6 and 7 zoning legislation and specific parcels mentioned can be found here.

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But Leopold has thrown a red flag, saying the public needs a bigger voice in rezoning talks. He said he wants to stop this process and reform it before it goes any further.

The county executive announced last week that he would withdraw the bill associated with the rezoning in Districts 6 and 7.

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"Zoning plays a critical role in our future prosperity and quality of life," Leopold said. "We need to ensure that we increase density in targeted growth areas and reject higher density that would damage existing neighborhoods. We also need to ensure that citizens play a larger role in the process."

However, council members have said Leopold’s maneuver won’t be successful. Councilmen Jamie Benoit (D-Dist. 4), Daryl Jones (D-Dist. 1), Jerry Walker (R-Dist. 7) and Chris Trumbauer (D-Dist. 6) all sent letters to Leopold citing the county’s charter, which states that the sponsor of council legislation can withdraw it only if there are no objections.

These councilmen have made it clear that they have no intention of derailing the talks. If the bill is withdrawn now, the future for the lengthy comprehensive zoning process throughout the county would be placed on uncertain ground, Trumbauer said.

“There’s a degree of uncertainty for that outcome, and that’s part of the reason why my colleagues and I are not inclined to allow the bill to be withdrawn at this point,” he said. “Rather than derailing the process, I think we should concentrate on adhering to the rules and regulations that we’ve laid out to ensure this process has the appropriate level of public comment and transparency.”

Leopold’s criticism of the comprehensive zoning process comes after public outcry over a lack of transparency at zoning hearings earlier this year.

During the District 1 and 4 zoning talks, the public was only given a chance to voice concerns over rezoning proposals in the form of an amendment.  Some residents have said they didn’t feel they got a fair shake at voicing concerns.

“In some regards, I think they felt that the ship had already sailed,” Trumbauer said. “We recognize that things were not perfect with the last bill, and we were all going to do things a little bit differently, to ensure that situation didn’t happen again.”

Council members have met with Planning and Zoning Department staff and a representative of Leopold to discuss what could be done to improve the current system.

Trumbauer said there has been a call for a way to allow community members to comment on potential amendments before they are voted on by the council, but the council is limited in what they can do, as they are bound by the rules in the charter.

The council next meets on June 7, which is when Leopold’s withdrawal of the District 6 and 7 zoning bill is set to go before the council. Following that, there is a work session on the bill scheduled for June 13. At that meeting, Planning and Zoning staff will outline in detail each of the proposals they’ve recommended, which number just under 50.

The public is invited to attend, but there  will not be an opportunity for public testimony or comment. Following that meeting, there will be the public hearing on the bill itself, scheduled for June 20.

Once the bill is formally introduced, there is a 90-day window to amend it prior to approval, placing the bill up for a final vote sometime in August.

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