Meet Steve Chizmar, Candidate For Bel Air Board Of Commissioners

BEL AIR, MD — Residents will be voting Nov. 7 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. to elect officials to three seats on Bel Air's Board of Commissioners. Meet Steve Chizmar who is running for the Bel Air Board of Commissions. Chizmar shared with Patch information about himself and why he's running for office.

What ways can people contact you with questions?
Email: steve.chizmar74@gmail.com

Campaign website?
https://stchizmar.wixsite.com/...

Age as of election day?
67 years old

Place of residence?
Bel Air, MD

Family members?
Wife Karen; Children Maggie, Eric and Kate

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?
Not currently, but I am retired from the Department of the Army.

Education?
St. Margaret School
Bel Air High School
Bachelor of science in electrical engineering, University of Delaware.

Occupation?
Retired electrical engineer with the Department of the Army for 40+ years, 29 years in a
leadership position

Previously held elected or appointed political positions?
Vice chair of Bel Air Historic Preservation Committee (8 years)
Member of Bel Air Board of Ethics (11 Years)

Why are you running for office?
The current Commissioners have not listened to their constituents on several major issues confronting the town. It seems that four of the commissioners are forcing their agenda on the citizens even when the citizens express strong opposition. Some of the recent actions by the Board of Commissioners include: the rezoning of properties on the Maryland Historic Trust’s Inventory of Historic Properties on East Broadway to allow 4 story retail and apartments; their refusal to accept your petition of referendum to allow you to vote on the Broadway rezoning; their insistence on connecting East and West MacPhail Roads through the campus of Homestead-Wakefield Elementary to relieve congestion while at the same time refusing to stop large high density building, which would only increase traffic: their refusal to stop development when Bel Air Elementary and Homestead-Wakefield Elementary schools are over 110 percent capacity, allowing developers to maximize profits while our children are forced to learn in increasingly overcrowded schools; and their desire to allow short term rentals (Vrbo’s) in residential areas.

All these decisions show that four of the commissioners do not have the citizens best interests in mind. We need commissioners who will listen to the citizens and make decisions that are in the interest of the community, not the developers with deep pockets and high-priced attorneys. We need commissioners who can develop a town vision by listening to the residents, businesses and community groups, and lead the town administrator and his staff to implement that vision. We need active leadership to guide our town the next four years

The single most pressing issue facing voters is:
…to keep Bel Air’s small-town charm. People live here because it’s a great place to raise a family. The character of the town is being threatened by developers’ desires to build over-sized, 4 and 5 story residential and retail buildings in our downtown area. Several planned or proposed projects on Hickory Avenue, Lester Way, Bond Street and East Broadway will add several hundred apartments in a school district that is already over 110 percent capacity. I propose changing several regulations to get development under control. First, change the adequate public facilities regulation so that projects of five or more housing units would not be allowed in a school district which will be at 105 percent capacity or more when the impact of the project is considered. Our children don’t deserve to learn in an overcrowded environment while the developers profit at the children’s expense.

Then change development regulations to make them more in line with our character. Currently, all building requirements for a particular zone are the same, regardless of whether they are next to a residential property or another commercial property. Building heights, setbacks, parking, green space, etc. are all the same regardless of the property’s location. Development requirements should be tailored to the location and the abutting properties. The project must fit the property.

Furthermore, there are several gateways into Town (North and South Main Street, Rock Spring Avenue, Hickory Avenue, East Broadway, Conowingo Road and Churchville Road), which greet people with an inviting, picturesque view of small-town Bel Air with its older, historic buildings, green space, and tree lined roads. That is the view I want to preserve.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?
First of all, Ms. Hughes has been focused on bringing more people to live in town by refusing to change the development regulations to prevent the building of oversized, high-density housing. She has stated several times that if a town is not growing, it is dying. That is very one-dimensional thinking. A town needs to adapt to thrive. Adapting means you employ a host of tools to include repurposing the use of the property, renovating existing structures, adding on to existing structures in a similar architecture style, and in some instances, grow. Ms. Hughes vision of adding 87 apartments with the Hickory Flats project across from the library, or the 93 proposed apartments on Bond Street isn’t going to save Bel Air. How can a few hundred apartments (Hickory Flats and Standard on Bond), which may bring in a few hundred more residents, save Bel Air when within a mile or two of town, there are tens of thousands of residents.

We need to stop trying to ruin Bel Air’s identity and start working on economic development on Main Street, Baltimore Pike and the Harford Mall. We need to partner with Harford County Department of Economic Development to bring more businesses into Bel Air. After all,
Bel Air is a part of Harford County and Harford County government has significantly more resources than Bel Air. What’s good for Bel Air is good for Harford County. We need to place significantly more effort in economic development than we have in the past.

Secondly, Ms. Hughes has ignored what her constituents have to say. Ms. Hughes voted in favor of rezoning historic properties along East Broadway to allow for a 4-story residential/retail project in view of strong public opinion against the rezoning. When a petition for referendum was presented to the Board of Commissioners to put the rezoning to a vote of the citizens, Ms. Hughes voted three times to denied the citizens their right to vote. If elected, I will listen to the people and I will accept the petition when it comes back to the Board of Commissioners after the Town’s appeal of the citizens lawsuit is resolved. If elected, I will host town hall meetings where there can be a meaningful dialog between the commissioners, residents, businesses and community
groups on the issues, challenges and visions they see facing the town, so we can address them together.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community
(or district or constituency)?
The current commissioners have failed the community by propagating their own agenda at the expense of the citizens wishes. From the denial to accept the petition of referendum on the Broadway rezoning; to their insistence on putting a road through the Homestead-Wakefield Elementary School campus to relieve congestion while at the same time allowing high density housing into town; to the proposed legislation to allow short term rentals (AirBnB’s and Vrbo’s) in all residential neighborhoods. The community has voiced overwhelming opposition to these decisions to no avail. They just don’t hear us. We need new leadership which will hear our citizens voices and work with the community; not just push their own agenda.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform. What accomplishments in your
past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?
I have attended many town meetings over the past two years and although each meeting has an agenda, the agendas from meeting to meeting do not have any focus. The commissioners need to develop a plan or vision which looks out a year of so which guides their overall efforts. This plan needs to be developed with input from citizens, businesses, business groups, community groups and the town staff. Once developed and tasks or goals prioritized, the plan should be published for the public to see and provided to the town administrator to execute, who would provide status reports back to the Commissioners in order to track progress. Periodically, this plan would be reviewed and updated to reflect changing demands.

We need to televise our town meetings. We need to have transparency in our government and by televising meetings it will hopefully garner more public interest in our town government. I want feedback from the citizens. I want to know what the citizens think, what concerns they have, what challenges they think the town is facing.

We need to mend our relationships with Harford County Government and the Harford County Board of Education. The town has been operating more or less in isolation. We need to work with Harford County government to help us revitalize Main Street. Harford County has significantly more resources in to help with economic development that the Town. Bel Air is part of Harford County, so what’s good for Bel Air, is good for Harford County and vice versa. The town’s insistence on putting a road through Homestead-Wakefield Elementary School has soured the town’s relationship with the school board. We need to mend that relationship because our elementary school children are going to the only two schools in the county that are over 110 percent capacity. We need the school boards help to fix. Electing new commissioners who did not vote for the road will go a long way to mend this relationship.

My life long experiences provide me the skills and knowledge to serve as a town commissioner. I have served a total of 19 years on two town committees: the town’s Historic Preservation Committee and the Board of Ethics. I understand how the town government operates and I’m familiar with the services each department provides. Also, as a 40+ year employee of the Department of the Army at Aberdeen Proving Ground, I was in a leadership role for over 29 years, responsible for the development and execution of a budget ranging from $8 to $15 million a year. I supervised anywhere from 10 – 25 scientists and engineers, conducting studies and analyses of Army weapon systems to support Army leadership decisions. I understand how to deal with complex problems and how to simplify them. I understand how to deal with large amounts of information, mine the real nuggets of data that matter, and make a defendable decision based on facts. I will bring that knowledge and experience to bear on addressing the challenges of our town.

The best advice ever shared with me was:
Early in my career with the Department of the Army, one of my mentors told me: “Listen. When you talk, you don’t learn anything.” It has served me well throughout my career and I plan to heed that advice as commissioner.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?
I lived in Bel Air my entire life and I love this town. That is why I have never left. I have given back to the community as a volunteer firefighter and Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), youth sports coach, and school PTA and Booster member, and member of two town committees. I’m vested in this town. Along with my wife, we have renovated a historic home that will turn 100 years old in a couple years. We raised three children in this home and this is a prime example of how to repurpose an old, nearly condemned structure, to one of the beauties on the street. Our entire block has done the same to their homes, and we have a friendly and vibrant neighborhood. This is how we can keep our town’s identity and stay relevant in today’s times.