South County Residents Prepare Lawsuit Against County Over Comprehensive Rezoning

Residents of Southern Anne Arundel County, upset with the outcome of comprehensive rezoning that came out of the County Council last month, are putting their money where their mouths are.

They are lawyering up.

A group of south county citizens say they intend to file a lawsuit against the county by next week. In the complaint, they will seek to overturn what they termed as the most egregious zoning changes in the recent District 6 and 7 comprehensive rezoning process. The complaint also seeks to ensure the public has a true voice in future changes by amending the process of comprehensive rezoning.

“Unless we reform this process, we’re going to be victims again,” said Mike Lofton, a member of the group that is drafting the complaint.

Lofton said the basis for the lawsuit is that some council members violated the law by ignoring the county’s master planning document— the General Development Plan (GDP)—in the majority of District 7’s last-minute amendments.

“Many citizens have expressed strong beliefs that the comprehensive rezoning process produced bad results that are in conflict with the county’s general development plan, small area plans and violate the intent of the state law requiring consistency with such plans,” Lofton said.

Lofton and attorney Russ Stevenson of the Chesapeake Legal Alliance stood in front of a large group of residents on Tuesday in the library of Southern Senior High School in Harwood to discuss their next steps. They were also seeking up to $10,000 in funding to offset the costs of litigation and additional plaintiffs for the suit.

Stevenson is leading the legal team with pro-bono work. But some of the funds could be used to hire an expert witness with a background in planning, he said.

Anyone with property near the affected zoning changes could become an important plaintiff in the lawsuit, Stevenson said.

“As long as we have a reasonable number of property owners who have good, solid standing, then we are in good shape,” he said.

Fred Tutman, the Patuxent Riverkeeper, said he feels that District 7 Councilman Jerry Walker crossed a line by listening more to the concerns of lobbyists than the public. Tutman said this has shown that the comprehensive rezoning process was “lopsided and broken.”

While others in the room spoke of the legal ramifications of the process, Tutman was more concerned about what the recent zoning selections revealed about the politics in Anne Arundel County.

“This was a sheer, systematic ripoff,” he said. “It’s pretty appalling what went down.”

Stevenson said that he believes the batch of rezonings that came out of District 7 ignored the GDP and the public. But after talks with Council Chairman Dick Ladd and others, he thinks a keener eye is being affixed to the next step in the process, Districts 2, 3 and 5.

“My sense is that they are waking up, and beginning to understand that the way they have behaving up until now is not acceptable to citizens of the county,” Stevenson said.

If the local court complaint is thrown out or not resolved to their satisfaction, Stevenson said there are other options to pursue. They would next file an appeal, and beyond that could enlist the state legislature to tighten the reins county councils have over the rezoning process.