* WARNING: THIS IS AN UNOFFICIAL, INTRODUCTORY COPY OF THE BILL.
THE OFFICIAL COPY CONSIDERED BY THE CITY COUNCIL IS THE FIRST READER COPY.
INTRODUCTORY*
CITY OF BALTIMORE
COUNCIL BILL R
(Resolution)
Introduced by: Councilmember Clarke
A RESOLUTION ENTITLED
A COUNCIL RESOLUTION concerning
title
Request for State Action - Community Association Standing
FOR the purpose of respectfully requesting that the General Assembly adopt, and the Governor sign, legislation that would allow Baltimore City community associations the same access to the State court system for zoning disputes enjoyed by community associations in other Maryland jurisdictions.
body
Recitals
Community associations in Baltimore serve many important roles. Besides their direct efforts to improve the areas they represent, many of Baltimore's community associations act as vital links between residents and City government. These organizations also typically represent the interests of neighborhood residents in discussions with developers, and when liquor licenses or zoning changes are being approved.
Yet, when disputes about zoning compliance or changes must be decided by appeals before the Board of Municipal Zoning Appeals (BMZA) or state courts, community associations are often unable to continue to effectively represent the interests of their members by remaining parties to the dispute. Instead, since current law denies them standing to appeal zoning decisions to either the BMZA or the courts, community associations are often forced to step back from the most contentious disputes precisely when their involvement is most needed.
Because of this rule, individual property owners residing nearby a disputed site are forced to shoulder the entire burden of pursuing a remedy for concerns that may effect an entire community. This unfairly forces individuals to invest significant personal time and money into issues that go beyond their personal stakes in a matter, prevents a community from being able to take full advantage of its association's technical knowledge of zoning issues and ability to pool resources, disadvantages neighborhoods which lack individuals with the resources to pursue appeals on their own, and makes it difficult to protest actions that may have small impacts on each individual property owner but large cumulative effects on a neighborhood as a whole.
Baltimore City can partially remedy this situation on its own by granting community associations standing to bring administrative appeals before the BMZA, but, under current State law, the City cannot explicitly grant associations standing to pursue an appeal into the court system. Therefore, if the City were to grant associations the right to bring administrative appeals, it could potentially create a bizarre situation where a community association that won an appeal to the BMZA could have that decision challenged in court, but the association would be unable to itself challenge an administrative decision against it in the courts - giving an association's opponent two chances to prevail but the community group only one.
Maryland has allowed other jurisdictions to avoid this situation by granting community associations the right to pursue zoning appeals into the courts, but it has not given this power to Baltimore City. In order to allow the City to empower community associations to fully represent the needs of their members and neighborhoods in zoning disputes, the State should update this policy and allow Baltimore's community associations standing to appeal zoning decisions into our courts.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE, That the Council respectfully requests that the General Assembly adopt, and the Governor sign, legislation that would allow Baltimore City community associations the same access to the State court system for zoning disputes enjoyed by community associations in other Maryland jurisdictions.
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution be sent to the Governor, the Honorable Chair and Members of the Baltimore City House and Senate Delegations to the Maryland General Assembly, the President of the Maryland Senate, the Maryland House Speaker, the Mayor, and the Mayor's Legislative Liaison to the City Council.
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