Guest Column: When zoning enforcement becomes tyranny | Maryland Gazette (HometownGlenBurnie.com)

Over the years, there have been many firsthand accounts that confirm the current policies and procedures used by county planning and zoning are adversarial and combative. For example there are stories of rolled plans sitting for weeks only then to have the homeowner notified that the application must be resubmitted with the drawings folded.

You may recall that earlier this year, I went so far as to publicly charge the county with extorting land from property owners in exchange for building or sub-division permits. I asked citizens to come forward if they felt they had been a victim of the system. As result, I received many calls and letters but most were afraid of enforcement retribution.

At that time I truly believed that there was a widespread problem but I could not validate it. That all changed on July 24, when the Pasadena Business Association held a public forum to allow the Citizens of Anne Arundel County to voice their concerns regarding the adversarial nature of the planning and zoning process. It is estimated that nearly 400 people attended the forum at Earleigh Heights Fire House.

Thirty-three people told of their trying experience in the two minutes allocated to each person signed up to speak. Their common complaint was the department regularly using anonymous complaints as a vehicle to establish a foundation for trespassing on your property.

Another was the use of intimidation to threaten property owners to admit guilt when in fact they were innocent or to give up land in exchange for a permit or reduced fines. I call this extortion.

This meeting and the verbal outcry raise serious questions regarding the entire planning and zoning process. The purpose of government is to protect the rights of its citizens, it is not to harass and intimidate until the citizens give up their constitutional right to property.

In the meeting there seemed to be the sentiment that county citizens are under more tyranny now than the 54 signers of the Declaration of Independence were in 1776.

It is time for change and the time is now. In saying this, I am not advocating doing away with reasonable and rational zoning laws; I am simply saying that we must remove the adversarial components of the process and revive a culture where planning and zoning works with the citizens as opposed to working against them.

The erosion of the fundamental right to property began with the well-intentioned plan of comprehensive zoning. As result of environmental activism and other forces, this well-intentioned plan has evolved into justification to restrict land use to the point where many only enjoy the ability to pay taxes on land they can no longer use.

I can assure you that having family property on the Magothy River for over 90 years, I am very concerned about the water quality in Anne Arundel County. I can also assure you that the problem is not another deck or another screen porch being closed in; it is the government's failure to address and fix the failing sewage plants that continue to spill millions of gallons of raw sewage in the bay and its rivers.

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Del. Don Dwyer is a Republican from Glen Burnie.