New Development In Bel Air Rezoning Case

BEL AIR, MD — An attorney has filed a request to appeal the decision made by the Bel Air Board of Election Judges in May not to accept a petition for referendum around rezoning.

Michael McCann made the appeal in a letter to the town, according to Bel Air Town Counsel Charles Keenan. He said the request was on behalf of unknown clients.

"He never mentions who his clients are, so before we recommend a date for him to present his appeal, we would like to know who the citizens are he represents," Keenan told the Bel Air Board of Town Commissioners at a work session this week.

As of Friday, the town has not verified who the clients are.

"The issue of the appeal may be a vehicle that he is pursuing in order to enable him to begin an action over in Circuit Court," Keenan said of the attorney.

At issue is a rezoning decision that the Bel Air Board of Town Commissioners made this spring.

"The whole subject is a tricky one,” Keenan said, since the commissioners reached a decision already on the matter.

Commissioners approved Ordinance 809-22 in early May, which rezoned 13 properties, including five properties that changed from a medium-density residential district to a general business gateway district.

A petition submitted to the town in May with more than 1,000 signatures and in June with more than 2,000 signatures opposed the rezoning of 45, 53 and 57 East Broadway and 38 and 44 Gordon Street specifically. Signatories said they wanted the Bel Air Board of Town Commissioners to change the zoning back to medium-density residential.

A panel of three election judges determined in late May that documents with more than 1,000 signatures disagreeing with the rezoning of five properties in town did not constitute a petition for referendum because they were not labeled as such and did not reference the ordinance.

"The language does not constitute a petition for referendum," Keenan said in May following the rejection of the petition at Town Hall.

To be considered valid, the residents had to state that they were opposed to Ordinance 809-22, which authorized the rezoning of 13 properties, including the five in question; and the petition would have had to say that it was a petition about the zoning ordinance, according to Keenan.

The town commissioners followed the town counsel's opinion again in June when residents came back with more than 2,000 signatures. The commissioners deemed the signatures insufficient to put the issue to referendum because the document was not labeled as a petition for referendum and did not make explicit reference to an ordinance.

The town commissioners decided during a work session on Tuesday that Sept. 19 would be the date they could hear the appeal in Town Hall. Before then, they said they would request a brief from McCann to understand his position.

“You have to reach a decision and either accept what [the attorney is] saying," Keenan said, "or if you deny it, then I think that would conclude" the proceedings, which could potentially go to court.

See Also:

• Petition Signed By 2K In Bel Air Rejected By Town Commissioners
• Bel Air Petition Gets 1,051 Signatures For Referendum; Town Rejects It