Harford County Council holds public hearings for warehousing, apartment, term limit bills

Oct. 2—The Harford County Council held public hearings for three prominent bills Monday evening.

The bills addressed warehousing, apartments and term limits for county council members.

The warehousing bill was heard first. If passed, it would add definitions of the terms "warehousing," "freight terminal" and "distribution and local delivery center" to the county code and limit warehouses built in the county to be no larger than 250,000 square feet.

County representatives were the first to address the bill: Shane Grimm, the director of planning and zoning; Shobita DuBois, assistant county attorney; and Larry Richardson, who works in legislative affairs for Harford County Executive Bob Cassilly's office.

The warehousing bill comes at the backend of a months-long moratorium on warehouse development passed after a longtime push for updated changes to the county zoning code relating to warehousing. This push was largely led by the 3P Protect Perryman Peninsula group, a citizen-led coalition opposing a proposed warehouse development in its waterfront community.

"This bill is intended to address that issue," DuBois said, "through an appropriate balance of quality of life for Harford County residents, property rights, economic prosperity and environmental protections."

County Council member Aaron Penman questioned the county representatives for over 30 minutes, asking for clarifications of various lines of the 32-page bill and for examples of the county studies used to put the bill together. The county did not have all records immediately available.

County Council member Jacob Bennett, who represents Perryman in District F, commended the county for being responsive on the issue over the last several months.

Over 30 speakers voiced their comments on the bill, several of whom were members of the 3P coalition, including Chuck Mezan.

Mezan said he supported the "intent" of the bill but wanted amendments. One of those amendments would provide for a maximum height for warehouses in the county.

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"Without the removal of this height loophole, greedy developers are essentially being allowed to stack warehouses on top of warehouses," Mezan said. "And we know it will happen."

Others spoke against the bill, including Matt Laraway, a partner of Chesapeake Real Estate Group, the firm involved with developing the Mitchell property in Perryman.

"This is not only an assault on property rights," Laraway said, "it's also an assault on Harford County labor force."

Council president Patrick Vincenti at the conclusion of the hearing said the council had a lot of work to do on this bill over the next week, with amendments being proposed by council members and the Cassilly administration.

"Our job is to create legislation that's impactful across this county," he said. "And we know we need to serve as many masters as possible."

The council will likely add amendments to the bill and vote on it at an upcoming legislative session.

This story will be updated.