Attn:
Jeff Merritt, Vice-President, Councilman , Dist. 2
Johnny Mautz, State Senator, LD 37
Hello Councilman/ President Cannon & Councilman/ Vice President Merritt :
I respectfully write to the County of Wicomico,MD on the following issue of concerns about Local Planning, Zoning, and Permitting Authority for Municipal & County Governments.
What we are seeing in Maryland is Zoning and Permitting authority being stripped away at the Municipal and County Level. Governor Moore, and Maryland’s Housing Secretary Jake Day have been working with the legislature since 2024 on “Zoning Reform”.
Then the Governor by Executive Order created a State permitting review board, with his Staff largely running the board, with his Secretary of Planning Rebecca Flora as the Chair, Housing Secretary Day had his top operative Julia Glanz Deputy Secretary of Housing put on the board, and the Mayor of Baltimore City Brandon Scott had his Deputy Mayor Justin Williams appointed to the board and is now being called the “Permitting Czar’. Creating a more “centralized power” structure in Annapolis on permitting authority for the whole State.
In addition, Mayor Scott just hired a “Nationally Recognized” Director of Planning Tim Keane who’s done work across the country and Canada on planning to add to the City of Baltimore’s Administration, giving this “team” of the Governor, Secretary Day, Mayor Scott and this State permitting Board some more “fire power”.
In 2023 the Moore Administration took an aggressive approach on changing energy generation to the State. Governor Moore signed ‘The Power Act’ this was a step to push Maryland more to renewable energy: Wind & Solar. Then in 2024 the Moore Administration worked with the legislature to increase regulations on traditional energy providers to drive up energy rates on citizens and businesses to push them to wind and solar. Currently Wind & Solar are still not ready for prime time, and Maryland is facing an energy crisis that have driven up rates around the State by a 1000 Percent since 2023.
This past session in Annapolis the legislature passed aggressive legislation to aggressively “transform” farmland around the State into Solar Farms. The 1st big project is happening in Cecil County, and the town of Betterton is saying there are some issues with the town’s master plan on this. In addition, there are major issues on an energy project in Western Maryland, the Piedmont Reliability Project running power lines across multiple counties to power Data Centers in Virginia. Also down on the Eastern Shore Ocean City, MD & Bethany Beach, DE there was a plan to build “Offshore Wind” Windmills. Both the Piedmont project & The Offshore wind projects have been met with heavy resistance by local citizens and businesses, to the point of legal litigation. Both projects were largely rammed through by Annapolis without input from the local communities first.
Also, down on the shore in Wicomico County / Salisbury one of the projects that was “expedited” by the State permitting board was a new market for Downtown, by a Developer named David Layfield who has close ties to Housing Secretary Day the former Mayor of Salisbury. Mr. Layfield has openly criticized the current Mayor of Salisbury in Annapolis who has concerns about the issue of lack of parking in the City for this planned market. Seems Layfield and Secretary Day’s plan is to go around Mayor Taylor through Annapolis through this State permitting board Governor Moore created.
In addition, a planned data center project in Prince George’s County at the old Landover Mall site just off the Beltway is facing “strong community resistance”. Critics say the project was given the green light without any transparency and are concerned about the environmental and energy impact of data centers. Around the Country Municipalities and Counties have been working on “Guardrails” for Data Centers, including in nearby Prince William County, Virginia, and West Pennsboro Township, Pennsylvania.
Now the biggest reason for Zoning Reform and Centralizing Permitting Authority in Annapolis is away from Municipal and County Governments. Is Governor Moore and Secretary Day’s Statewide “Affordable Housing” initiative where the Governor has allocated $400 Million Dollars to be dispersed to “Impacted Areas” around the State. Clearly it will be easier to execute this if Permitting & Zoning authority has been more “centralized” to Annapolis and stripped away from Municipalities and County Governments.
However, we’ve historically seen in Maryland the challenges “One Size Fits All “plan / legislation creates. Can you say the “Kirwan Blueprint” for Education?
That is why we need to work to create some Protections / Guardrails for Municipal and County Governments on Planning, Permitting, & Zoning Authorities.
Thank you and Respectfully,
Dan McHugh
Overriding local control is bad policy. Maryland’s locally elected school boards are also being taken over by unelected state bureaucrats appointed by the Democrat Administration.