PERRY HALL, Md. — Baltimore County residents attended a meeting in Perry Hall Tuesday to preserve their idea of the American dream.
They want to stop the urbanization of the county and limit the number of future mixed-use developments and apartments built.
Some fear it will make problems in the county even worse.
“People are concerned about the impact on schools, transportation, and other resources and they just want to make sure that their quality of life is preserved," says Councilman David Marks.
The Housing Expansion and Affordability Act of 2024 being proposed in Annapolis would give the state more control when it comes to zoning for certain properties in a county or jurisdiction.
Therefore, if the state decides to let certain state-owned properties be zoned for apartments or other housing, the county would have less power to stop it.
A hearing is set on this bill in the Senate on Friday morning.
This bill is one of Governor Wes Moore's legislative priorities. He hopes to make housing more affordable and accessible by offering more of it. The bill seeks to expand the construction of new housing, particularly affordable housing, by removing local zoning barriers.
Councilman Marks says this is a concern for Baltimore County.
“This population is not growing like it used to be, and it's declining in some areas. Clearly, there [are] places where we need to stimulate growth, and that's what I tried to do when I represented Towson. But on the other hand, the very first thing that a new home buyer looks for is the quality of a school, and if we don’t pay attention to overcrowded schools, we’re not going to have home buyers," says Councilman Marks.
Jeff McDonald says he came to the meeting because he is concerned about the state letting too many new affordable homes overpopulate the county.
“The numbers that the state wants to put, the number of homes that the state wants to put into these communities, quite frankly, is overwhelming," says Jeff.
He says more people need to pay attention to current legislation in the state house and how it may impact them on a local level.
“I think that it is incumbent upon us to come out to these types of meetings [and] interact with our legislators, so we have an educated idea of what is going on in our communities," says McDonald.
Councilman Marks advises people to reach out to state delegates and make their voices heard.
