Charles County wants a clear legal way to make property owners remove things they have built or put on county land. The Board of County Commissioners will hold a public hearing at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20, on Proposed Bill 2026-09. The bill is Zoning Text Amendment 25-188, titled “Regulatory Enforcement of Encroachments onto County-Owned Land.”
Commissioners voted Sept. 22 to introduce the bill and set the hearing. The county’s meeting summary says the bill “would give Charles County Government a regulatory framework to remediate encroachment onto county-owned property.”
An encroachment happens when a private owner’s use spills onto land they do not own. A fence, shed, driveway, garden or yard can creep past a property line onto a neighboring park, right-of-way or other public parcel. The county has not said how many encroachments it knows about or where they are.
What the bill changes
According to the county’s notice of the Planning Commission hearing, ZTA 25-188 would revise four sections of the county’s zoning ordinance, Chapter 297 of the county code: sections 297-3, 297-4, 297-37 and 297-49. The changes would let the county “use its regulatory authority to address unauthorized encroachments onto County-owned land.”
In practice, that means the county could treat an encroachment as a zoning matter and use its existing enforcement process, not only its rights as a landowner. The county’s published summaries do not spell out the penalties, notice periods or appeal rights the bill would set.
Questions about the amendment have gone to Sarah Guy, the county’s chief of property acquisition, who was the contact for the Planning Commission hearing.
Long road to a hearing
The Planning Commission held its own public hearing on the amendment April 20, and its members have been watching for the bill since. At the commission’s Oct. 5 meeting, Planning Commissioner Jeffrey Bossert asked staff whether the “encroachment ZTA that you were so heavily involved in” had been approved by the commissioners yet.
Staff said it had not reached the commissioners and was set for a public hearing later in October, possibly Oct. 20. The county’s Sept. 22 summary confirms that date.
A busy hearing night
The Oct. 20 session has two other public hearings. One is on Proposed Bill 2026-08, which would create a countywide rental licensing program with inspections. Commissioners voted 4-1 to introduce it Sept. 22. The other is on the county’s FY2027 Municipal Stormwater (MS4) Financial Assurance Plan, a required state filing that shows how the county will pay for stormwater permit work.
Charles commissioners hold another hearing a week later, Oct. 27, on the mixed residential communities bill.
How to weigh in
Hearings are held in the Charles County Government Building, 200 Baltimore St., La Plata, and are carried on CCGTV and the county website. Residents can testify in person or send written comments through the county’s public hearing comment page. As of Oct. 14 the page listed comment forms for the rental bill, the stormwater plan and ZTA 26-191, but not yet for the encroachment bill.
