PRINCE FREDERICK — Calvert County homeowners who clear trees and brush to build in the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area will owe less replanting under a rule commissioners adopted Oct. 20.
Text Amendment 26-27 covers properties in the critical area’s Limited Development Area where an owner clears at least 30% but less than 50% of the existing natural vegetation. Those owners will now plant replacement vegetation equal to two times the area of the entire clearing. Under the current rule, the requirement in those cases is three times the area, with a variance from the Board of Appeals, according to the staff presentation.
The relief is narrow. It applies only when clearing is limited to the minimum needed for a principal structure, including decks, patios, accessory structures, the initial septic system, a driveway and a minimal yard. Planning staff told commissioners the existing three-to-one requirement is too burdensome for property owners and that its cost can get excessive. Staff said the county got the state Critical Area Commission to agree to the change.
‘As relaxed as they’re willing to be’
Staff said the amendment grew out of a disagreement with the Critical Area Commission over how to read the county’s existing rules. Under the commission’s strictest interpretation, staff said, nearly everything in the critical area would require Board of Appeals approval and higher mitigation. The new language, staff told the board, is as relaxed as the state was willing to go, and it mirrors what a couple of other counties do.
Asked by a commissioner whether the change is still environmentally sound, staff said yes, describing it as a cut in out-of-pocket mitigation for individual homeowners making modest improvements, not for large-scale development. No one signed up to speak at the hearing, and commissioners adopted the amendment by voice vote.
The change comes as state rules move the other way on variances. As the Chronicle reported, new state rules make critical area variances harder to get, which raises the stakes for any requirement that sends homeowners to the Board of Appeals.
A Solomons homeowner’s bill
Later in the same meeting, during public comment, Solomons resident Tom Kail described what critical area rules cost him. Kail said he moved to the county in 1989 after leaving the Navy, worked 37 and a half years at Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant and retired in April. He bought a lot about a quarter mile from his home because he wanted to stay in Solomons, and said it is nearly impossible to build there without being in the critical area.
His permit costs came to $87,000, Kail said, including:
- A $51,000 critical area bond, which he said is not held in an interest-bearing account and is returned only after an inspection about two years after planting.
- A $5,100 administrative fee, 10% of the bond, which he said he was told covers sending someone to confirm the plants are still growing.
Kail called the bond and fee ludicrous and said the money is effectively held for almost three years. Public comment is a listening session rather than a question-and-answer period, and he was told someone would be in touch with him.
It is not clear from the meeting whether Kail’s project falls under the clearing thresholds covered by Text Amendment 26-27.
