Maryland Chapter

Anne Arundel County Group

Council Rejects Zoning Complaints Impediment

The County Council July 20 voted unanimously to reject legislation that would have required anyone who wanted to alert authorities to a possible violation of zoning laws to make his or her name and address public.

The measure had been offered by Councilman Ed Reilly in response to charges by a property owners group that they were being harassed by county inspectors and that they had a right to “face their accusers.” The accusers, in their view, would not be the public authorities actually investigating possible violations of the zoning laws, but rather the citizens who had brought possible zoning violations to the attention of the county.

The Sierra Club and other environmental and citizens’ groups had testified against the plan, arguing that it would discourage citizens from reporting possible threats to the environment. A danger, they said, is that a property owner who felt wronged might seek retribution against the citizen who initially raised the issue.

Group Chair David Prosten told the council: “If you want our laws upheld, if you want the people to honor those laws and stand behind your efforts by helping you to enforce them, then why on earth would you make some people fear to do so?”

About a dozen supporters of the proposal, wearing red T-shirts reading “Stop the Zoning Gestapo,” had come out to the public hearing on the measure.

When he cast his “no” vote against the plan, Councilman Josh Cohen noted that the role of the Nazi Gestapo was to subjugate the citizenry and quell dissent and free speech. In a democracy such as America’s, he said, the system supports the right of people to speak without the fear of retribution. He objected to county employees being likened to Gestapo agents.

Every council member voted against the proposal including Tricia Johnson, who a week earlier had been chosen by the council to fill out the unexpired term of Reilly, who had in turn been named to fill out the unexpired term of State Senator Janet Greenip (R).