Garrett Park council considers new restrictions on lot-coverage rules

The town currently operates under what is known as minimum combined setback, regulating the amount of open space on a lot by setting the distance the building should be "set back" on all sides. Under the current ordinance, 82 percent of each lot should be open space.

On Thursday night, the town held a meeting to introduce a proposed change in the ordinance — from regulating open space, to regulating lot coverage. The proposed change, if adopted, would mandate that buildings may only cover 18 percent of a lot, and eliminate the setback requirement.

According to Garrett Park Mayor Chris Keller, the mandates are "mirror images" of each other.

"What we are doing is simply re-passing what has been on the books since 1992," Keller told The Gazette.

He said the change in wording wouldn't change the bottom line of the current ordinance, but was proposed in order to better enforce the authority given to municipalities in 2006 by the county to regulate lot coverage.

Some residents, however, fear that the proposed ordinance change would place an undue burden on homeowners by including protrusions such as open porches and side steps into the calculation of total lot coverage.

"The true effect of this ordinance, if legal, would be to make the town zoning ordinance more restrictive than it currently exists," said Garrett Park resident Cynthia Kratz, who attended Thursday's meeting.

Recently, resident Elaine Martin sued the town after she was denied permission to add a porch to her Garrett Park home. The suit makes the case for exempting protrusions like porches and sidesteps from being calculated into overall lot coverage, said Michele Rosenfeld, Martin's attorney.

Another key issue of the debate is timing. Some Garrett Park residents fear that introducing the proposed ordinance change in August is an attempt to change the rule without soliciting enough community feedback. "There's no one here – we're all on vacation," said Garrett Park resident Michael Colella, who returned home from a trip to Bethany Beach, Del., to attend the meeting.

A stipulation of the process to change the ordinance is that a copy must be forwarded to the Montgomery County Council for a 30-day period of review. The ordinance was submitted Friday, but stirred concern among residents that the council is currently on recess. It will not meet again until Sept. 8 — the same day the town will hold another hearing on the new ordinance.

"This is something they are trying to slip through," Colella said.

The Garrett Park Council could vote as early as Sept. 8 to adopt the ordinance, Keller said. It may also choose to take a variety of other actions, including amending or delaying the change, Keller said.

The issue of the protrusions may be part of a larger process that will most likely be launched in September or October to look at the town's building code. "There is apparently a sentiment in the town to change the standards and other elements in our building code, and that's something that should certainly be looked at," Keller said.

Staff writer Peggy McEwan contributed to this report.