The Montgomery County Planning Board on Thursday approved a new procedure to assess the climate impacts of certain land-use planning measures, potentially clarifying for developers how to craft their plans to advance more smoothly.
In the vein of other recent environmental legislation, the County Council enacted a new law in July requiring the planning department, beginning March 1, to evaluate the anticipated greenhouse gas ramifications of every zoning text amendment, master plan and master plan amendment put forward. The council would use these evaluations to inform its legislative decisions. For master plans, the department has already done something substantially similar, using a spreadsheet modeling tool, since 2008. But the requirement for zoning text amendments, or ZTAs, is new — not only for the county, but more broadly, with staffers and consultants saying they’re unaware of precedent elsewhere.
It’s not uncommon for the council to tweak the zoning ordinance in response to developers’ expressed concerns or issues, Councilman Gabe Albornoz, D-At large, one of the July bill’s lead sponsors, said in an interview. In fact, most ZTAs stem from some sort of applicant request, sources say. Not all such ZTAs will have major climate ramifications. But for those that may, knowing in advance how they’ll be evaluated could help developers and others articulate desired changes in a way more likely to gain approval.
The new climate assessment procedure will provide a “roadmap” and “help minimize surprises later,” Albornoz said.
