The writers are members of the Prince George’s County Council. Turner represents the 4th Council District and was the council chair in 2019 and 2020. Hawkins is the council member at-large and serves as council chair in 2021.
The Prince George’s County Council has maintained as a top priority, advancing the county’s new zoning ordinance and countywide map amendment. On Nov. 29, in its final legislative session of 2021, the county council unanimously adopted Council Resolution-136-2021, approving the countywide map amendment and completing a seven-year, multimillion-dollar effort to modernize the county’s 50-year-old zoning ordinance.
This was the final step in a process that worked to ensure fairness, equity, transparency and inclusion countywide, with over 400 community meetings, thousands of written comments, and considerable council review and public input, engaging three county councils and two county executives.
The process began with the 2014 council adoption of Plan 2035 — the County’s General Plan. The county and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission embarked on updating the county’s zoning and subdivision ordinances. Two earlier attempts were unsuccessful. The county council adopted a new zoning ordinance in 2018, following more than four years of community, stakeholder and consultant input, however the new zones required an adopted CMA for implementation. In 2019, the council authorized M-NCPPC to prepare a CMA, the process to place all properties in the county into one of the new zones most equivalent to its existing zone.
