August 2008

A Platform to Fines [PDF]

By Zhen Zhang
This article originally appeared in the August 15, 2008, edition of the Bar Bulletin and is reprinted with permission of the Maryland State Bar Association.

July 2008

On July 7th, the Maryland Department of the Environment published notice of a public hearing concerning proposed air quality regulation amendments implementing permit and emission fee increases as provided by Senate Bill 442, signed into law on April 24, 2008. The full text of the Notice of Proposed Action is here. [PDF]

The public hearing on the proposed action will be held on August 13, 2008 at 10 a.m. at the Department of the Environment, 1800 Washington Boulevard, 1st Floor Terra Conference Room, Baltimore, Maryland 21230-1720.

Interested persons are invited to attend and express their views. Comments may be mailed to Deborah Rabin, Regulations Coordinator, Air and Radiation Management Administration, Department of the Environment, 1800 Washington Boulevard, Suite 730, Baltimore, Maryland 21230-1720, or emailed to drabin@mde.state.md.us, or faxed to (410) 537-4223. Comments must be received not later than August 13, 2008, or be submitted at the hearing. For more information, call Deborah Rabin at (410) 537-3240.

May/June 2008

EVER EXPANDING REACH OF CRITICAL AREA COMMISSION [PDF]

By James J. Doyle, III and Timothy R. Henderson
May/June 2008, Reproduced with permission from MSBA

April 2008

Critical Area Law Developments

House Bill 1253 changed the Critical Area Law. The law has passed in the House and Senate, but has not yet been signed into law by the Governor. The law is set to become effective on July 1, 2008.

Highlights of changes:

• Increase in lot coverage is presumed to be contrary to the purpose of the Critical Area Act. Lot coverage may not exceed 15% unless the lot is less than an acre. If you have a building permit before July 1, 2008 and initiate construction and inspection before July 1, 2009, then the new limitations do not apply.

• The Resource Conservation Area (RCA), the Intense Development Area (IDA) and the Limited Development Area (LDA) are now specifically defined. For example, RCA is nature dominated land, where housing density must be less than one unit per five acres.

• In the RCA, the buffer has changed from 100 feet to 200 feet. For IDA and LDA the buffer remains 100 feet.

• The 200 feet buffer can be reduced based on hardship conditions. A property owner may be exempt from the 200 feet buffer if the application for subdivision or site plan approval is submitted before July 1, 2008 and recorded by July 1, 2010, and if Growth Allocation is not involved.

• Variances are permitted, but must be evaluated according to the criteria in the law. Local jurisdictions may use different standards that are in the law, but they must be approved by the Critical Area Commission. The Commission now has 130 days to act on local program amendments instead of 90. The Commission also has power to amend the criteria if the local government criteria is deemed inappropriate.

• New minimum criteria for map amendments for new IDA include public sewer and an average density of 3.5 units/acre.

• Criminal penalties have been added, but cannot apply to violations that existed before July 1, 2008.

November 2007

RCRA -Definition of Solid Waste

The March 2007 supplemental proposed rule seeks to revise the definition of solid waste, which was first proposed on October 28, 2003. 72 FR 14172, 68 FR 61558. The proposal seeks to exclude hazardous secondary materials as wastes subject to Subtitle C of RCRA when they are recycled or reclaimed. The new rule would examine in what circumstances a material is “discarded” and would clarify the idea of “legitimate recycling.” This includes an evaluation of the whether the generator relinquished control of the material, whether the material is useful to the recycling process and whether the product of the recycling process is valuable. The proposed rule also requires the evaluation of the management of hazardous secondary material and the presence of constituents in the product.

The commenting period was extended to June 25, 2007. A proposed final rule has not yet been issued.

September 2007

$ 1.9 million award in eminent domain case.
SHA must pay double for its offer for Route 50 land, September 17, 2007, Daily Record.

March 2005

ENDANGERED SPECIES AND DEVELOPMENT LAWS
By James J. Doyle, III and Timothy R. Henderson
March 2005, Reproduced with permission from MSBA