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(Enlarge) A stream runs through Gunpowder State Falls in Parkton. County planners are seeking the public’s input on changes proposed to the rural area section of the county’s Master Plan. (Staff photo by Go Takayama)

May in North County is filled with scenes of water rushing over rocks in the Gunpowder Falls as trout swim beneath the surface, meadows bursting with wildflowers and tender green shoots pushing up through the soil in farm fields.

Baltimore County planners are putting the finishing touches on a document that aims to strengthen preservation of those natural resources, which are at the heart of the county's rural areas.

To that end, planners are asking for the public's input on changes they are proposing to the rural area section of the county's Master Plan at a May 26 meeting at Jacksonville Elementary School.

Several community groups are going to ask that the advisory Master Plan grow some legal teeth.

"The Master Plan has always been a lofty ideal for guiding county land use decisions, but unfortunately has never been given enough weight to make it a deciding factor in individual situations," said Andy Rathgeber, president of the Freeland Community Association. "That would be my first suggestion for a change in the plan."

Rathgeber said he will attend either the May 26 meeting, or one scheduled for June 9 at Oregon Ridge Lodge in Cockeysville.

His sentiments are echoed by Nedda Evans, past president and current member of the Sparks-Glencoe Community Planning Council.

"Our organization endorses the spirit and substance of the Master Plan, but hopes it could be enforced," she said. "It's a well-prepared document, but unless the County Council makes it mandatory, the local zoning authorities don't have to follow it. A mandatory plan would protect the natural resources of our rural area."

Mike Pierce, vice president of North County Preservation, who is also a board member of the Kingsville Civic Association, said the Master Plan was helpful during last year's Comprehensive Zoning Map Process, during which a change in zoning can be requested on any property in the county.

Both the current plan and the proposed draft state that requests for zoning changes that increase development densities in the Loch Raven, Prettyboy and Liberty reservoir drainage areas should not be granted.

"We felt it had some bearing on Councilman (Bryan) McIntire when we could point to the Master Plan and show him it supported our position on downzoning," he said. "I'd like to see it made compulsory, but fear the developers would all of a sudden become interested in it and the county might be pressured to water it down."

The county's first Master Plan was written in 1972. It has been updated several times since then. County planners are revising the plan by section, and the rural area section of the plan is the first to be rewritten.

Copies of the proposed amendments to the rural areas section of the Master Plan are available at all county public libraries, including the Hereford Library. The 30-page draft amendments can also be read online at: www.baltimorecountymd.gov/agencies/planning/masterplanning/index.html.

Speakers at the May 26 meeting can sign up at 6:30 p.m. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. Jacksonville Elementary School is located at 3400 Hillendale Heights Road, Phoenix. The meeting on June 9 will be held at 7 p.m. at the Oregon Ridge Lodge, 13401 Beaver Dam Road, in Cockeysville.

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