Seeing Red In Maryland

How to Hold a Meeting So Nobody Will Come

Reading the Examiner today, I saw an article that got me thinking a little.

It seems Howard Co. has a little law about where and when you can hold "pre-submission" meetings for proposed developments . The law requires that "[m]eetings be held between 6 and 8 p.m. on a weekday or during the day on a Saturday and within a few miles of the proposed development." This means that the meeting is often held on the undeveloped site - in whatever conditions the weather happens to bring. There will be a meeting for the proposed Centennial Gardens (by Land Design and Development, Inc.) on Frederick Rd. next week. It will be cold. But the developer has said that a vacant house on the site is available and will be heated. I think that's a good idea.

But what if there wasn't a building on the site? An unscrupulous builder could announce the meeting will be held on-site at a time that is sure to be cold and dark. Then he could expect little or no attendance - and therefore no objections at that time - and meet the statutory obligation. Or there could be an honest, upright developer who can't find a facility within the prescribed distance, and has to hold his meeting on his undeveloped land. Clearly the law needs to be touched up a bit. Perhaps they could add a clause that the meeting has to be indoors, at least in the colder, darker months, and if no facility is available within the distance restriction, say it has to be in a tent heated to a minimum temperature. And it has to be handicap accessible.

posted by Mike Milligan @ 2:50 PM