(a) Definition. In this section, "specified public facilities" means County and State roads, public elementary and secondary schools, and the capital improvements necessary to provide emergency medical services, fire suppression, and storm water management.
(b) Contents. The General Development Plan, referred to as a "master plan" in § 531 of the Charter, shall include the contents required by Land Use Article, §§ 1-405 et seq., of the State Code, for the comprehensive plan of a chartered county; a concurrency management plan for protecting the quality of life in the County from the adverse impacts of new development by ensuring that public facilities adequate to support future development are in place at the time the future development occurs; and other information deemed necessary by the Planning and Zoning Officer to plan for the orderly growth and development of the County.
(c) Concurrency management plan. The concurrency management plan contained in the General Development Plan shall include:
(1) a level of service standards for each of the specified public facilities;
(2) a description of the existing specified public facilities and an evaluation of the existing demand on those specified public facilities, with detailed findings on the improvements to the specified public facilities necessary to accommodate existing demand at the applicable level of service standards and the costs of making those improvements;
(3) an evaluation of the impact of anticipated future development on the specified public facilities, with detailed findings on the existing capacities of the specified public facilities to accommodate future development at the applicable level of service standards and improvements to the specified public facilities necessary to accommodate future development; and
(4) a method for measuring and tracking the impacts on the specified public facilities of development approvals, including the approval of subdivisions and the issuance of building permits, and land use decisions such as comprehensive rezonings, administrative rezonings, special exceptions, and amendments to the master plan for water and sewer.
(d) Relationship of concurrency management plan to capital improvement program. The concurrency management plan contained in the General Development Plan shall guide the allocation of funds to the County capital improvement program.
(e) Relationship of concurrency management plan to laws relating to adequacy of public facilities and development impact fees. The concurrency management plan shall be prepared so as to contain the required information and constitute a sufficient basis for adequacy of public facilities and development impact fee ordinances that:
(1) regulate the timing and sequencing of future development by conditioning approval of the development on the program of capital improvements described in subsection (d);
(2) do not require future development to bear the costs of the capital improvements necessary to accommodate existing demand at the applicable level of service standards; and
(3) require future development to bear the costs of the capital improvements attributable to the impact of the future development.
(f) Review. The Office of Planning and Zoning continually shall monitor the effectiveness of the General Development Plan in accomplishing its function and shall prepare and provide to the Council an annual report that conforms with State requirements for annual comprehensive plan reports. At intervals not to exceed eight years, the Office of Planning and Zoning shall undertake a comprehensive review of the General Development Plan and its implementing mechanisms and shall recommend those revisions to the Plan and implementing mechanisms as are necessary due to changes in demographic characteristics and social, economic, and environmental factors.
(1985 Code, Art. 24, §§ 1-103, 1-104) (Bill No. 62-04; Bill No. 64-09; Bill No. 82-17)