(a) The County Council finds that the health, safety and welfare of many residents of the County are adversely affected by excessive non-local traffic in residential neighborhoods. Restrictions on traffic access into or through particular residential areas can enhance the quality of life by reducing traffic hazards, noise, air pollution and litter. The Council enacts this Section to relieve these conditions, encourage mass transit and car pool use, and promote and preserve the livability of residential neighborhoods.
(b) The County Executive may, by regulation adopted under Method (3):
(1) create, modify, or discontinue a residential traffic management area; and
(2) adopt a residential traffic management plan which restricts traffic flow on specified streets in that traffic management area.
(c) As used in this Section, unless the context clearly indicates another meaning:
(1) area means a residential traffic management area; and
(2) plan means a residential traffic management plan.
(d) A plan must consider traffic control measures and pedestrian safety improvements which do not close a road or right of way. These measures include signs, pavement markings, sidewalks, speed humps, and physical devices which limit access, channel vehicle movement, or otherwise divert traffic.
(e) After receiving an application from a citizens association which represents a significant number of residents of a proposed area, or a petition signed by 15 percent of the households in a proposed area, the Executive must decide whether to create an area and adopt a plan for that area.
(f) In deciding whether to create an area and adopt a plan for that area, the Executive must consider:
(1) the classification or function of each street in the area and existing street widths;
(2) overall traffic volumes and level of use by non-local traffic;
(3) pertinent traffic and pedestrian safety factors;
(4) the impact of possible traffic flow restrictions on nearby residential areas, businesses, public access and facilities, and the surrounding street network;
(5) feasibility of compliance and enforcement;
(6) the need of the residents in the proposed area for traffic flow restrictions;
(7) approved or pending master or sector plans; and
(8) any other factor the Executive finds relevant. The Executive must not reject a proposed plan primarily because it would increase traffic volumes on arterial roads.
(g) The Department of Transportation must seek advice on any proposed plan from affected residents and other interested persons on an ongoing basis through regular open meetings and other reasonable means.
(h) The Executive or the Executive’s designee must hold a public hearing before creating, modifying or discontinuing an area. The hearing must be held after notice published for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the County, with the last publication at least 15 days before the hearing. The notice must specify the boundaries of the proposed area, describe the proposed plan, and tell where to obtain more information. A copy of the notice must be prominently posted in the proposed area.
(i) Within 60 days after the record of the public hearing closes, the Executive must decide whether to establish an area and implement a plan. Before adopting a plan under subsection (b)(2), the Executive may by any reasonable means confirm the support by citizens in the proposed area for that plan.
(j) The authority delegated by this Section is in addition to any other authority the Executive has to regulate vehicle or pedestrian traffic.
(k) The Executive may adopt regulations under method (2) to implement this Section. These regulations may include, among other provisions, standards and procedures to reassess periodically any plan adopted under this Section or before this Section took effect.
(l) Any traffic restriction which was adopted before this Section took effect to control the volume of traffic in a residential area, and which is lawfully in force when this Section takes effect, must remain in effect until modified or revoked under this Section.
(m) The Executive must report by July 1 of each year to the Council on all applications approved or rejected under this Section and the status of pending applications. (1994 L.M.C., ch. 20, § 1; 1996 L.M.C., ch. 4, § 1; 1997 L.M.C., ch. 22, § 1; 2008 L.M.C., ch. 5, § 1.)
Editor’s note—2008 L.M.C., ch. 5
, § 3, states: Sec. 3. Any regulation in effect when this Act takes effect that implements a function transferred to another Department or Office under Section 1 of this Act continues in effect, but any reference in any regulation to the Department from which the function was transferred must be treated as referring to the Department to which the function is transferred. The transfer of a function under this Act does not affect any right of a party to any legal proceeding begun before this Act took effect.