Charles planning board to update zoning code

The last major update to the Charles County Zoning Code was in 1992.

Since then, the county has grown by nearly 70,000 residents, and an update is in the works to address new land uses, like agrotourism, microbreweries and short-term rentals.

“The code update is similar to improving the user interface on a webpage or an app,” Reed Faasen, the county’s zoning administrator, said to the Charles County Planning Commission at a June 17 meeting. “The code is overdue for modernization.”

Zoning is a set of laws that govern how private land can be used and what types of buildings may be built. A zoning code may tell residents how tall a house can be, whether or not a property can be used as a day-care center, or how big a sign may be installed outside of a business, according to a presentation given to the planning commission.

The presentation said that a current pain point is that the current code can be difficult to navigate, read, interpret and administer.

The update seeks to increase usability by consolidating and streamlining regulations and procedures, clarifying ambiguous terms, illustrating regulations with graphics and using tables to display numeric standards.

“We’re going to try and go for more robust definitions to allow a future-proof code,” Faasen said.

Dawud Abdur-Rahman, a member of the planning commission, asked, “When you look at zoning around the country, do you find that it's a regular process for jurisdictions, for different reasons, to have to amend their zoning code on some regular basis? Are we unusual in that case or typical?”

Nolan Nicaise, a senior planner at ZoneCo, a specialty firm that rewrites zoning ordinances, said, “I would say it is very typical to have a lot of amendments over time, especially when you look at a code that is old as 1992.”

“One thing I think is a little bit different, is we see these text amendments in Charles County that are for very specific areas,” Nicaise said.

Nicaise compared the current code to a floor plan of a house after it had been added onto multiple times to the point where it does not make sense anymore.

“The whole goal is to improve the customer experience and the user experience,” Faasen said.

As it stands now, the zoning update would likely be adopted at some point in the second half of 2025.