Don't look now, but the Governor's housing bill for this year, sponsored by a score of state legislators including MoCo delegates/senators Linda Foley, Julie Palakovich Carr, Joe Vogel and Cheryl Kagan, gives developers the ability to sue to get approvals for pretty much
any kind of housing development, variances and waivers included,
anywhere in MoCo (and some other places) due to the perceived housing shortage.
https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Legislation/Details/hb0503?ys=2025RS
https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2025RS/bills/hb/hb0503F.pdf
To justify any denial, the county/Planning would have to present a case that one of six considerations isn't just part of approval norms, but
clearly outweighs the need for housing in the current "crisis."
Looks like heavy industrial, conservation and agricultural land can be exempted, but only if Planning presents the case for denial, and there's the rub. With their clear desire to push density, they could just sit on their hands and say that, in their opinion, any of that, or
any zoning, or
any adequate public facility rule, school overcrowding included, or even any
safety rule if they wanted doesn't outweigh the current housing need, so they aren't denying the permit/waiver/variance/whatever in the first place, citing the state law to anyone in the community who would object that they aren't following their own rules.
Who needs AHS via zoning text amendments for only some of the county when you have this in your back pocket? As a bonus, the municipalities like Rockville with their own zoning authority aren't exempt from this one!