This article of the zoning chapter is enacted pursuant to the
authority of § 7-302 of the Land Use Article of the Annotated
Code of Maryland, as amended (hereafter in this article referred to
as the "Maryland Agreements Statute").
This article is intended to grant to specified public bodies
of the Town (each hereafter in this section referred to as a "public
principal") the authority, and to establish the procedural requirements,
to execute development rights and responsibilities agreements (hereafter
in this section referred to in the singular as "agreement" and in
the plural as "agreements") to accomplish the following purposes:
A. To provide a developer, and to its successors and assigns having
an ownership interest in the real property of the developer that is
the subject of the agreement (hereafter in this section referred to
as the "subject property"), with a level of security over a period
of time that the development plan, and the accompanying design details,
for the subject property that is approved by the Town may be completed
without substantial changes or impediments; and thereafter to preserve
property values by protecting against individual lot owners deviating
from the development plan, and the accompanying design details; caused
or permitted by future amendments to the Town laws, rules, regulations,
and policies governing the use, density and/or intensity of development
by an agreement granting to the developer, and to its successors and
assigns having an ownership interest in the subject property, qualified
vested rights in the existing laws, rules, regulations, and policies
governing the use, density and/or intensity of development of the
subject property ("qualified vested rights") without the developer
having to immediately make substantial improvements to all portions
of the subject property; and
B. To provide a public principal with the authority and procedures to
accept from a developer, and to bind a developer and its successors
and assigns to, the consideration offered by the developer without
the necessity of an analysis of the nexus and/or rough proportionality
between the consideration offered by the developer and the impacts
on the Town from the development of the subject property; provided
that:
(1)
The consideration offered by the developer and accepted by the
public principal shall be solely and exclusively for the benefits
to the developer, and its successors and assigns, of the qualified
vested rights; and
(2)
The consideration offered by the developer and accepted by the
public principal shall not be for any impacts on the Town from the
proposed development of the subject property.
C. To provide an alternative Town entity authorized to contract with
a developer so that the ultimate zoning authority of the Town concerning
a development may avoid the actuality and the appearance of contracting
for zoning with the developer.
A developer of real property located in the Town, or of real
property for which a petition for annexation to the Town is pending,
and who proposes to develop that real property pursuant to the land
use laws of the Town, may petition the Town to enter into an agreement
with respect to the real property of the developer identified in the
agreement. Such a petition shall be entirely voluntary on the part
of the developer, and shall not be required by the Town, any of its
agencies, or a public principal of the Town, as a condition of any
land-use classification, designation, permit or approval.
The procedures required before a public principal may execute
an agreement shall be as follows:
A. A petition for an agreement shall be submitted by a developer to
a public principal;
B. A petition for an agreement received by the Town Commissioners shall
be referred to the Planning Commission;
C. After the Planning Commission receives a petition, and before the
executing public principal shall be permitted to execute a proposed
agreement, the Planning Commission shall determine whether the proposed
agreement is consistent with the Comprehensive Plan of the Town.
D. Before the executing public principal may execute a proposed agreement,
it shall conduct a public hearing. A public hearing by the executing
public principal that is required relating to the approval process
for the proposed development of the subject property satisfies this
public hearing requirement.
E. Recording.
(1)
An agreement shall be void if not recorded in the land records
of Talbot County within 20 days after the day on which the last of
the executing public principal and the petitioner execute the agreement.
(2)
The parties to an agreement, and their successors in interest
are bound to the agreement after the agreement is recorded.
The parties to an agreement may amend that agreement by mutual
consent after the following procedures:
A. A determination by the Planning Commission that the proposed amendment
is consistent with the Comprehensive Plan of the Town; and
B. A public hearing on the proposed amendment conducted by the executing
public principal.
Unless an agreement is terminated under §
340-208 of this chapter, the parties to an agreement, any third-party beneficiary named therein, or their respective successors in interest, may enforce the agreement.