[RP TownTalk] Town vs County Law

[Alan Thompson and Sarah Wayland]

Rob,

I did a little research on this myself, and your source at MML seems, from my 
interpretation of what I've read, to have exaggerated a little bit.  I'm not 
going to discuss zoning (which is a whole separate legal mess all by itself) 
but Article 23A, section 2B of the Maryland Code (available, with some 
digging, at
http://www.michie.com/maryland/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=main-h.htm&cp=mdcode
(scroll down on the bottom left pane until you start seeing Article numbers))

states, in part:
--------------------------------------------
(c)  Municipal legislation making county legislation inapplicable.- 
Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (b)(3) of this section, county 
legislation enacted in accordance with the procedures and requirements thereof 
shall nevertheless be or become inapplicable in any municipality which has 
enacted or enacts municipal legislation that:  

(1) Covers the same subject matter and furthers the same policies as the 
county legislation;  
(2) Is at least as restrictive as the county legislation; and  
(3) Includes provisions for enforcement.  
--------------------------------------------

My reading of (c)(2), above, is that if the county council has dotted its i's 
and crossed its t's just right (my eyes were glazing reading over (b)(3)), the 
only way the council can overrule it is to be at least as restrictive as the 
county legislation.  As you stated, determining whether the town can make a 
particular piece of county legislation "inapplicable" is probably best left to 
a lawyer.

Best,

Alan

On Sunday 01 March 2009 23:10:11 Robert Oppenheim wrote:
> Recent emails brought up an age old question about town
> law having to be "more strict" or "less strict" than county law.
> This was bantered about a lot when I was on the council. And
> often seemed to flip-flop depending on which way favored the
> speaker.
>
> So I made a point to learn more about this at the Maryland
> Municipal League seminars (at the MML convention).
>
> I was told that the empowering state law views municipalities
> and counties as equal, and that the town can override county
> law in any way the town sees fit. We can be the exact opposite
> of the county if we choose to be.