City seeks zoning amendment to ease the headaches all around

Whether you plan to sell soon or just stay and enjoy the change, adding on to your home with a deck or patio can increase your home’s value and livability. For some Bowie homeowners, though, it’s not as simple as drawing up the plans, buying the materials, and rounding up some willing workers.

About 1,000 homes are in the residential-rural (R-R) zoning area that has stricter limits on "lot coverage" (the amount of roofed structures and parking on a property) than the rest of the city. These limits have forced homeowners to go through the long and often fruitless process of requesting a zoning variance. If the City of Bowie has its way, that will change.

The city has requested County Councilwoman Ingrid Turner to propose a zoning text amendment that would make the permitted lot coverage in the city uniform. Most of Bowie is covered by two zoning designations that allow 30 percent lot coverage, but the R-R area allows only 25 percent. Removing the discrepancy will reduce headaches for the Bowie Advisory Planning Board, and they hope it will also reduce the number of variance requests.

Before the change can occur, the county will have to review the impact of the change. But city officials believe it will be easier to get a zoning amendment than a revision of the entire code. If they are right, that new patio or widened driveway may be an achievable dream for more Bowie homeowners.

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