SNOW HILL – Worcester County officials agreed to change notification procedures this week to ensure adjacent property owners are aware of potential zoning changes in their neighborhoods.
The Worcester County Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to begin using certified mail to send public notices regarding cases being heard by the Worcester County Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA).
“If there’s a major commercial or residential project in somebody’s backyard and they didn’t receive the notice, I don’t think that’s fair to the adjoining property owners,” Commissioner Eric Fiori said.
Jennifer Keener, director of development review and permitting, told the commissioners this week that there were various notification methods used when property owners were seeking approval of changes from the BZA. She said her department put the notification in two different newspapers twice.
“The property itself is posted with a notice, a bright orange sign describes the case, the request, the date and the time of the hearing, and we also send the adjoiner notices,” she said. “Those are sent by standard first class mail.”
Those notices are sent to properties that touch the property in question, as well as those across from it and even those across a water body from it, she said.
In 2022, her department sent “well over” 400 notifications associated with BZA cases. Keener said using certified mail to send the notices would increase costs and that increase would have to be borne by the applicants. She added that BZA application fees were increased $50 last year because of the rising cost of advertising.
“We really don’t get too many people complaining they haven’t received their mail,” she said. “My recommendation is to keep it the way it is.”
She confirmed that while switching to certified mail wouldn’t cost the county anything, as the added cost would be passed on to the applicant, she worried there was potential for delays associated with certified mail.
“They have to be available to sign for something,” she said.
Commissioner Jim Bunting, who previously served on the BZA, said he had heard people complain about not receiving notices regarding changes in the past. Fiori said switching to certified mail would put the burden of proof on the post office rather than the county.
“I think that could keep us out of some legal issues later down the road,” Fiori said.
The commissioners voted unanimously to begin using certified mail with electronic delivery confirmation for BZA notifications.
