SPIRO T. AGNEW, Governor                       1177

CHAPTER 607
(Senate Bill 656)

AN ACT to add new Sections 26A-1 through 26A-4, inclusive, to the
Montgomery County Code (1965 Edition, being Article 16 of the
Code of Public Local Laws of Maryland), title "Montgomery
County," subtitle "General Local Laws," to follow immediately
after Section 26-14 thereof, and to be under the new subheading
"Chapter 26A. Land Bank," PUBLIC FACILITY AREA DEVEL-
OPMENT," in order to empower the County Council of Mont-
gomery County to purchase, hold, improve, and dispose to public
agencies and to private individuals and corporations for develop-
ment according to an approved plan real properties needed to
ensure the orderly development of land adjacent to important
public facilities, and to authorize the County Council of Mont-
gomery County to levy taxes for this purpose and to issue bonds
on the full faith and credit of Montgomery County thereof.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland,
That new Sections 26A-1 through 26A-4, inclusive, be and they are
hereby added to the Montgomery County Code (1965 Edition, being
Article 16 of the Code of Public Local Laws of Maryland), title
"Montgomery County," subtitle "General Local Laws," to follow
immediately after Section 26-14 thereof, and to be under the new
subheading "Chapter 26A. Land Bank," PUBLIC FACILITY AREA
DEVELOPMENT," and to read as follows:

Chapter 26A. Land Bank
PUBLIC FACILITY AREA DEVELOPMENT
26A-1. Short title.

This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the Public Facil-
ity Area Development Law.

26A-2. Findings and declaration of public purpose.

It is hereby found and declared that the Montgomery County
Council, the State of Maryland, and other public agencies operating
within Montgomery County face very large and continuing expendi-
tures for the provision of highways, schools, health centers, rapid
transit lines and stations, and other public facilities to serve a grow-
ing population; that the benefits and costs of such major public facil-
ities may be significantly affected by securing the orderly, planned
development of land adjacent to those public facilities; that the costs
and benefits at issue are (1) efficiency and economy in the provision
of public services, both in capital cost and in operating cost, by
means of the functional use and usefulness of the public facility plus
the impact of the facility upon the overall land and facility develop-
ment pattern proposed in the General Plan of the County, and (2)
attractiveness and amenity of the physical environment, and (3)
growth in the local economy and tax base. It is further found and
declared that these benefits derived from orderly development ad-
jacent to public facilities can be secured much more reliably by a
process whereby land adjacent to the proposed public facility is pur-
chased at the time that land for the facility itself is acquired, a site
plan is prepared for the public facility and the adjacent land to-