Rebecca Lundberg Witt is stepping down as executive director of the Baltimore City Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals (BMZA), three years and eight months after joining the department.
Witt, an attorney, said in an email message this week that she is leaving Baltimore City government to join Cheshire Law Group, a law firm in Philadelphia that represents non-profit organizations.
The BMZA, commonly called the zoning board, is a key city agency that hears appeals from decisions made by other city agencies about zoning and land use, alley and sidewalk violation notices, street closings, false alarm fines and other matters. Many of its cases involve property owners who are seeking approval of construction projects and need a waiver or variance from city zoning regulations to obtain building permits.
The zoning board staff provides assistance to a five-member citizens panel that hears appeals on a wide range of subjects, from the height of a proposed backyard fence to permission to utilize a property in a way that’s considered a “conditional use” within a certain zoning district, such as a day care center or an assisted living facility or outdoor entertainment proposed by a restaurateur.
The citizens panel follows the City Code, the City Charter and Maryland state law to reach its decisions. It considers hundreds of cases a year and is under constant pressure to approve projects that add to the city’s tax base.
At the same time, panel members must consider a project’s potential impact on the health, safety and well-being of the surrounding community and hear testimony from neighbors, pro and con. As executive director, Witt heard from all sides. She also endured some more-than-testy budget hearing grillings from City Councilmember Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer, who disagreed with the way she was running the office.
Witt joined the BMZA as assistant counsel in January of 2022. She became its acting executive director in August of 2022 and its executive director in February of 2023.
Before that, she was a staff attorney for the Community Law Center in Baltimore from August of 2012 to January of 2022. While with the law center, she represented community association clients appearing before Baltimore’s liquor board and wrote a much-read and highly entertaining blog called Booze News about its public hearings and rulings.
In April, Amanda Tucker joined the zoning board as staff attorney. A new executive director has not been named. Witt will be working remotely for the Philadelphia law firm. “Looking forward to a break from city politics,” she wrote in her email message.
