Waterfront property owners in Anne Arundel County will lose their right to due process over a complicated law intended to save the environment, officials said.

“This law pretty much makes the planning department judge, jury and executioner,” said Tom Redmond, legislative director for the Pasadena Business Association.

Redmond and other business owners plan to testify against the proposed tightening of the critical-area law today in Annapolis before the County Council. While Redmond supports preserving the environment, the bill is unjust and adds bureaucracy to the county planning department, he said.

But the proposed reforms to the critical area — the environmentally sensitive land around the Chesapeake Bay watershed — are state-mandated and legally fair for those who violate the law, county officials said.

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“You don’t have due process to violate the law,” said Alan Friedman, government affairs director for County Executive John R. Leopold, who introduced the legislation.

The legislation focuses on retroactive permits for those who built houses, pools or sheds, or graded land in the critical area. Officials say the current penalties are soft, allowing property owners to violate the law, apply for a permit after the fact and pay little in the way of consequences.

The proposal would require homeowners to sign a consent order requiring immediate compliance through fines, mitigation and possible demolition of structures built illegally.

But that would mean homeowners unaware of the law would automatically admit to guilt, which troubles many homeowner advocates who say simply removing a tree could be construed as a violation.

“Homeowners might find themselves in violation when their intent is not to be so. I question the legality of signing away your rights,” said Susan Stroud, government affairs director for the Home Builders Association of Maryland.

With more than 500 miles of shoreline in the county, many residents would be affected by the new code, and ignorance of the law is not a permissible exemption, Friedman said.

“It would really behoove anyone living near water that they have to do their due diligence,” he said.

Stroud said the bill’s intent is to punish developers but may have unintended consequences on individual property owners.

“They’re trying to kill a fly with a howitzer,” she said.

Some on the council are questioning the bill as well. Councilman Ron Dillon Jr., R-Pasadena, told The Examiner last month that the law is too complex and could lead to more violators.

The meeting will be held at 7 tonight at the Arundel Center, 44 Calvert St., Annapolis. For more information, visit aacounty.org.

jflanagan@baltimoreexaminer.com