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Garrett Park officials are looking to rewrite portions of the town and county's land-use rules following an 18-month study of building codes that recommended sweeping changes to how construction is regulated.

The town's Land-Use Task Force — created in January 2009 following a lawsuit that challenged the town's setback rules — presented to the town council July 12 its review of building ordinances and the overlay zoning created for Garrett Park by Montgomery County. The group said differences in the policies has "created confusion and led to the breakdown of comity in the town."

Garrett Park Mayor Chris Keller said the only lawsuits filed against the town in the past 30 years have been over land-use decisions and regulations. While not ending in monetary settlements, such appeals — most recently the February 2009 Martin v. Garrett Park lawsuit where the town was required to issue a building permit for a porch the council previously denied — brought the restrictiveness of the town's ordinance into question, he said.

"I tend to be a the-glass-is-half-full guy and see this as an opportunity to help people, not a reflection of anything else," he said.

Keller said, in response to the report and ongoing issues, he and council members have contacted Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission personnel, requesting amendments to its land-use regulations to eliminate "often inconsistent and overlapping" language.

He said a committee of residents will be established to determine what specific changes will be sought.

Lois Villemaire, Park and Planning's project manager for its zoning code rewrite, said now is an opportune time for the town to seek these changes.

"We'll be going through our entire code over the next year with our consultants, so now is a good time," she said. "We can fold them right into the process."

Taskforce Convener Suzanne Grefsheim said her group examined the clarity of the regulations and issues from restrictions on smaller properties, where setbacks and density provisions reportedly discouraged property owners from renovations and encouraged new, commercial construction; a trend that opposed the intentions of the town's guidelines.

"The obvious concern was with the number of houses being torn down and newer, larger houses being built in their place," she said.

To promote retention of existing housing stock and owner-built houses, the reported recommends establishing property tax credits for speculative builders and making the process of acquiring a building permit simpler by transferring more control to the county.

Garrett Park resident and builder Don Gibbons said navigating the county's rules is significantly easier than going through the town process.

"The ordinances in town are certainly stricter than Montgomery County as a whole and they're not as straightforward," he said. "There really is a lack of clarity in how the rules are written in some places."

Gibbons said he recently finished building his home in Garrett Park, a process that was made easier by the design of his home.

"I had a desire to stay to the small scale; a shorter, single-story Frank Lloyd Wright project," he said. "If we had wanted to build something larger, I could see that being much more difficult."