By Logan Martini
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
The Baltimore County Council Monday rejected a bill that would have prevented restaurants in the Honeygo area of Perry Hall from operating 24 hours a day. The vote was 4-3.
The legislation, which was proposed by Councilman David Marks, R-5th District, was designed to protect homeowners near The Shops at Perry Hall, who were concerned about the noise and traffic that could be generated by restaurants open late into the night.
With the new amendments added Monday, the bill would have restricted “standard restaurants” within 300 feet of a residential building in the eastern and western subareas of Perry Hall’s Honeygo overlay district from operating between the hours of 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. It would not have applied to fast food establishments.
The bill’s immediate impact would have been on a Denny’s restaurant that is planned for The Shops at Perry Hall, located at the corner of Belair Road and Honeygo Boulevard. The shopping center currently has a car wash, a Valvoline and a 24-hour Wawa.
Opponents of the bill were worried that it could stifle economic development in the area while supporters argued that residents should not be subjected to the late-night noise coming from restaurants close to their homes.
Councilman Julian E. Jones, D-4th District, who is one of the three council members running for county executive next year, said the bill would unfairly require businesses in the area to change the way they have operated for years.
In addition, Jones expressed skepticism about whether the bill would actually solve any problems that a sit-down restaurant like Denny’s might bring to the neighborhood given that it did not apply to fast-food eateries with drive-through windows.
“Is the issue that they will be inside the Denny’s eating?” he asked. “Because a drive-thru has cars, has traffic, it has people in the summertime with their windows down and the music up loud sometimes…I’m trying to figure out what’s happening inside the restaurant that will bother the citizens more than a drive-thru or Wawa.”
Councilman Izzy Patoka, D-2nd District, who is also running for county executive in 2026, suggested that the council consider a new bill at some point in the future. Such legislation, Patoka said, could include other requirements like adding landscape buffers and fencing between the shopping center and residential neighborhood to limit the view of the traffic and the noise.
Councilmen Mike Ertel, D-6th District, Patoka, Pat Young D-1st District, and Jonesvoted against the bill, while Councilmen Marks, Todd Crandell, R-7th District, and Wade Kach R-3rd District, supported the measure.
Perry Hall resident Daniel Williams said he was disappointed that the bill did not pass.
“We’re appreciative of the suggestions, better aesthetics, trees, buffers,” Williams said. “Certainly, those will make the area beautiful, but they will not do anything to address the nature of noise at 1 a.m., 2 a.m… And that is our biggest concern.”