The long-delayed 10 year master plan for Baltimore County got held up yet again at the County Council’s meeting Monday night.

The County Council was scheduled to pass the plan, already more than three years overdue.

Putting the brakes on the master plan had a domino effect of delaying the County Council taking up a controversial proposal from County Executive Johnny Olszewski to create mixed use development zones.

“Right now we don’t have an adopted master plan,” Council Chairman Izzy Patoka said at Monday’s meeting. “We hope to sometime in the near future.”

The master plan, which provides a roadmap for future development in the county should have been approved in 2020. Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski did not deliver a proposed plan to the County Council until last year. Administration officials blamed that delay on several factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

The County Council then took months to examine the master plan. Now council members say they have questions about the plan, which has gotten snarled up in other issues.

The County Council is in the middle of its quadrennial Comprehensive Zoning Map Process, or CZMP, when it considers requests for rezoning, Critics say the council should have had a new master plan in place before it started making zoning decisions.

Then there is last month’s proposal from Olszewski to create mixed use development zones in specific economically disadvantaged areas which are pinpointed in the master plan. That proposal has run into stiff opposition from the County Council because those mixed use zones could go forward without Council oversight.

The County Council plans to discuss the master plan at its February 13 meeting then pass it February 20.

The mixed use legislation is now scheduled to be debated February 27 and be voted on March 4.