The Prince George’s County Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee voted Tuesday to recommend favorable passage of CB 69 (2025), a zoning bill that would prohibit most new quick‑service restaurants with drive‑through service in residential zones and require a special‑exception review in certain commercial zones.

The action follows hours of testimony from planning staff, local residents and business representatives and an amendment the committee adopted that exempts restaurants that have only a pickup window and no menu board or ordering station. Committee Chair DeNoga moved the pickup‑window exemption; the amendment passed 4–1 and the committee then approved the bill as amended by a 5–0 vote.

The bill’s sponsor and supporters said the measure aims to reduce traffic, idling and “food‑swamp” effects in walkable and residential areas. “Continuing to permit these kinds of restaurants in Prince George’s County runs completely counter to so many of the policies, goals and purposes laid out in our general plan,” public commenter Greg Smith said during the hearing. Jeffrey Collins, vice chair of the Sierra Club of Prince George’s County, urged the committee not to wait for a county health study before acting and said drive‑throughs “directly increase carbon emissions and degrade air quality.”

County planning staff and the county executive’s office had recommended holding the bill until completion of the county’s Health Atlas study. Shaquan Smith, a planner in the planning director’s office, said the planning board’s recommendation to pause the proposal was based on a desire for data on traffic and environmental impacts and concerns about drafting and definitions. “There are different effects… including traffic, environmental and so forth, but we do not have that data to actually prove that,” he told the committee.

The committee’s amendments took several planning‑office suggestions into account. County staff and the bill’s drafters replaced the phrase “fast food restaurants with drive‑thrus” with the zoning definition “quick service restaurants with drive through service;” removed certain code cross‑references; and changed a proposed hard hours‑of‑operation limit (6 a.m.–11 p.m.) to allow the Zoning Hearing Examiner to determine appropriate hours on a case by case basis. The draft also moved an uncodified exemption date from July 1 to Oct. 1, 2025.

Business and franchise interests warned the committee about the bill’s broad language. Brenda Mahoney of the Restaurant Association of Maryland said many quick‑service outlets are locally owned franchise businesses and asked for more objective standards for “excessive concentration” rather than subjective community‑need tests. An attorney for a shopping‑center owner said he had projects near permit and requested exemptions for properties that had preliminary plans approved.

The key amendment the committee adopted reads, in summary, that the prohibition “shall not apply to a quick service with drive through service use that is limited to a pickup window and has no menu board or ordering station for customers to order food or drinks.” Committee members said the change was intended to carve out app‑order pickup windows (for example, some Chipotle or Cava operations) while keeping drive‑through lanes subject to special‑exception review.

After the amendment vote (Ayes: Chair DeNoga; Adam Stafford; Councilmember Hawkins; Vice Chair Oriada. No: Councilmember Olson), the committee approved a motion for a favorable recommendation as amended. The committee also directed staff to consider a narrow effective‑date exemption for projects with preliminary plan approvals that are already in progress; members said they would work out specific effective‑date language before introduction to the full council.

The bill will next go to the full council for introduction and further action.