The Baltimore County Council on Monday night approved new leadership for the Planning Board and the appointment of the county’s first Black fire chief.

Last week, County Executive Johnny Olszewski nominated researcher C. Scott Holupka to be chair and real estate professional Emily Brophy to be vice chair. He had previously tapped Joseph W. Dixon, a longtime leader in the Howard County fire department who recently moved to Florida to lead the Gainesville department, to be fire chief.

All three were confirmed unanimously.

Dixon will lead a department that had a budget of $121 million in fiscal year 2023 and more than 1,000 employees. He will earn $250,000 a year. A Maryland native, Dixon said he was “honored and humbled” to serve the county, and looks forward to being closer to his grandchildren.

While Dixon will move here from Florida, Holupka and Brophy are both already county residents and members of the Planning Board. It includes 15 members — eight of whom are picked by the county executive and seven by individual council members. The board wields considerable influence over the county’s 600-square-mile terrain — everything from developing the 10-year master plan to working on a comprehensive rezoning process every four years.

Brophy used to manage malls and now runs her own real estate, accounting and tax firm near Catonsville. Holupka, a Dundalk resident, was appointed to the Planning Board by Olszewski’s father when he served on the County Council, and later by the current county executive. Holupka’s wife, Amy Menzer, is a senior planner at the county’s Department of Planning.

Olszewski moved to put in place new leadership as county voters are set to decide whether to amend the county charter to limit the terms of board members and require County Council confirmation for all nominees, effective Jan. 1. Now, the council only confirms the chair and vice chair.

The council introduced the proposed limits because some Planning Board members were asking to rezone properties outside their districts. Council members have also long thought that the board — and the county executive’s appointees, in particular — leans too pro-development.

Holupka said that the efforts of Councilman David Marks, who downzoned about 10% of his district to favor open space and a neighborhood commons approach, “seemed excessive.”

Marks, in particular, wanted to make sure that Holupka as chair would put in some guardrails on board members who occasionally put in zoning issues for properties they don’t own that are not in their district.

Though anyone can request such zoning changes, Planning Board members can do so more easily and without an attorney to advise them. Many of those seeking zoning changes have experienced lawyers. Holupka, who said he’d never made such a zoning request, agreed the board needed a more formal process.

Brophy’s nomination incensed residents of Boring, a small community in the county’s northern section that fought a zoning change for its community fire hall that Brophy ended up recommending.

Ultimately, the decision whether to rezone the property was up to Councilman Julian Jones. After persistent lobbying from Boring community members, Jones opted to keep the zoning as it was.

In a letter to the council and Olszewski, the Boring Community Association and the Boring Zoning Committee asked leaders not to elevate Brophy.

“Ms. Brophy displayed a lack of regard for our community, was woefully misinformed, spoke in a shockingly disparaging manner, and appeared to advocate for the petitioners. We are distressed by the recommendation to elevate her on the Planning Board,” they wrote.

In an interview last week, Brophy disputed that characterization. “We have hundreds of pieces of testimony that we receive from multiple issues, and we always review both sides of the issue. So it’s not that I voted for or against it for one specific piece of testimony. It was just based on everything I read, that was my opinion,” she said.

Olszewski is the Democratic nominee for Congress in Maryland’s 2nd District, which includes most of Baltimore County, a portion of Carroll County and a small piece of Baltimore. A spokesperson praised both members as “experienced and qualified candidates.”