Across the rolling hills of a thoroughbred breeding farm in Upperco, Taboo and No, a mother and daughter duo, trotted toward their owner with a playful curiosity.

The majestic beasts ambling through Dark Hollow Farm on a bluebird August afternoon are emblematic of what makes northern Baltimore County horse country.

“We raise all of our horses like they are going to be the next Secretariat,” said JoAnn Hayden, gesturing to a group of mares roaming the field.

The Haydens’ farm exemplifies why the Valleys Planning Council — a nonprofit land preservation organization — lobbied the Baltimore County Council to designate more than 140,000 acres, including the Hayden’s 155 acres, as an “Equine Legacy Area.”

The council’s request was driven by fear of development, the county’s growing housing crisis and questions about the future of the Urban-Rural Demarcation Line, or URDL, which severely limits development in north county.

Councilmen Wade Kach, Izzy Patoka, David Marks and Julian Jones co-sponsored a resolution that passed in May formally recognizing the sprawling area in order to protect the “benefits provided by the County’s equine industry as well as help preserve the valuable natural and cultural resources.”

How exactly horse country will be protected — and from what — is not clear. The resolution included no enforcement mechanism, said the county’s planning director, Steve Lafferty.

“We’re talking about very rural zoning, so the likelihood of many large developments is very unlikely,” he said.

Renée Hamidi, the council’s executive director, said it’s no accident that northern Baltimore County, from Hunt Valley to the Pennsylvania state line, is covered with forests and pastures.

“What people don’t realize is how hard we all have to work to keep it looking like this,” she said. “It’s the day-to-day operations.”

Planning rooted in preservation

The county’s planning board established the URDL (pronounced ur-dell) in 1967, dividing the county. About one third of the county is suburban land with established water and sewer infrastructure and about 750,000 residents. The remaining two-thirds is zoned for rural uses, which allows for one house per acre; it has about 85,000 residents.

Earlier this year, the County Council passed a measure that leaves the future of the URDL up to the voters. In 2026, Baltimore County voters will decide whether to require a council supermajority (six out of nine members, after redistricting) of votes to change the line.

Councilman Izzy Patoka, a Pikesville Democrat who co-sponsored the Equine Legacy Area resolution, explained that the land north of the URDL is the source for both the county’s and city’s water, supplying nearly 2 million people.

“You want to be careful to do things that won’t corrupt your water supply — once you’ve corrupted it, you can’t go back,” Patoka said.

Hamidi cited developers’ pressure to adjust the URDL as the Valleys Planning Council’s “next big fight.”

“There are competing sides, and usually the side that wants more development has a lot more cash,” she said. “If they have more cash, they have more power. I’m not casting aspersions on the council at all, but those voices may be louder than the voices of the people who don’t want overdevelopment.”

JoAnn Hayden and her husband, David, built their thoroughbred operation in the mid-1980s around Safely Kept, a U.S. Racing Hall of Fame mare who won 24 out of 31 races and earned more than $2 million during her career — the most of any Maryland-bred horse.

The Haydens built their legacy by raising generations of horses at Dark Hollow, but JoAnn, 78, worries about what happens to the land after she and David die. No one in their family wants the farm.

“It would be my dream that I would find someone who had that commitment and love of the land,” she said. “Whether it be horses, or not, just somebody who would treat it with the respect and all of the love that we had for it.”

A growing housing crisis

Lafferty said the URDL is an important asset to support the county’s agriculture industry and maintain the health of waterways.

But the county is running out of land where it can develop housing, according to its 2023 Master Plan.

“There’s no question that we need more housing in the county, but it’s also very clear as a policy the URDL is not going away,” Lafferty said.

Jennie Fumarola, director of programs and operations at Cornerstone Franciscan Ministries, said she believes the county needs to do a better job of striking a balance between land preservation and addressing the affordable housing crisis.

“We do inherently live in this community where ‘Not in My Backyard’ means the whole county,” Fumarola said.

Cornerstone provides families facing homelessness and eviction up to 12 months of case management.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Cornerstone usually could help families find one-bedroom apartments for roughly $900 a month. Now, Fumarola said, the average rent in Baltimore County is over $1,600.

“In the city if you get evicted, they put all of your stuff in storage, tell you to pay and you get a key,” she explained. “In the county, if you get evicted, your stuff winds up on the curb and you’ll walk away from your apartment with whatever you can carry.”

Over the past five years, Fumarola said, her organization went from helping about 110 families a year to assisting 200 to 300 families a month.

“The need for eviction prevention is so great and the need for affordable housing is really great, but it’s really hard to get the zoning for that,” she said.

Pressure mounts

Expanding affordable housing in Baltimore County’s urban core remains difficult to legislate and fund.

In 2016, the county agreed to a voluntary consent agreement with the federal government to build 1,000 new units of affordable housing by 2027.

While the county has made progress on that goal, individual projects remain controversial. The future of Red Maple Place, a 56-unit, $30 million affordable housing complex in Towson, is uncertain, for example.

The council recently voted against nearly doubling its contribution to $4.1 million — citing ballooning costs and environmental concerns.

Patoka, who’s running for county executive and has a background as a professional planner, suggests creating more mixed-use overlay districts, or stack zoning, where new buildings could be developed over outdated parking lots and strip malls.

“Land preservation and housing do not have to be in contention with one another, but we need resources to protect our urban, suburban and rural character,” he said “If it’s all urbanized, it loses its character … it could be any generic county anywhere in the U.S.A."

Lafferty said most of the land inside the URDL has already been built out.

What’s left — including a proposal to revitalize the aging Lutherville Station shopping center, which sits next to a light-rail stop, into a 200-unit market-rate complex — generates massive opposition from neighbors and councilmen.

“The need to reexamine the zoning standards inside a largely suburban county is difficult,” he said. “People don’t want to see a townhouse next to them.”