Funny thing about the "critical area," the waterfront land whose protection is supposed to be so vital to the health of Maryland's environment: Nobody seems to know how many people live there.

It's enough to make you wonder how critical it really is.

After attending a County Council meeting earlier this month and hearing people rail against proposed new building enforcement in critical areas, I had what I figured was a simple question: How many people in the county live in the critical area?

If you're making a big show of beefing up regulations, it seems like you might want to know how many people you're...