"What makes it more profound is that the county has the opportunity of BRAC and the opportunity to attract quality business and development in this county, and all of that is potentially in jeopardy," Burdon said of the base realignment process that will occur over the next four years.
Economists counter that without adequate impact fees to upgrade infrastructure, businesses, residents and shoppers will flee. County officials said higher fees would even encourage new building and ensure its viability.
The desire of defense contractors to be located near Fort Meade will outweigh the burden of new impact fees, county officials added. Thousands of acres of undeveloped lands surround the Army post, and those tracts have been eyed for upscale retail and office space to serve new workers.
"I think that the growth is going to occur because of the attractiveness that BRAC represents," Leopold said.
Impact fees were last raised in 2001, after a task force of community and business leaders weighed in, but they remain thousands of dollars less than in other counties. The County Council supports increasing the fees, and even developers concede they should be higher.
The question is, in a county that relies on development to expand its coffers, how high is too high?
Leopold's bill, based on a report from a nationally recognized expert on impact fees, James C. Nicholas, calls for replacing the flat fee for homes with a "progressive" fee based on the number of bedrooms, increasing to as much as $37,017 for a five-bedroom house. Fees for commercial projects would multiply, based on the number of rooms (hotels), square footage (offices) or beds (hospitals).
County lawmakers, developers and other business leaders have questioned Nicholas' findings, and developers have hired rival consultants to challenge the figures. County Auditor Teresa Sutherland has found several errors in the study, including that it overstates the school portion of the impact fee by 35 percent, and understates the roads portion by 38 percent. Based on her calculations, the impact fee for a four-bedroom home should be $21,479, not $26,407 as listed in Leopold's bill.
The council has put up a united front in opposing Leopold's fees. Councilman C. Edward Middlebrooks has accused Leopold of seeking to quash criticism of his campaign contributions. He raised $504,000 in 2007 - more than any elected official at the local or state level - with more than 50 percent coming from the development community, based on available state reports.
