Andre De Verneil, who spoke for the Interfaith Coalition for Affordable Housing, noted that the idea for the bill came out of the 2006 citizens housing task force that examined the issue.
With development at a standstill because of the sour economy, now is the time to implement more affordable-housing ideas to prepare for better times, he said.
If approved by the council Jan. 5, the measure would help developers of the former Aladdin Mobile Home Park on U.S. 1 in Ball's district. Plans to build 1,067 homes, apartments and condominiums on 40.6 acres just north of Route 175 are stymied, caught between growth controls that would allow only a small number of new housing unit allocations in that area each year, and county zoning law that requires at least 25 percent of the new homes replacing mobile homes to be MIHU. Until county approval of more allocations is in hand, developers say they can't get bank financing for such large projects.
But council members Courtney Watson and Greg Fox fear the measure would breach the growth-control system, and could set a precedent for other deviations in later years, weakening the growth-management system described in the county's General Plan. They argue that there should be some other way to allow projects to progress without exempting them from growth controls.
"Once you start granting exemptions to managed-growth laws, in two, three years, what is next to be an exemption?" said Watson, an Ellicott City Democrat.
Fox had a similar view.
"We have to make sure we don't have unintended consequences," said Fox, a Fulton Republican.
The council will have a work session discussion at 4:30 p.m. Monday at school board headquarters.
The council has tried to help in the past, creating a new pool of 100 housing allocations dedicated for lower-priced homes, but that has created yet another clash.
If the Aladdin developers, who call their new community Howard Park, want to use the separate MIHU pool of 100 allocations, for example, they must keep their units under a certain size. Those limits - 900 square feet for a one-bedroom apartment and 1,100 square feet for a two-bedroom unit - means they must be rental apartments.
County policy is to scatter MIHU throughout a community, but there is no practical way to do that with small apartments. They would all have to be in one building.
