Adequate Facilities

Responding to concerns raised by developers and landowners, Carroll County staff recommended yesterday that the county commissioners consider modifications to a proposal that revamps the county's adequate public facilities law. Under the proposal, residential development would have to meet more stringent adequate-facilities standards and pass two adequacy tests before developers could proceed with subdivision plans. The law is designed to prevent residential growth from overwhelming schools, utilities and emergency services.

Residential development in Carroll County would have to meet more stringent adequate-facilities standards and would be required to pass two tests before developers could proceed with their plans under recommendations approved yesterday by a task force. The group was formed after the county commissioners imposed a yearlong freeze on residential development covered by the county's adequate-facilities law. The law is designed to prevent residential growth from overwhelming schools, roads, the water supply, and police, fire and medical services.

The Carroll commissioners' yearlong growth freeze met its first courtroom challenge yesterday when an Eldersburg developer asked a county judge to let work proceed on his proposed 21-lot subdivision in Finksburg. Developer James Kohler is requesting an injunction against the 4-month-old freeze, which he says is unfair because the county gave him a certificate saying that if he met certain conditions, he would be allowed to develop his project in 2005. Circuit Judge Michael M. Galloway said he might take a few weeks to rule on the injunction request, adding that his decision could set a precedent for the 90 other projects affected by the freeze.

Harford County lawmakers have rejected a series of recommendations from a task force that would have put more muscle into a bill designed to ease the crowding in public schools by changing the adequate public facilities laws to restrict new housing development. "I can't believe it. They voted against every single amendment made by the task force at its last meeting," Councilman Dion F. Guthrie said after the County Council meeting Tuesday night. "They turned their backs on the schoolchildren of the county, the teachers and the parents," said Guthrie, who represents Edgewood and Joppatowne.

In what could presage a major re-examination of Howard County's school crowding problems, the County Council is expected tomorrow night to delay an annual vote to adopt charts controlling which school districts will be open and which will be closed to development in 2006. The effect of the delay will leave large sections of the county - including the entire west and the northeastern school regions - closed to builders until the county resolves three issues, according to several council members.

Cecil County could become the latest jurisdiction to limit housing development based on school capacity. That was one of the recommendations included in the final report by an 11-member citizens committee reviewing the county comprehensive plan. The report was presented to the Board of Commissioners last week. The committee suggested that the county establish adequate public facilities laws that would halt preliminary approval for new residential subdivisions in school zones where schools are 20 percent or more over capacity.

Frustrated parents, concerned about crowding in Harford County public schools, clashed recently with lawmakers in one of the more lively County Council sessions of the past five years. "Some sparks were flying," Councilman Lance C. Miller, who represents the northern part of the county, said of Tuesday's meeting. "At least it is not boring anymore." Councilwoman Cecelia M. Stepp was a little embarrassed the day after the session. "I'm afraid I got a little emotional last night," she said.

The county commissioners will hold a public hearing tonight on proposed amendments to the county's adequate-facilities law - amendments that they all seem to oppose. Their quandary centers on possible infringements on the development rights of farmers. The amendments, which were requested by the commissioners, would apply countywide to all building lots and would add years to the development process for farmers. "I just want to know how many lots and where they are," Commissioner Dean L. Minnich said.

Bubbling up amid this year's political rhetoric is growing frustration over Howard County's decade-old law that tries to curb school crowding by slowing development. Some candidates have talked of scrapping the system, while others defend it as a good tool that needs more tinkering, but no one is satisfied with the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (APFO). Time and again in recent years, those charged with administering APFO have failed to predict mushrooming school enrollments in fast-growing areas, causing widespread crowding, contentious redistricting and urgent demands for rapid school construction.

A bill that would temporarily halt home building around several crowded elementary schools in western Howard County was unanimously approved Monday night by the County Council. In the same session, higher rates for taxicabs were approved. The council voted to close the Bushy Park and Lisbon school districts to new development in 2003, in addition to shutting off development around Pointers Run and Atholton elementary schools that year. County enrollment projections put Pointers Run and Atholton over 115 percent of their designed capacity by 2003.