Impact Fees

With tens of thousands of jobs expected to flow into the state because of military base realignment, local officials are pressing the Pentagon to change a long-standing policy of paying impact fees to school districts only after the new families arrive - too late to help finance the expansion of schools and programs. As part of a statewide series of meetings with county executives about the impending expansions at Aberdeen Proving Ground and Fort Meade, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski said yesterday that revising the federal funding formula is critical to preparing for a surge in student enrollment.

Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens is considering raising impact fees for residential developers to help pay for school construction and renovation without raising taxes."

RAISING IMPACT fees for home construction is a prudent and timely action by Carroll County's lame-duck commissioners. The moderate fee increases are needed, and the action may protect the new board from having to handle this political hot potato.The fee increases, the first in three years, range from 6 to 8 percent for all but mobile homes. For a single-family home, the increase will be $257, rising to $4,744 -- nowhere near enough to fulfill the dire warnings of the homebuilder industry.

Howard County executive candidate James N. Robey and other local Democratic candidates gathered yesterday to say their party has been better for public education than the GOP -- an attempt to remind voters one more time of this year's bitter schools budget battle between Republicans and educators.There were no concrete proposals, however, beyond County Council candidate Guy Guzzone's suggestion that residential developers pay an impact fee to help fund new schools."On a gut level, I believe that it's the only way that we can pay for the things that we really care about," said Guzzone, who is running against Republican Wanda Hurt in District 3 in southeastern Howard.

Concerned that rapid growth is outpacing Carroll County's ability to pay for new roads and schools -- and to protect longtime residents from new taxes -- the county commissioners are preparing to increase the fees they charge developers for new housing.The 6 percent increase in impact fees, which are used to fund school and park projects, would raise the price that buyers pay for new residential development in a county that has seen its population grow by about 50 percent since the 1970s.

After a brief public hearing, a divided Board of County Commissioners increased yesterday the fees charged developers to build houses.The additional revenue from impact fees will help fund school and park projects in a county that has seen its population grow by about 50 percent since the 1970s.The fee increases ranged from almost 6 percent for a single-family home to 11 percent for a mobile home."It's been three years since we last looked at the impact fees. I believe, with the cost of things as they are today, we did the right thing," said Commissioner W. Benjamin Brown, who is leaving office when his term expires Dec. 7.Brown and Commissioner Richard T. Yates, who also is leaving office next month, voted to approve the higher fees.

Impact fee ordinance scheduled for hearingThe Board of County Commissioners will hold a public hearing a proposed ordinance to raise impact fees on new residences at 3 p.m. Wednesday at the County Office Building.The ordinance would raise impact fees on new dwellings: single-family homes, from $4,487 to $4,744; mobile homes, from $1,473 to $1,631; townhouses, from $3,377 to $3,595; and multifamily homes from $1,784 to $1,925.The ordinance may be reviewed and copies obtained at the Office of the County Clerk during business hours and at all branches of the public library.

As a Democrat running for county commissioner in Republican-dominated Carroll, Perry L. Jones knows he must persuade voters to look beyond party affiliation. He wants voters to consider the man.Voters will see in Jones an unfailingly polite, reserved, hard-working owner of an auto repair shop. His days zigzag between replacing a fan belt and representing Union Bridge, population 1,000.Jones, serving his second four-year term as mayor, presides over a town working to pay for its town hall mortgage with fund-raisers, including pancake breakfasts and festivals, rather than through a property tax increase.

Carroll's efforts to control growth have pinched developers so hard that they are beginning to say more than "ouch."Builders and the business community predicted that interim development controls imposed last year by the County Commissioners would "kill this county," said Gregory G. Dorsey, president of the local chapter of the Homebuilders Association of Maryland. And the latest quarterly report of building permit applications "proves our point -- a point we hoped would not be proved," he said.

The developer of Piney Orchard in Odenton wants to put up an elementary school in the community at least two years sooner than the county school system would build the structure, and possibly for less money.If local school and state officials approve, it would be the first such arrangement in the state.The county could use millions in developer fees already collected from Constellation Real Estate Inc., the developer, under a proposal being worked out by the company, school officials and county budget officials.

Some Anne Arundel County homeowners can expect to share in at least $2.1 million - and perhaps as much as $4.7 million - in homebuilding fee refunds ordered by the state's highest court. But the money is probably not coming soon, as an eight-year legal battle enters its next stage. Which homeowners and the amount of the refund remain in question, and a county judge will consider that issue in the coming months. This month, the Maryland Court of Appeals ordered Anne Arundel to repay homeowners and a developer the fees that were not spent within six years of collection or were misspent, plus interest.

The state's highest court ruled Wednesday in favor of several Anne Arundel County developers and property owners who sued the county to recover millions of dollars in impact fees paid from 1988 to 1996. Development impact fees, which the county requires builders to pay to offset costs to public infrastructure, must be refunded if the county does not use the money within six years for the capital improvement projects for which they were collected. That suit originally was filed in February 2001.

The county is facing a $116.5 million budget shortfall for next year, and officials may have to consider layoffs and tapping into the $46 million "rainy day" fund for the first time. Budget Officer John Hammond presented some of Anne Arundel County's budget issues at Tuesday's County Council work session, where members also reviewed a county financial audit and asked questions of administration officials about a bill recently introduced to allow slots in the county. In fiscal 2009, the county saw a $43.2 million revenue shortfall, Hammond told the council.

Rebuilding a demolished home on an existing lot must occur within 10 years, if the property owner is to avoid the impact fee assessed on new residential construction in Harford County. The County Council enacted the 10-year limit on Tuesday despite strong objections from Councilman Dion Guthrie, who had called for giving homeowners a 15-year window to rebuild. Guthrie was advocating for a constituent with a large property, where several tenant houses were razed decades ago. The owner asked to have the fee waived for the homes he planned to build for his adult children.

Anne Arundel County is on its way to returning some financial integrity to the fees paid by developers to offset the county cost of accompanying road and school improvements. The County Council this week approved legislation for a phased-in increase in impact fees, ending a 10-month debate over getting developers to pay their fair share. The bill was a compromise reached with County Executive John R. Leopold, who had pushed to revise impact fees that long ago failed to keep pace with the rising costs of road and school construction to serve new residential and commercial developments.

More than 70 percent of county residents say dire straits on international financial markets have begun to affect them directly, siphoning value from stock and retirement accounts and boosting anxiety - making the economy the most important issue facing Anne Arundel County, according to a semi-annual opinion survey. Continuing economic woes prompted nearly 50 percent of respondents to the poll conducted by Anne Arundel Community College to say that slowly rising salaries, combined with higher costs for everything from transportation to taxes and utilities have left economic conditions only as fair or poor.

After wrangling for nearly a year over development impact fees that supporters say are vital to pay for schools, roads and other services, County Executive John R. Leopold announced a new plan Tuesday aimed at easing a difficult business climate for builders and developers, providing a 20-month reprieve from new fees that could spark hiring and avoid layoffs. Leopold, who calls the plan an economic stimulus, says phasing in the fees would allow the construction industry time to recover from an economic downturn that has brought development to a virtual standstill in recent months.

Anne Arundel may reduce builders' impact fees In an effort to stimulate the construction business sector, Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold announced yesterday that he will propose an immediate, temporary reduction in economic impact fees on commercial and residential builders. The reduction, which would delay full implementation of proposed increases in impact fees on development in the county until 2010, is scheduled to be voted on Monday night by the County Council. Economic impact fees are designed to help local governments provide services and infrastructure improvements, such as sewer lines and roads.

Facing a November deadline for breaking a nearly yearlong impasse over whether to raise development impact fees, Anne Arundel County elected officials will take at least another month to work out the details. With Anne Arundel lagging behind other counties in what fees it collects from developers to cover the costs of building schools, roads and other new services, the county has little choice but to boost its rates, supporters say. The sticking point lately has been a "grandfathering" clause that county officials say affects as many as 12,000 lots scattered throughout the county.

Leopold opposes regressive impact fees In their cogent article Wednesday regarding the county budget, Sun reporters Ruma Kumar and Susan Gvozdas wrote that County Executive John R. Leopold "reversed his long-held stand against impact fees." In fact, Mr.Leopold has been an opponent of regressive impact fees; the fee has been the same regardless of the cost of the home, putting a greater burden on low- and moderate-income homeowners. The impact fee legislation the county executive supports will provide for a progressive, sliding-scale fee schedule based on the amount of square footage.