Impact Fees

County residents who want to build a new house in Carroll and people migrating to new developments here probably would pay higher prices for homes if a consultant's recommendation to increase impact fees is approved.Initially, homebuyers might not be affected by a fee increase for single-family homes because builders might absorb the additional costs to remain competitive, said Jeffrey Powers, president of the Home Builders Association of Maryland's Carroll chapter."We need to be very price-sensitive to surrounding areas," said Mr. Powers, vice president of Powers Construction Co. in Westminster.

A Queen Anne's County developer who wants to build 39 moderately priced, single-family homes in Pasadena said he might be forced to abandon the project because of Anne Arundel's high utility and impact fees.Don Dove, president of Dove Properties Ltd., met with county officials yesterday to hash out preliminary plans for Brockington, a 9.9-acre subdivision west of Fort Smallwood Road, southeast of Sycamore Road.But he might have to halt the project, he said yesterday, after learning he could owe the county thousands of dollars more per lot if nearby schools can't handle the new community's students.

Impact fees on new homes could increase as much as $1,762 July 1 if Carroll's commissioners approve a plan that spreads the cost of protecting the water supply across the county.Currently, only South Carroll residents pay a water-related impact fee.The plan, presented to the commissioners yesterday by Comptroller Eugene C. Curfman, calls for increasing the impact fee from $2,700 for a single-family home to $4,462.The fee for a single-family home in South Carroll would rise from $3,500 to $4,462.

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.

So many children will come to Baltimore County schools in the next eight years that the county will need to spend $246 million on new schools and should consider imposing impact fees on developers to help foot the bill, a consultant's report says.The report by Tischler & Associates Inc. of Bethesda also says that the county should study other means to deal with the surge in enrollment, such as larger class sizes and extensive use of portable classrooms.The report, released yesterday, notes that by 2000, the number of students in county schools will exceed 120,000.

Carroll homebuilders say they oppose a proposed increase in county impact fees because part of the money would be dedicated to water resource protection, a provision the builders say is illegal.If the fee is implemented, builders may challenge it in court on the grounds it does not fit the definition of an impact fee, Gary B. Blucher of Masonry Contractors Inc. in Manchester said yesterday."It's more of a special district tax," he said during a meeting of the county chapter of the Home Builders Association of Maryland and the County Commissioners.

New Windsor will amend its ordinance governing impact fees because the town's interpretation of the law has not been consistent with the law's wording."

WHEN THEN-Harford County Executive Eileen M. Rehrmann wanted to levy impact fees on developers to pay for residential construction, some state lawmakers said no. Current County Executive James M. Harkins was one of those legislators. Because of his action, his county faced a $7 million budget deficit. He was asked last spring whether he should have backed Ms. Rehrmann while serving in the legislature. "In hindsight, I wish I would have," he said. Carroll County's commissioners may be equally remorseful down the road.

Worried about the impact on affordable housing, Anne Arundel County delegates have flagged problems they see in the county's plan to raise one-time impact fees charged to developers for new construction. The State/County Projects Subcommittee of the delegation said that while the county is permitted under the law to raise the fees, "we would recommend caution." For a detached single-family home, the county's "blue ribbon" panel is recommending an increase to $4,069 from $2,629 per house as of next January.

Anne Arundel County would have to triple the impact fees levied on residential developers to cover the county's road and school costs arising from new home construction, according to a consultant's draft report. "I can tell you that the initial recommendation is for a tripling of the fees if we are serious about capturing the real cost of development," County Executive Janet S. Owens said in her budget address last week. A 300-percent increase would drive the one-time charge to a developer for a new single-family home from $2,629 to nearly $8,000 -- no doubt provoking protest from builders and others worried about the effect of the charge on the construction industry and on buyers of new homes.