Impact Fees

Hoping to gain control over the costs of residential growth, the Hampstead Town Council is to introduce legislation tonight that would impose development impact fees and establish public works construction guidelines."

Advocates for low income homebuyers said yesterday they plan to work with county officials to soften the blow of a 55 percent increase in development impact fees on new houses that the County Council approved Monday night. Despite pleas from the advocates, the council unanimously approved a bill raising impact fees on a detached, single-family home from $2,629 to $4,069. The change will be phased in over a six-month period starting April 1 and will be adjusted annually to keep pace with inflation.

A sweeping proposal to raise impact fees on new construction in Anne Arundel County by as much as twelvefold is scheduled to be introduced this week, but lawmakers are suggesting it is dead on arrival. Relying on a study by a nationally known consultant, County Executive John R. Leopold is calling for substantial increases in the fees levied on developers -- and, in the cases of homes, typically passed onto the buyers. The current flat rate of $4,904 for a single-family home would increase to $28,315 for a four-bedroom house and $39,257 for a home of five bedrooms or more, according to the study.

Carroll County commissioners voted yesterday to ask residents whether county impact fees should be raised this year. Then they voted not to ask.The result is that impact fees will not be raised before the November election.Commissioner Elmer C. Lippy wants to increase the fees, which are levied on residential development. Commissioners Donald I. Dell and Julia W. Gouge do not.Mr. Dell, a Republican, and Mr. Lippy, a Democrat, are running for re-election. Mrs. Gouge is running for lieutenant governor with Republican gubernatorial candidate William S. Shepard.

The commissioners are considering deferring, or even rescinding, development impact fees on new residential construction to stimulate Carroll's sluggish home building and realty industries.Commissioner Julia W. Gouge recommended Monday that the county investigate the fiscal and legal implications of suspending the controversial fees, enacted in March 1989 to help finance costs of new schools, parks and water supplies to accommodate growth."I'd like to see what we can do for our own economy," Gouge said.

In April 1989, developer Martin K. P. Hill sued the city government,saying its impact fees were unreasonable.Yesterday, the Hampstead builder said he had "a much greater comfort level" about those samefees.The difference was a consultant's report regarding Westminster's "capital-benefits fee" program -- derided by many as a development impact fee -- and its accompanying rate structure.The consultant's long-awaited study found that the city's fee structure, implemented more than two years ago, falls within reasonable limits.

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.

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.

Impact fees on new construction in Anne Arundel County should be significantly increased, though more slowly and by less than sought by County Executive John R. Leopold, according to a new report by an independent panel. The group, formed by the County Council after it balked at Leopold's proposal, questioned the assumption of a consultant hired by his administration that the county has no further room on its roads or in its schools. It found that the county services are at 80 percent capacity.

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.