Impact Fees

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.

County lawmakers are hoping a few legislative tweaks might be enough to settle a nearly yearlong debate about development impact fees, but they might instead find themselves next week again facing a roomful of homeowners, business leaders and neighborhood activists spoiling for a fight. After wrangling over the issue since January, officials say Anne Arundel has little choice but to boost fees paid by developers to cover the cost of schools, roads and other services. Those fees have lagged behind those in all but four counties in Maryland.

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.

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.

Years before he became Anne Arundel County's chief executive, John R. Leopold sounded a lot like the critics of his current plan to impose perhaps the highest development impact fees in Maryland. In 2001, Leopold attacked county leaders' idea of raising those fees "during our current recessionary slump." He argued that it could hurt commercial growth, dampen the prospect of affordably priced housing and unfairly burden selective homeowners. "They are insidious, regressive homeowner taxes," Leopold, then a member of the House of Delegates, wrote in a letter to the Maryland Gazette.

The head of a panel advising the Anne Arundel County Council on impact fees put the odds at "less than even" that its work will be done by early April, raising the likelihood that the county administration's bill calling for sweeping fee increases will expire later that month. Robert R. Neall, a former county executive and the chairman of the advisory group of business and community representatives, said Monday that the committee will hear from two impact-fee experts on March 31: James C. Nicholas, the county consultant who wrote the report that served as the basis for the proposed fees, and an expert hired by the home-building industry.

Former state senator and county executive Robert R. Neall will lead a panel that will offer recommendations on a sweeping set of impact-fee increases proposed by County Executive John R. Leopold. The Anne Arundel County Council has also named the eight other members of the advisory committee, which represents business, environmental and community interests, and has been asked to produce a preliminary report for the March 17 council meeting and submit a final document by April 21. The council voted last month to put a hold on the impact-fee bill until April 21 to review a report by county consultant James C. Nicholas, whose findings served as the basis for the proposed increases in the fee. The bill expires at the end of April.