CB42 Developer Fees Raised. The Story Behind the Ammendments

CB42 is one of the most important pieces of legislation passed in Howard
County in a long long time.

It dramatically raises our very low developer impact fees to be comparable to what other counties in Maryland charge. When fully phased in rates will increase by more than 500%.

The money raised will go to our school construction. Development has surged in Howard County in the last few decades while school construction has slowed. Our developers have long profited from some of the lowest development impact fees in the state. Our surging population requires increased spending for schools, police, fire, roads, hospitals, storm water management and more.

CB42 was introduced by Christiana Rigby and Deb Jung and co-sponsored by Liz Walsh and Opel Jones, to address this long standing issue. Given that every member of our County Council, except Mr. David Yungmann, either sponsored or co-sponsored this bill, It is surprising that CB42 required 18 amendments to pass. The original 8 amendments, listed below, and 10 more modifying these 8.

The story of our county council is in the amendments.

They all either Passed or Passed as Amended with the exception to Amendment 4 which failed.

#1) by Jung and Rigby sought to lower the surcharge for Moderate Income Housing Units built beyond the current requirement in county code.

#2) by Jung and Rigby sought to set the rate at 1/3 for Affordable Housing Projects that receive county or state tax credits after 2020.

#3) by Jung and Rigby sought to set keep the rate at 1/3 $1.32 for Affordable Housing Projects that have received county or state tax credits through 2020.

#4) by Jones, sought to give the Downtown Columbia Development District a much lower rate (FAILED).

#5) by Yungmann, sought lower rates.

#6) by Yungmann, sought to exempt projects that had preliminary sketch-plan approval (Grandfathering clause).

#7) by Jung, sought to adjust the rates for inflation.

#8) by (County Attorney) to strike language that was duplicative of existing legislation.

In the subsequent amendments to amendments.

The Council agreed with Yungmann that a large sudden rate increase would be better if it was phased in over 3 years. In exchange Yungmann agreed to a higher final rate to offset the loss of revenue during the phase in period. Yungmann also agreed to exempt far fewer projects by pushing the grandfathering date back from initial sketch-plan approval, to final approval and finally to final signed approval.

Walsh finally agreed to vote for CB42 even though she had grave reservations regarding the phase in and exemptions. She had wanted developers to pay more but ultimately decided that this bill should have her signature.

I commend Ms. Rigby for standing firm and denying the Downtown Columbia Development special favors. Along with Ms. Jung they were the voice of compromise and champions of more affordable housing throughout this process.

Mr. Yungmann's concerns were valid. Abruptly applying a massive fee increase to developments in progress would have been a financial disaster for many. Ms. Walsh did not get everything she wanted but fought hard for the interests of the taxpayers.

I thank Ms. Rigby for taking the time to sit down with me to discuss this and other issues. Her accessibility is commendable, she is reasonable, open to compromise and listens to her constituents. Every council member should be so.

We are all dramatically impacted by our local issues so I urge everyone to become more involved in our local politics.

For those who want all the details they can be found here on the Howard County Website:

https://apps.howardcountymd.gov/olis/LegislationDetail.aspx?LegislationID=12334