A bill introduced last week would freeze impact fees at a discounted rate that recaptures less than 22 percent of the cost of building infrastructure demanded by new growth. But industry leaders say that development is the lifeblood of government, and spurring the economy benefits all taxpayers.
Supporters of the new bill say the beleaguered construction industry cannot tolerate the near-doubling of fees that took effect as scheduled in January.
Councilman Ron Dillon,...
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Totally Unnecessary - 2010-03-11 14:22:35
If they were really interested in doing what's best for the county and the local economy, why not suspend recordation and related fees and taxes to sell existing inventory? Lowering and suspending the impact fee to encourage more building is insane when the average price for homes in the county has dropped some 60%. I just heard this morning on WTOP that the foreclosure rate in Maryland is trending upward and that Maryland is ranked in the top 10 of all states now in terms of foreclosure. This is just unbelievable. You can't make this stuff up.
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Devin Tucker - Laurel, MD - Karma: Excellent
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... - 2010-03-10 16:30:15
I think you could have gotten some new condos for 300k. Either way, to be saddled with a mortgage of 300k, or worse yet 600k, is abysmal. There was absolutely no entry level housing being built for years. That is a real shame. Combined with the inflation of prices of existing homes in established neighborhoods, and you have a whole generation of young people who cannot afford to raise their children where they were raised.
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Corina Z - Mayo, MD - Karma: Excellent
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Corina - 2010-03-10 15:49:52
300K. They were starting at 600K and up around here. The homes were overprice from day one. The developers did themselves in buy building overprices homes.
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Anthony Forrest - crownsville, MD - Karma: Excellent
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Councilman Ferrar - 2010-03-10 15:39:34
Quote "We got to get the shovels in the ground right now to get jobs started"
Which one of the workers can afford the home after it is built?
Existing homes are still sitting on the market with no buyers. I can show a few that has sat for the last 3 years.
Developers need no break, give the break to the homeowner. Developers come in build large homes that suck the life out of the surrounding area. Stop letting these so called developers build whatever they want when they want. Developers are the problem look closer.
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Anthony Forrest - crownsville, MD - Karma: Excellent
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Agree - 2010-03-10 10:30:23
I must agree with Jeff. Back during the boom, when developers were getting their breaks, CHEAP new homes started around 300k. Not affordable. However, I must say that the people need to remember stunts like this when election time comes up.
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Corina Z - Mayo, MD - Karma: Excellent
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Disingenuous - 2010-03-10 10:08:33
What may be most laughable is the developers claim that higher impact fees will be passed along to the customers, and that such fees interfere with their efforts to make housing affordable. The notion that the developers can simply pass along fees by raising prices is ridiculous in this economy. They have a hard enough time selling homes and commercial space at heavily discounted rates. And where is all of this affordable housing that resulted from the artificially low impact fees over the past decades? I doubt that the consumer realized a penny of savings from these low fees. All that we have realized is overcrowded schools, clogged roads, lost scenic value and polluted waterways. The manner in which development has occurred in this region is a fiscal disaster whose chickens are now coming home to roost. Good for Leopold; I hope that he continues to stand his ground on this.
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Jeff Schomig - Arnold, MD - Karma: Excellent
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A lot of smart commentsople - 2010-03-09 22:18:58
Blatant violation of equal protection. Who gave the council the right to give my tax dollars to a particular industry. An industry which allegedly considers itself "free market oriented". The citizens of AACO have be subsidizing the development community forever. If the impact of your business costs X, then you should pay X. I'd like Ms Vitale & the others on the council to 80% of my business cost. Where to I sign up?. This is nothing more than corporate welfare. School are overcrowded and underfunded, police, fire, water and sewer stained. Roads all have to be built and maintained. Asphalt last 15 years. Milling and overlaying asphalt is $1.70 a square foot. 'Developers' looking for the government cheese, so much for free market more like free lunch. It's not hard to understand politicians they're either stupid or corrupt. Take a look at the Board of Elections web site. It provides list of biggest contributors to Council members. Let see each new house cost...$100 impact fees cover $20 so if we keep on building..... It's like digging your self out of a hole by digging down. Unbelieveable, no, just stupid.
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harry trampolini - severna park, MD - Karma: Excellent
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Transferrable Development Rights - - 2010-03-09 07:58:49
It's painfully clear to everyone I know that design intelligence and infrastructure have not kept up with development in our county. Even though we know every inch of impervious surface harms the bay, we allow the same kind of development that is the problem.
Calvert County utilizes a Transferrable Development Rights program to corral development while providing a vehicle for property owners to profit from the developability of their property. We need a program like that here in Anne Arundel. Developers have bullied the citizens of Anne Arundel by buying our elected officials, and clearly continue to do so. It's time we stand up for ourselves with a strong TDR program.
And another thing, if less development occurs that increases the value of existing homes such as the underutilized Annapolis Towncenter, which has smaller environmental footprint per unit, as well asl other existing structures, some of which surely could use to be improved.
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William Small - Annapolis, MD - Karma: Excellent
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Correction/Typo - 2010-03-09 07:35:24
Sorry readers. I need to make a correction to something I just posted.
In the following paragraph I made a typo. It should read as follows:
Does our County need more houses and commercial buildings? It seems no matter where you are in the County, there are MORE developments being built. Are they fearful that they may leave a parcel of land in Anne Arundel County undeveloped?
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James Paul - Pasadena, MD - Karma: Neutral
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County Medical - 2010-03-09 07:27:04
Wasn't there a recent article stating that the County was concerned about the cost of medical benefits to the County Retiree's? Seems like they would look for ways to keep their promise to the retiree's and use some of the money towards the benefit in question.
Does our County NEED more houses and commercial buildings? It seems no matter where you are in the County, there is no developments being built. Are they fearful that they may leave a parcel of land in Anne Arundel County undeveloped?
Our roads and schools are overcrowded now. Couldn't some of the money gained continue to be used towards new roads, road repairs, more schools and even more rec centers since the County feels the need to build on almost every open space that is left which is where our children use to play?
So many unanswered questions and it seems that you can't even get a straight answer without some song and dance by one of our politicians. And they expect the County residents to "trust" them?
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James Paul - Pasadena, MD - Karma: Neutral
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8
Torches and Pitchforks - 2010-03-08 23:00:25
"Three of the four sponsors of the bill are facing re-election this year, and the development community's contributions for council races have traditionally outpaced every other industry."
AND
"All of the sponsors of the discount bill said that campaign fundraising had no bearing on their decision to back the impact fee bill."
Why is it that people who post here believe in political ideology? I don't care if you are liberal or conservative...these council members are corrupt. Period. They will pit you against each other with labels of Democrat or Republican, and while you are at each others' throats, they rake in the contributions. Make no mistake...these developers are buying council votes. Call it free speech, but they have purchased the votes of our council representatives.
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Salvatorre Bagatelli - Annapolis, MD - Karma: Good
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9
Load of Garbage - 2010-03-08 21:34:54
Excusing and disguising bad policy by hiding behind the claim that "we need jobs" is the oldest (and, surprisingly, still the most successful) trick in the book.
How many times have we seen developers hoodwink local pols into cutting them sweet deals on taxes, impact fees and "relaxed" regulations, only to see the costs pushed onto the local citizens...and for what? Half-occupied strip malls, ill-advised sewage systems that leech toxins into the water, shoddily-built homes that fall apart in a good wind and big box stores that will inevitably be abandoned in 10 years? Let's not forget the visual eyesores, increased traffic, patchwork sidewalks, garbage piles and clearcut land they leave in their wake.
Meanwhile the developers pick up and move on with nary an afterthought about what's been left behind.
As for the jobs....really? Does anyone buy this load of bull droppings? Developers will cart in cheap, temporary labor from wherever they can find it (neighboring states, undocumented workers, etc). There is ZERO guarantee that new development will result in a new permanent job for this county.
Any council member voting for this bill should be voted out of office ASAP....and if they're up for taking a long walk I'm sure there are few short piers they could use.
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Christopher Masak - Laurel, MD - Karma: Good
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Bad Idea, Not in the interest of th - 2010-03-08 20:38:22
This is a fool hearty, banal, insipid and
stupid idea for the council to put forth and must be stopped.
Concessions and pandering to developers in "boom times" has already left the county with substandard infrastructure and deficits.
So what if developers have to pay more for impact fees? They will NOT go out of business.
Impact fees in Montgomery and Fairfax Counties are triple or quadruple AA County's and they still make money building there.
This is strictly a fight to preserve
the higher profit margins they enjoy building in AA County, nothing else.
This is bad news for the county, fiscally irresponsible and bad for the citizens and the county. Too bad the council members pushing this developer concocted idea are not listening to its citizens.
Yea, we are "surving" but not thriving as a county. STOP this nonsense!
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Tim Reyburn - Laurel, MD - Karma: Excellent
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Developers - 2010-03-08 14:08:46
should pick up 100% of the infrastructure costs incurred as a result of their development. It is not the 1980's anymore when our natural resources were abundant and poorly looked after. The county has a billion dollar backlog of repairing the damage caused by rampant development granted with discounted fees.
This has been a big issue in other municipalities and I expect it will be a significant issue come the next election for AACO.
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Tyler Durden - Annapolis, MD - Karma: Excellent
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Alice in Wonderland? - 2010-03-08 13:42:30
Do we have a shortage of homes in Anne Arundel County? Do we have a lack of commercial space? Quite the opposite, I am afraid. We have a dangerous glut that is far more ruinous to the local economy, particularly current homeowners, than any lack of new development. To address current economic concerns, our County Council is taking orders from the people at the very epicenter of the current economic mess?! This is exactly the wrong time to encourage more overdevelopment. Developers can afford to build homes and office space more cheaply, but doing so undermines the fragile economic foundation of current homeowners, who are the developers former customers, and whose wealth is decimated by this subsidized real estate glut. To add insult to injury, even the higher impact fees do not cover the massive cost of repairing the damage to our waterways caused by past overdevelopment, let alone continued overdevelopment. The County needs to unhitch its economic wagon from the cancerous development and real estate industry. It is a poorly managed industry run largely by good old boys and out of area interests who have proven economically inept and incredibly shortsighted.
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Jeff Schomig - Arnold, MD - Karma: Excellent
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Liars - 2010-03-08 13:17:16
Thanks for staying ahead of this issue. The developers knew back in 2008 that they would be able to alter the outcome when it came time to pay. Keep shining a spotlight on them and the councilmen who are in their pockets. Infrastructure costs should be shouldered by all, Look at the higher fees in other Maryland counties. Construction projects aren't going to be held up if the county brings its rates in line with the rest of the state's urban counties. Construction is being held up because there is a national recession and not enough demand. These guys have been getting breaks for too long. They got the break in 2008 by agreeing to higher fees in 2010. Now they want to back out on the deal. Imagine how they'd be screaming if the county now was trying to change the 2008 deal the other way?
No more corporate welfare!
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Ed Lewis - Annapolis, md - Karma: Neutral
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Enough is enough - 2010-03-08 12:54:58
The LAST thing this area needs is more "development".
When will politicians realize that this?
The tax revenue generated can not possibly balance out the impact that all this development has on already stressed infrastructure, or on the average length of ones daily commute, or the environment, or the rapidly deteriorating quality of life in this area.
Why are we considering giving developers a break? They are part of the problem. NOT part of the solution.
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Mark M - MIllersville, MD - Karma: Excellent
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