The county won a key appeal this week in a massive, seven-year-old lawsuit over misspent impact fees. The ruling saves Anne Arundel millions, attorneys from both sides agreed.

The Court of Special Appeals' opinion means the county must still refund some impact fees, but far less than the $4.7 million a county Circuit Court judge ordered in 2006 and only a fraction of the $22.1 million a group of Odenton-area homeowners and developers thought the appellate court ordered in February.

"This new decision confirms that," said County Attorney Jonathan Hodgson, estimating the current refund bill at $2.1 million. "That is a...