Leonardtown, MD — Eight years ago a 1.9 percent cap on residential growth in St. Mary’s County was established by the then-county commissioners. That was during a decade of rapid residential growth and the fear that it would outpace the ability of the county to provide the necessary infrastructure, such as schools and roads, to handle it.

The timing was poor. The construction bubble burst shortly thereafter both in the county and around the country and a recession ensued. So the growth that was limited by the policy to 800 to 900 new homes a year has barely reached 100 a year in each of the years since the policy has been in place.

The policy enacted in 2008 requires an annual review by the county commissioners. This year the Department of Land Use and Growth Management (LUGM) recommended that the commissioners rescind the policy since it hasn’t been needed, according to the department’s director, Phil Shire. At the commissioners’ July 19 meeting, they took a middle ground by suspending the policy instead of rescinding it.

Commissioner Mike Hewitt {R – 2nd District] wondered what the harm was in retaining the policy. “What’s wrong with keeping it in case in fact we get to this kind of growth again?” he asked. Hewitt also asked how difficult it would be to reinstate a policy once it was rescinded.

Hewitt asked Shire what would trigger a reconsideration of the growth policy. Shire said overcrowded schools would be one situation, although he added the schools weren’t at that point now. The county also has an Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance that would protect it in such a situation.

County Attorney George Sparling also noted that some federal and state regulations have come down the pike that have made the growth policy superfluous.

Commissioner John O’Connor [R – 3rd District], in rebuttal to Hewitt, said having the policy on the books might send a wrong signal to a company looking to locate in the county. He used as an example a company hoping to employ 500 people at the county airport. He said the existence of the growth policy might be a deterrent to them.

Commissioner Tom Jarboe [R – 1st District] said there was “nothing major on the horizon” at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station (Pax River) the county’s major employer, that would cause the need for significant residential development. He explained that projects now at Pax River are “at sustainment.”

But Jarboe also noted that rescinding the policy might send “a wrong signal to environmentalists.”

O’Connor also asked Shire about how much time maintaining records on the development cap took his staff. Shire said that information is kept anyway. And Hewitt noted that with the slowdown in development, LUGM staff has kept relatively constant. “You really haven’t ramped down,” Hewitt observed.

Shire said the slowdown has allowed staff to more closely scrutinize projects. Hewitt reacted that he hoped that didn’t mean a logjam in the regulatory process for businesses. He said he had heard numerous complaints about that.

To accommodate concerns on both sides of the issue, the commissioners compromised by suspending the policy so that it could be easily reinstated if growth ever came back to the place it once was.

In other actions at the commissioners’’ July 19 meeting:

• They officially rescinded the local vendor preference policy. There was no opposition during the public hearing process.

• They agreed to a refinancing of the Bay District Volunteer Fire Department’s loan.

• Will hold a public hearing on amendments to the International Residential Code, including the establishment of a local appeals board.

Contact Dick Myers at dick.myers@thjebaynet.com