Leonardtown, MD – The St. Mary’s County Board of Commissioners held a public hearing on Tuesday, April 4 to discuss the proposed new impact fee.
Current impact fee of $4,500 plus a transfer tax of 1 percent, totaling $6,320 was approved in fiscal year (FY) 2000. The proposed increases is about $17, 967 per year for each household. This raises the impact fee and transfer tax to $25,000 for every new home built in St. Mary’s County. The fees are used for schools, parks and roads and in addition the ordinance would allow for water and sewer to be included.
The meeting on this issue was debated by over 100 people in the audience Tuesday evening and the majority were clearly against the proposal.
As an example, a person who wants to build a new home in the Lexington Park area would start out by paying $25,000 for the right to build and an additional $14,000 for the right to hook up to public water and sewer. That equates to a cost of $40,000 even before you pay seven other governmental fees imposed by the proposed ordinance.
Commissioner John O’Connor stated that “we are the fourth largest growing county in the state and with that comes people, causing impact to our roadways, schools and all of our public infrastructure.” He went on to state that when they proposed increasing the fee by 5 percent you could of heard a pin drop in the room there was no one there and it stirred a hornets’ nest because of the headlines in the news. The formula used to calculate this is not perfect, O’Connor went on to say. “We are here to figure this out” and asked for suggestions.
The one thing that is hurting the county, according to O’Connor, is people who have played politics with this fee since 2000. Many projects got kicked to the curb because of this and now cost more. He indicated he wanted to make sure that the fee is phased in so it doesn’t hurt the county.
Commissioner Mike Hewitt, stated that the current formula was flawed and he would vote against it. He also voted against the 5 percent increase. Hewitt indicated he believes the county does need to look at it but the formula is flawed and it looks at things that are too far out in the future. The commissioners need to look at it and determine if it does need to be raised, he indicated, adding that the commissioners need to be very careful in making their decision. Since it affects someone’s ability to afford a home, Hewitt indicated he would not support this ordinance the way it is written now.
Commissioner Todd Morgan, stated that as far as he was concerned the proposed ordinance isn’t going anywhere. As the community grows it needs money, it has to be funded. The impact fee needs to be adjusted because it hasn’t been adjusted in years. He agreed with Hewitt that it needs to be looked at. He went on to say that there is no way that a homeowner would be able to get a loan with an impact fee of $25,000. He also brought up base realignment and closures (BRAC) and said if you don’t think that this is being talked about in Washington “then you are not looking at your cards very well. This fee has to work for everyone not just a select group.”
Commissioners’ President Randy Guy, stated in 24 Maryland jurisdictions in there is some type of impact fee or excise tax ranging from $0 to $40,000 per unit. “We have not stayed on track with this impact fee,” said Guy, who indicated he is not looking for $25,000 but the commissioners to look at adjusting the fee.
Some of the public comments were:
John Parlett stated that most would agree that the impact fee does need to be raised to keep up with actual costs. It needs to be fully studied with input from the stakeholders in plain public view. He reviewed some of the things that have slowly gone through the county approval process. He cited the Lexington Park master plan, which after six or seven years still is not finalized. In comparison, the proposed impact fee has gone from casual conversation to a public hearing in a matter of weeks. As a developer, Parlett thinks the formula used is not accurate. Some of his points were the 1 percent transfer tax is both residential and commercial property, there is no difference between a 1 bedroom apartment a 4 bedroom house, the population growth rate does not look at the growth rate of new dwellings. This impact fee would have a devastating effect on home ownership and the cost associated with impact fee, Metcom sewer connection, mandated storm, fire sprinkler connection will exceed $50,000 or 20 percent of the average costs.
Cathy Allen spoke at the request of the St. Mary’s County Board of Education(BOE). In the last 25 years the schools have grown by over 5,000 students. Since the impact fee was last adjusted 17 years ago the enrollment has increased over 3,000 students.They have built one replacement elementary school and two new elementary schools. The schools also serve as an emergency shelter for residence when there are evacuations. They need capital upkeep and expansion are ongoing. Funds derived from impact fees help pay for this. The school supports the Commissioners in their need to address the impact fee.
Clark Guy from the Mechanicville area ,a veteran and lifelong resident got a tremendous round of applause when he spoke from his heart about his own personal story and how he would like to be able to pass his same opportunities on to his own family. He indicated that with the imposition of this huge proposed increase that the next generation won’t be able to afford building a home.
Phil Dorsey praised the Commissioners on their leadership over the last two years but warned this legislation was a bad idea. In fact he said “this would be the lightning bolt that would sink their ship in the next election if pursued.”
Former Commissioner Frances Eagan noted “how hard it would be for young people in the community to be able to afford this increased cost and indicated it would have a chilling effect.” She went on to further clarify that the chamber, the economic development corp (EDC) and several stakeholder groups should be put together to formulate a better proposal which would work similar to the Leonardtown model which incorporates water/ sewer charges in the fee they charge.
Billy Fitzgerald who is a board director for Southern Maryland Association of Realtors (SMAR) they are opposed by the devastating impact fee increase on any new development over the next two years.” The likely intended consequence will bring new growth and development to a drastic slowdown, it will deter families from considering St Mary’s as a future home and will have a detrimental effect on all the local real estate industries and overall business community”.
There were others who also spoke at the public hearing. Most were against the proposed impact fee.
If you have a comments you can mail them to St. Mary’s County Commissioners at P.O. Box 653, Leonardtown MD., 20650 or email them to csmc@stmarysmaryland.com
They will accept them for the 7 days following this meeting.
A decision will be made April 18.
