Area legislators and the St. Mary’s Board of Commissioners this week said they support extending the “sunset” date of an Impact Fee waiver program, but some members at the 2006 Legislative Proposals meeting expressed concern that St. Mary’s growth is out of control.
Delegate John Bohanan (D-St. Mary’s) said the merits of the program are good but it does to little to help the housing situation in St. Mary’s County.
“Clearly we’ve done something wrong,” Bohanan said, after quoting numbers that show St. Mary’s accounted near 84 percent of multi-family homes build in the last two years in Southern Maryland.
In 2004, 264 multi-family units were built 2004 in St. Mary’s County, compared to 5 in Charles and none in Calvert.
“Calvert and Charles have basically shut down their multi-family developments,” Bohanan said Wednesday.
The waiver program provided 30 Impact Fee waivers for the first time this year for to support new “workforce housing,” John Savich, director of the county’s economic and community development department. The department also administered 50 temporary Impact Fee deferrals for new low-income rental units.
The proposal headed before the legislature would in part seek to extend the June 30, 2006 sunset date and increase the number of waivers from 30 to 60 and deferrals from 50 to 70.
Bohanan said the concentration of new multi-family housing going up in St. Mary’s in alarming. In 2003 St. Mary’s was 4th in the state, with more building that Baltimore, city or county.
 |
| McKay |
“And 60 percent of that growth is coming from Charles and Calvert counties,” he said. “We’ve got to do a better job than this.”
St. Mary’s Commission President Tommy McKay (R-Hollywood) said the market is leveling off now.
“Things are leveling off and evening out in St. Mary’s,” McKay said. “And if you don’t believe me, go ask the realtors.”
Savich said St. Mary’s is a major employment center in Southern Maryland, adding that 80 percent of those employed here, live here.