Adequate Public Facility Laws vs. Community Input

It’s true that the City of Annapolis is currently working on an adequate public facilities law. But we worry that this might detract from the long-standing historical process of democratic community input into new projects.

In Annapolis, the Planning and Zoning Department sets requirements for developments based upon the specifics of the development, the surrounding environment and community input. These are often based upon national standards and the experience of the Planning and Zoning Department in the community. For example, the parking requirements for the Park Place development exceeded the 1.5 parking spaces / units based upon community input to 1.65 spaces per unit.

What is concerning is that in the rush to implement new APF laws in the city is that they must not shut off community input. Annapolis communities give unprecedented democratic input into the planning and building process for new developments. If the county continues to set some monetary standard (essentially a tax), instead of real substantive community input, then are we giving developers a free hand to act as they wish as long as they pay the 'toll'?

Anne Arundel County is a case in point for poor management of adequate facilities laws and impact fees. Litigation continues on impact fees and, as a result, they have become political footballs. And it has not stopped the slide the quality of county schools or controlled the damage of many new developments in critical areas.

A democratic system is better than and bureaucratic one any day.


For further information please contact us at [email protected].