Board of Education Vice President Tom Fidler lambasted the Harford County Council last week, suggesting the county was not ready to receive Base Realignment and Closure-related commercial growth.
Fidler, a senior vice president of MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate, said the county likely will need another 7 million to 8 million square feet of commercial space and a thorough zoning code rewrite to accommodate growth as 8,200 government jobs are moved to Aberdeen Proving Ground. Tens of thousands of additional jobs are expected to follow, as defense contractors move to support the military and commercial services come to support the employees.
“We face a critical event in the upcoming two to three years,” Fidler said. “There needs to be proper planning and it needs to be done now.”
The county?s failure to pass a comprehensive rezoning bill last year had a “huge impact” on reducing the county?s readiness, Fidler said. The assortment of changes to county zoning was vetoed by County Executive David Craig for spreading too much growth outside of the preferred “development envelope,” and the County Council was unable to override the veto when an absent council member caused a 3-3 tie vote.
Craig has pledged that county officials will tackle a thorough update of development regulations ? one of the recommendations made by the BRAC advisory committee in August. The county already has created many new commercial spaces through redevelopment projects such as the Swan Creek Village Center in Havre de Grace or the Water?s Edge Corporate Campus in Belcamp, but officials say zoning rules have remained essentially unchanged since 1997.
In addition, Fidler criticized the council for not doing enough to improve the county?s image, which he said was tarnished by the failure of the rezoning and the City of Aberdeen?s rejection of a 524-acre annexation project.
“The branding of this county is suffering,” Fidler said.
