The cost of development is going up in Montgomery County, but some are warning that the cost of living will be going up too.
Under legislation designed to fund infrastructure improvements passed by the Montgomery County Council on Tuesday, developers will pay more to build in already crowded areas of the county and be barred from construction in others.
The growth policy changes include new fees that would force developers to pay more to ease road congestion and school crowding when developers start projects in densely populated areas. Builders will be charged a school facilities payment when new housing developments would cause enrollment at area schools to increase to 105 percent or more of recommended capacity. It also would put a moratorium on development around schools with more than120 percent of capacity.
“We have made a significant improvement to growth policy,” Council Member Roger Berliner told The Examiner. “I believe it’s appropriate to ask developers to pay their fair share, and that’s what we’ve done. We’re not asking them to pay more than the marginal costs associated with their projects. In fact, they’ll be paying slightly less than the marginal cost, and I believe that is fair, sound economics.”
According to the county planning commission, the median price of a new single-family detached home in Montgomery County hit $1.1 million in the first quarter of this year, and some building industry representatives said the economics of supply and demand would make it even tougher to find reasonably priced housing.
“What I anticipate is a number of developers are going to have to go on hold, they may have to stop their projects,” said Raquel Montenegro, a lobbyist for the building industry. “Which means, ironically, that there will be an increased shortage of housing, which ironically will contribute to fueling the cost of existing housing.”
Council members have discussed the policy changes during months of committee meetings and council sessions. Still, there was dissent during the final hours of debate over whether the tweaks would be effective and whether they would jeopardize availability of affordable housing.
Council Member Nancy Floreen, the lone vote against the revisions, said she thought the policy would have little impact.
“We’ve got 100,000 jobs that have already been approved and 35,000 housing units that have already been approved, so we’re kidding ourselves and the community if we think this has anything to do with growth,” Floreen told The Examiner afterward.
