In the coming year, Harford County officials will have to prepare for expansions at Aberdeen Proving Ground ? a potential boom on the horizon that has become an undercurrent of every issue.
Crime, crowded schools, swelling development and overtaxed county infrastructure are problems in their own right, but each carries the additional question: What effect will the Base Realignment and Closure process have?
With many experts saying the BRAC changes could bring as many as 60,000 new residents to Harford by 2011 ? with the migration beginning as soon as 2008 ? the county has the most catching up to do in the state in terms of roads and water and sewer capacity, state BRAC coordinator Brig. Gen. Michael Hayes said at a conference in October.
“The maturity of the infrastructure around Anne Arundel County and Howard County is more amenable to growth,” Hayes said.
With increasing traffic and development pushing some roads to their limits, Harford is now asking the state to consider a special “BRAC priority process” to shorten the timelines and increase the funding for such projects.
School officials also will be forced to consider BRAC-related complications. Most of the families who will be attracted to Harford will be civilians who can live anywhere in the county, making it difficult to predict which school districts will need the most extra capacity, said county BRAC Manager Karen Emery.
The County Council is preparing to take up numerous zoning and development issues, including an update of the county?s zoning standards and a comprehensive rezoning bill that will incorporate changes throughout the county.
Though schools and roads can?t all be built in the coming year, more planning and continuing studies are on the agenda.
Harford was recently awarded a $1.7 million federal grant to scrutinize its BRAC-related needs and better predict where people will live, said Economic Development Director JamesRichardson.
