If the Montgomery County Council approves a special development tax for Clarksburg Town Center, Kim Shiley says she knows exactly what will happen to her and many of her neighbors.
“Bankruptcy,” Shiley says. “All of us.”
More than two years since they began their battle against the creation of the Clarksburg Town Center development tax, residents still don’t know whether they’ll ever be subject it.
The special tax, requested by the developer and preliminarily approved by the council, would force homeowners to pay more than $2,000 annually for infrastructure, including roads and a library, that they said the builder is already on the hook for.
Lynn Fantle bought her home in 2002, before the council considered the special tax. Over the life of her mortgage, she figures she’d be charged a cost equivalent to paying for a child’s tuition.
“It’s disposable income for the next 20 or 30 years,” Fantle said.
Problems have beset Clarksburg since the first houses began to rise up from the area’s fields. It exploded from a rural outpost in northwestern Montgomery in recent years into what was supposed to have been an urban oasis. For many, it has been anything but.
Residents in the Town Center noticed height and setback violations that prompted allegations of incompetence and impropriety against contractors and county employees.
In June 2005, county planner Wynn Witthans resigned after she admitted to altering the development’s site plan, which had been approved in the 1990s. Rose Krasnow, head of development and review at the county’s Parks and Planning Department, said it was never made clear why the alterations were made. They were changed to allow builders to construct to heights of up to 45 feet instead of the approved 35 feet.
Town Center developer, San Diego-based Newland Communities, has agreed to improve amenities throughout the neighborhood instead of paying a fine, Krasnow said. Those final site plans, which will include retail, are expected by March.
But the tax is a separate issue and one that has roiled members of the community. They say developers did not properly inform them about the tax’s creation, though developers must inform potential buyers of it when they go to sell.
The county’s Office of Legislative Oversight issued a report in September that says the council should re-evaluate its policies for establishing the special districts, though it found Clarksburg’s district was created legally.
“I personally feel there was lax oversight and there wasn’t a transparent process over this initially,” said Councilwoman Duchy Trachtenberg, who has introduced a bill to change the process by which the county creates development districts.
Trachtenberg said she supports charging Town Center residents the tax. Otherwise, they’d have to jump to the back of the line for county funding of road projects and other amenities, including plans for a library.
Lynn Fantle disputes that.
“They came out here and built out what is essentially urban density,” Fantle said.
