Large housing developments in Anne Arundel trying to squeeze new students into nearly full public schools soon may end under a County Council proposal.
“This allows the county to look at projected enrollment and make adjustments … so we don?t have one seat for a 1,000-house development,” said Councilman Jamie Benoit, D-District 4.
The council this week altered a bill so the Planning and Zoning Department can approve development based on actual school enrollment.
If a development would produce more students than open seats, that project would be delayed.
Under the current method, a development proceeds if a school is “open,” meaning if a development produces 20 new students, and one seat is open at the local school, the project can move forward.
The county multiples the number of new houses by a fractional number to determine how many students will come out of a housing development.
“The formula is set in law, and we feel comfortable that the formula is concrete,” said Deputy County Attorney David Plymyer.
But homebuilders oppose such a measure, fearing it would discriminate against larger housing projects, which take longer to process.
“This completely changes the way we do things, and we lose, predictability,” said Eric DeVito, president of the Anne Arundel Home Builders Association, who added he was “blindsided” by the amendment.
The bill also was amended to reduce capacity rates. Instead of allowing schools to seat 5 percent and 10 percent over the state-rated capacity, the proposal now considers a school “full” at 100 percent capacity.
Benoit and Councilman Ron Dillon Jr., R-District 3, said they were modeling other counties, but many opposed such a move.
The next battle over the proposal is the time period developers must wait if a school is closed. The current wait time is six years, while the proposal would reduce it to three years.
“The additional three years they wait means fewer impact fees collected for schools and building [age-restricted] housing that we don?t need,” Dillon said.
