В Чарльз-Каунти предложили упростить сроки реализации девелоперских проектов

Newburg resident Howard Dent wants to apply concepts he used during his career as a teacher to rules for Charles County developers. There are specific start and end dates with benchmarks teachers are required to follow, he said. The same concept should be used for developers. “The existing legislation specifies what must be done during the time period,” he said during a planning commissioner meeting involving a proposed change that would lighten some guidelines for developers. “The applicant has the opportunity to plan for a variety of circumstances that may occur.” Regulations currently allow an approved preliminary subdivision plan to continue once the project has recorded at least 25% of its approved lots on a final subdivision plat and 25% of its infrastructure, Heather Kelly, planning supervisor, said during the planning commission meeting last week. This regulation has been in effect since 2013. A proposed amendment would modify the requirement so a project would only need to satisfy one of those two criteria, Kelly said, essentially lightening the burden on developers. County staff recommended denial of this amendment. The preliminary plan approval takes up to a year and a half of planning along with the review process, Ed Carroll, vice president and general manager of Soltesz Engineering, said. The process can include the Charles board of education, the Charles health department and the Maryland Department of the Environment. “It’s a complex process,” he said. “It’s a tremendous amount of time and cost just to get to that.” Projects are given 12 years to meet both criteria, but there are a number of projects that have been close to not meeting them, Steve Scott, attorney with Scott Law Group, said. These projects could have used relief that the proposed text amendment would give. Board member Jeffery Bossart said there should be some changes, but he was unsure if changing the metric is the right way to do it. “While I’m sensitive to the investment and the financial obligations that a person might incur, there really needs to be … some milestones and some metrics to it,” he said. Board member Denard Earl wanted to know what the timeline is to finish the other criteria if the proposed amendment was changed. The developer now has the incentive to finish the other criteria, Scott said. They are bonded and have established a significant investment in the project. “We felt like we wanted to have as little impact as possible on the current regulatory structure, but also provide some relief,” Scott said. Ayana Moore of White Plains supports the change to the amendment to make sure the county remains livable and accessible to families, she said. “By updating and streamlining the process, this amendment eliminates unnecessary friction while preserving reasonable oversight,” she said. Bossart would like the applicants to meet with county staff to discuss how the proposed amendments could improve the regulations, he said. The planning commission will keep the record open for comment until Sept. 3 at 4:30 p.m. “I’m all in favor of making some common-sense decisions that make this process less laborious,” chairperson Kevin Wedding said. “Development has a long process.”