Anne Arundel County Councilman James Benoit said Monday that he plans to ask County Executive John R. Leopold to allow the council to consider the county's public utilities plan in an effort to move forward a developer's plan to build a free contract school in Laurel. The school would be an incentive to allow 1,000 homes to be built, which has garnered an abundance of community support.
Benoit said he would send a request to Leopold to introduce an amendment to the county's Water and Sewer Master Plan, but he doesn't have much control after that.
"It's his prerogative whether or not to introduce it," said Benoit.
A spokesman for Leopold did not immediately reply to a request for comment late Monday.
Benoit's statement came after an announcement at the County Council meeting that Severna Park-based Polm Companies Ltd. had reached a lease agreement with Imagine Schools, which will run the K-8 contract school.
"The only requirements needing to be met in order to effectuate our commitment to each other, rest in the absolute and sole authority of the county," according to a letter from Andrew P. Zois, president of Polm, who presented a two-page signed document titled "lease agreement" to the council. The details of the lease were not immediately available.
"I'm going to be very interested to see what else is in the lease," said Benoit.
Monday night's statements were the latest turns in the ongoing fight over the planned RiverWood development, which has garnered community support because of the promise of a new school, but has languished with delays. Residents have complained that both Leopold and Benoit are playing politics, but both have denied those allegations, saying that Polm must undergo all the proper processes.
When the project was first floated in 2004, there was not enough community support, and the developer was unable to secure the necessary zoning for the project, which includes 320 homes guaranteed to be priced for median-income families. The plan also calls for intersection and road reconstruction and replacement of a deteriorating bridge. The total project cost is estimated at about $300 million.
Both the developer and residents, frustrated with crowding at the local public schools, have expressed more frustration at the seemingly slow progress in getting approval for the development, and most importantly, the school.
But county officials have said the developer must follow the same process as everyone else, including the project's inclusion in the county's water and sewer master plan and zoning approval through the county's once-a-decade rezoning, which is set to happen later this year.