Carroll County home builders, contractors and engineers say they've seen little or no impact from the numerous code changes made by the county board of commissioners aimed at helping the local construction industry. But that doesn't mean the board should stop trying, they said.
Beginning in 2011, the five-member Carroll County Board of Commissioners began introducing a series of changes to the county code relating to land development and building regulations and requirements. The purpose of the changes, county staff has said, was to streamline the development process by removing a number of rules and regulations, giving greater predictability in the planning and zoning processes.
Over the past two-and-a-half years, the board has approved dozens of changes to the county code, a number of which reduced regulations on home developers and builders.
But professionals in the construction industry have said the code changes, called "Economic Relief Packages," have amounted to little effect on their businesses.
"I don't think they're big enough changes to affect one way or the other," Randy Petkus, with BPR Surveying in Westminster, said.
Shawn Hagan, president and owner of Classic American Homes in Sykesville, said the commissioners' code changes haven't brought him any business nor has it saved him money. The code changes, he said, haven't had any effect on his business.
"I'll give them credit for trying," Hagan said.
The county has worked hard to end the perception that it is difficult to develop in Carroll, said Mike McMullin, president of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce. It has been the perception that rules and regulations would change midstream in the development process, which turned developers away from building in the county, he said.
With all the code changes, the board of commissioners and county are showing that they're business-friendly, McMullin said.
The changes the commissioners have approved have included reducing the number of plumbing fixtures needed in commercial properties, reducing the number of planting units required to cover property portions, removing the requirement for developers to plant street frontage trees and removing the requirement of installing pressure relief valves in new buildings.
Frank Dertzbaugh, president of Dertzbaugh Construction in Frederick, is another builder who said the changes have not had an impact on his business. The changes, he said, have not saved him a significant amount of money.
Dan Staley, president of DRS & Associates in Westminster, said the county can be difficult to work with. Staley referred to a project that involved the construction of an egg farm in Taneytown in 2012. The county required building redesigns, which stalled the project for several months, he said.
Carroll County claims to be business-friendly but does things that show that it's not, Staley said.
"Right now, my business has been about as bad as it's been in 36 years," Staley said. "I contribute it to both local codes and state codes that are driving business and wealth out of the state."
In order to see some sort of cost savings or increase in work coming in, Petkus said additional, more-substantial code changes would have to be made. To reduce the overall amount of regulations on Carroll County builders and related industries, the commissioners need to keep chipping away at the code, he said.
"There's a lot of little codes that, when you apply them to one project, it amounts to a pretty good cost," Petkus said.
