More shutdowns are predicted at the Howard County Soil Conservation District after the County Council approved slightly higher fees for required development review plans Monday night, continuing the long struggle between the Ulman administration and the independent agency.
New legislation introduced for scheduled council votes in July include a bill to preserve 500 acres of farmland at historic Doughoregan Manor, which is also the subject of a zoning board hearing Wednesday night — all pieces of a complex plan to rezone a portion of the property for 325 new homes clustered in one section of the 892-acre estate. Another measure would allow a small parcel of preserved farmland in Dayton to be used for a hotly contested T-Mobile cell tower, though it would be concealed on a new grain silo that farm owners Ricky and Leslie Bauer are to build instead of a 135-foot pole standing alone.
But the seemingly endless fight over the cost of vital erosion- and sediment-control plans for development done by the Woodbine-based soil conservation district took most of the council's discussion time.
"We're back where we were before," soil conservation district manager Robert Ensor said after the council approved fees higher by $5 an acre, but also added a $1,800 maximum fee for any one development and exempted government projects for the public from having to pay anything.
"I hope we can avoid shutdowns, but I don't see any way around it," Ensor said after the council voted to reject Councilwoman Mary Kay Sigaty's proposal for a $145-an-acre fee in favor of $80 an acre, the figure recommended by the council's auditor. Ensor had initially proposed fees of $290 per acre for reviewing the plans.
A spokesman for new home builders was happy with the results, however.
"I think it's good," said Michael L. Harrison, spokesman for the Homebuilders Association of Maryland. "It tells the district board they have to manage their expenses like private business does. The fees are reasonable."
County Executive Ken Ulman removed $219,000 in county funding for the office last year as a cost-saving measure, offering to have county planners do the soil erosion and sediment-control reviews instead of paying the independent district for the work. But district officials recoiled from that idea, charging that it would compromise their nonpartisan operations. Instead, they began charging fees for their services, which angered developers hurting from the recession.
The office briefly shut down in August 2009 when money ran out, and only a combination of $12,000 donated by district officials themselves and up to $30,000 contributed by the county this spring has kept the reviews coming.
Like the developers, the County Council found itself caught in the middle of the struggle, chairwoman Courtney Watson has said, because the council is restricted by state law to enacting only "reasonable" fees to pay for the cost of reviewing developers' plans. But Ensor has argued that does not produce enough revenue to operate the 11-person office.
At school board headquarters Monday night, Republican Greg Fox and Sigaty, a west Columbia Democrat, teamed up in a series of 3-2 losing votes. They opposed exemption of county capital projects from paying the fees and were against the $1,800 cap in fees for any one development.
"I'm concerned that with the potential of other amendments, this cap could put the soil conservation district in the position of stopping work again," Fox said. Watson replied that only four or five projects exceeded the cap this year, so it would likely make little difference. Sigaty pointed out that "we don't know if the ongoing year's work will be at the same level. If larger projects come forward, it may not pay the cost."
Then, Sigaty offered her idea of a higher $145-an-acre fee, arguing that the combination of the $1,800 cap and exemption of county projects would limit the district's income too severely. She and Fox again lost on a 3-2 vote.
"From my perspective, I think the auditor did a lot of work. I'm hesitant to change their recommendation," Watson said, though she added, "I recognize the dilemma the soil conservation district is in. It's outside our purview."
Calvin Ball, an east Columbia Democrat, and Jen Terrasa, a Democrat who represents southeastern Howard County, agreed with Watson.
Ulman has also refused to back down, though he did provide the district enough money to avoid a shutdown before the fiscal year ends June 30. "We've been able to save over a half-million dollars," he recently said, though he acknowledged "we ran into a buzzsaw of defensiveness."