Limiting the number of lots a developer can record on land records is not an effective way to control growth. In fact, the decision last week by the Carroll County Planning and Zoning Commission to restrict developers to 75 recorded lots every two years in each subdivision may actually accelerate development and sprawl -- the very problems the policy is intended to curb.
By reducing the number of lots that can be recorded from the current level of 25 each quarter -- equivalent to 200 every two years -- it is easy to be lulled into a false sense that this change will slow residential growth. Most of Carroll's development is taking place on smaller subdivisions that won't be affected by this rule. Also, the large developers can circumvent the limit by creating multiple, non-contiguous subdivisions instead of a large one or spreading their projects around the county.
At present, conventional wisdom is that Carroll's growth is out of control. There are signs -- such as horrendously overcrowded schools -- that growth does need to be checked in certain parts of the county. Other indicators -- crowded roads, degradation of scenic areas, increase in pollution -- are impressionistic. Limiting the recordation of lots won't necessarily alleviate these difficulties.
The county would be better off developing a set of objective standards -- volume of traffic on major roads, number of children in a school, capacity of drinking water and wastewater treatment plants -- to measure whether growth is accelerating too rapidly. Once these benchmarks are in place, the county could make a stronger case to restrict development.
To effectively rein in new construction, the county needs to adopt a device other than lot recordation. Limiting building permits would be a more effective method because it would allow tighter control of actual residential construction. At the moment, there is no control over small developments, which are the source of much of the county's sprawl.
Genuine efforts to slow growth are highly politicized decisions. Carroll's board of commissioners, rather than the appointed planning commission, is the most appropriate body to develop and enact truly effective growth management tools. County residents expect the commissioners to devise a better solution than this ineffective 75-lot rule.