A call to act before job influx

The Baltimore Sun

Using some of their frankest language to date, state planners warn in a newly released report that the surge of new workers and their families coming to Maryland because of military base realignment could strain water supplies, snarl traffic and contribute to the region's sprawl.

The report by the Maryland Department of Planning - the most detailed look yet at the impact of the military base shuffle - says state and local officials need to take "significant steps now" to prepare for more than 25,000 new households expected to move to the state over the next eight years as up to 60,000 defense and contractor jobs relocate to Aberdeen Proving Ground, Fort Meade and other facilities.

"We want to be able to accommodate these jobs, but we also want to maintain the quality of life that Marylanders expect," Richard Eberhart Hall, acting secretary of planning, said in an interview yesterday. "Accomplishing both of those is going to be tough."

Growth-management advocates and others have warned that the Pentagon's nationwide military job shuffle could bring problems as well as wealth to Maryland communities. But this 300-page report, which state officials have refused to release for months, represents the first official and most detailed acknowledgement of the extent of the challenges to accommodating the growth.

Michael Hayes, director of military and federal affairs for the state Department of Business and Economic Development, which commissioned the report, has said its release was being held in an effort to get better estimates of the impact.

The report offers no cost estimates, but calls for expediting highway and transit projects and some water system upgrades to avoid traffic and development bottlenecks and preserve rural land in rapidly suburbanizing counties.

The price tag to taxpayers is likely to run into billions of dollars. Anne Arundel County alone is seeking $5 billion in highway widenings and transit upgrades around Fort Meade, though the federal government normally pays the vast majority of the tab on such projects.

The report also urges local officials to begin planning now for extra classroom space to accommodate the base-related growth, and it warns of potential restrictions on sewage plant expansions, which could limit growth around the proving ground and Fort Meade.

Hall, tapped by Gov. Martin O'Malley to be planning secretary, noted that the base-related growth would add to already significant development pressures in much of the Baltimore-Washington region.

"What we don't want to see happen is have growth be deflected," Hall said, where low-density development would consume more farmland and forests.

Harford County faces the greatest growth pressures, says the report. With most workers expected to want to live within a 45-mile commute of their jobs, planners project 6,533 households will settle in the county around APG. As many as 8,200 additional workers are expected at the post, with up to twice that number working for defense contractors and related businesses on or around the 72,000-acre installation.

Families moving to Harford to take base-related jobs could buy up more than two-thirds of the high-quality housing expected to be built or for sale in the county's designated growth area, the plan cautions. But the county's plans to concentrate those new households could be foiled by lack of infrastructure, the report cautions.

Harford and its municipalities face water-supply limits or shortages, the report says. Bel Air's water capacity is inadequate, planners say, and they warn that Aberdeen's plans to solve its looming supply crunch by desalinating Chesapeake Bay water might not get approved and completed before new workers and their families start arriving.

The report says there is "an increased urgency for plans and actions now" to finance and build new water-supply and sewage treatment capacity, highway and transit improvements and classroom space.

"If ... development occurs without this investment," it adds, "the likely consequences are further threats to rural land preservation in the county and/or further deflection of growth outwards to surrounding jurisdictions, specifically Cecil County in Maryland or out of state (Pennsylvania and Delaware)."

A commission appointed 14 months ago by Harford County Executive David R. Craig announced this week that it will unveil an "action plan" Monday for coping with base-related growth.

James C. Richardson, Harford's economic development director, said the county has plans to expand its water and sewage treatment system and is in the process of rewriting its zoning code to address concerns about the housing stock and sprawl. With workers set to begin arriving in two to four years, he noted, "we don't have the luxury of a long lead period here, on any of this stuff."

Neighboring Cecil County, projected to get 1,998 new households from the base realignment, also faces serious development strains because of inadequate water supplies and potential sewage treatment limits, state planners say.

"Cecil County does not currently have sufficient water supply capacity to support projected growth," the report warns. And while the county and towns appear able to handle the sewage from the increased residential growth, the report says there might not be enough capacity if business and industry grow as well.

Some rivers and streams around the proving ground and Fort Meade already are suffering from pollution, the report notes, and efforts to clean them up might require limits on sewage discharges. Those restrictions, required by federal law or by the interstate Chesapeake Bay cleanup compact, could block expansion of some wastewater treatment plants - meaning that base-related growth might be hampered or diverted elsewhere.

As for schools, the report notes that local school officials have yet to factor base-related growth into projections of classroom space needs. Baltimore City and the seven counties likely to be most affected by the base realignment have projected needing $214 million for 165 different projects. But the state doesn't fund all the construction requests of the counties.

Around Fort Meade, the report warns, highway widenings and transit projects in the works will not be enough to handle the growth in traffic expected as a result of jobs being shifted there.

The state Department of Transportation is working on more than 50 highway and transit projects that should help ease traffic snarls around Maryland's military installations, according a list compiled by the agency. Nearly half are under construction, but many of the most expensive upgrades - and some of the most critical - only have money for planning.

As one of his first acts, the incoming governor introduced legislation to create a Cabinet-level group to coordinate state planning for the base realignment. O'Malley tapped Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown to lead the interagency group.

"These are tremendous challenges, but also tremendous opportunities," Brown said in a statement issued by a spokeswoman. "This will be a highly educated work force that will help Maryland play an important role in the security of our country."

The Baltimore Metropolitan Council, a regional planning group, aims to narrow down the list of priority transportation projects in the next 60 days so local and state officials can accelerate their construction, said a spokeswoman for the council.

John R. Leopold, Anne Arundel's new executive, has asked O'Malley to expedite work on one Fort Meade project - a $270 million widening of Route 175 from Route 170 to the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. The county has more than $5 billion in highway and transit projects on its priority list, said Bob Leib, an aide to the county executive, including extension of the Washington Metro's Green Line to Fort Meade, which could cost about $3 billion.

"The challenge is to try to make sure that folks are as ready as they can be when they [base workers] start coming," said Hall, the acting state planning secretary.

Del. Mary Ann Love, chairwoman of the Anne Arundel delegation, said she was confident that the county wouldn't be suffocated by the fast growth.

"We've had ... meetings for the last two, three years, so we've been working on it," she said. "I have faith in it. The beginning years will be all right."

tim.wheeler@baltsun.com

Sun reporter Justin Fenton contributed to this article.

To read the full report, go to www.mdp.state.md.us

KEY FINDINGS

Military-base jobs could aggravate the Baltimore-Washington region's growing pains. The key findings of the state report:

HOUSING Pressures will grow, especially in Harford and Cecil counties, and could sprawl into rural areas.

WATER & SEWER Counties and municipalities need to act now to upgrade utilities. Aberdeen lacks capacity to handle growth. Desalination plant might not be ready soon enough.

TRANSPORTATION Highway upgrades in works won't keep pace with projected traffic, even without added base commuters; consider express toll lanes, expand MARC and bus service.

POWER BGE says it can supply enough power to all new homes that might be needed; but expected upsurge in high-technology business around bases may require more than BGE now plans.

SCHOOLS Uncertainty about enrollment growth might delay needed construction; federal funds might be required.

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