For a long time, and especially over the past two years, Howard County advocates for slowing down development for the sake of improving public services, especially crowded schools, have fought hard to get the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (APFO) strengthened. The changes get fully implemented soon, after serious delays. During the Council considerations of better school capacity recognition and some longer delays, there were so many MYTHS put forth by development stakeholders, which were debunked, and luckily, the Council and County Executive passed the stronger regulations last year. Currently, a local Bill has been sponsored by Delegate Atterbeary, to give our local government the l

There is much talk about Howard County current local bill 3-19, regarding increasing impact fees to developers. Many realize that our County has very low fees compared to other growing counties, by high factors; however, there is much disagreement about who ends up "paying" this fee. This topic has been near and dear to my heart for some time. During the APFO Task Force work, I, and others, attempted to address a fee increase many times, indicating our comparatively extremely low fees, and budget needs for improving public services. I have an undergrad degree in Economics and a Masters in Finance, so these types of subjects are always of great interest to me. Concerns have been expressed abo