While many in Howard County wait for the State Delegation to finally allow developer impact fees to rise from their long-term abysmal levels, after years of clamoring for such, there are amendments being considered that will gut the "impact" of this Bill. This coming Wednesday, the Howard County Delegation is set to discuss this Bill yet again, and possibly vote on it, finally. I am heartened to see there is a lot of support, likely enough to prevail, to give the County Council the ability to raise these fees, and even choose the amount of the increase. Problem is, there are a few issues in these amendments that give an extreme windfall to developers, which could have the County not see any

It has been a long, long road trying to get higher developer fees charged in Howard County to increase their contribution to school enrollment. The Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (APFO) task force, worked for over a year, and requested the change. The Bill was put in late in 2017 and it did not get enough support, with many promising "next year", they would make it happen. This year, Delegate Vanessa Atterbeary kindly met with several people educated on this topic and drafted Howard County local State Bill 3-19, proposing to raise developer school charges from $1 per square foot to $4. Some are clamoring for $8, while various stakeholders are hoping for $2 or no change at all. Howard C