Planning Commission moves parts of APF task force recommendations to County Commissioners, ties enrollment increases to annual growth policy

Saint Mary's County Planning Commission — March 12, 2007 — The Planning Commission spent the bulk of its March 12 meeting reviewing an Adequate Public Facilities (APF) task force report and the commission’s own recommendations. The discussion covered the task force’s recommended annual growth rate, allocation of dwelling-unit entitlements across growth areas and Rural Preservation Districts (RPDs), proposed unit allocations per project size, a recommended change to the school portion of the impact fee, and whether to restore mitigation as an option in the zoning ordinance.

Phil Shydas (task force/commission member) summarized handouts comparing the task force’s recommendations with the Planning Commission’s preferred numbers. The task force had proposed an annual growth-rate assumption; the Planning Commission expressed concurrence with a 2.25% annual growth-rate assumption in general and with proposed allocation percentages broken into growth areas and RPDs. The commission’s summary of recommended allocations included: 70% of annual allocations to growth areas (town centers, village centers, development/growth districts) and 30% to RPDs; within growth-area allocations, 35% of…