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County holds hearing on APFO and building excise tax changes; board leaves record open for two weeks
Summary
Planning staff presented proposed amendments to the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance and the Building Excise Tax Ordinance that would remove the alternate mitigation contribution and increase residential and nonresidential excise taxes; the board left the record open for two weeks for further comment.
Washington County planning staff presented proposed text amendments to the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (APFO) and the Building Excise Tax Ordinance and opened a public hearing. The board concluded the hearing and left the record open for two weeks to allow additional comments.
Jill Baker, director of Planning and Zoning, explained the proposed changes. Key elements described by staff include: - Removing the “alternate mitigation contribution” (AMC) option from the APFO and instead limiting the number of building permits for major subdivisions to 25 units per calendar year when school district capacity falls between 100% and 119% (counts apply to overall development rather than by phase). Multifamily or condominium projects would be limited to one structure up to 35 units under that cap. - Retaining the requirement that projects in districts exceeding 120% capacity must submit a specific mitigation plan to the Board of County Commissioners, while providing additional guidance on what an acceptable mitigation plan should include (facilities, financial contributions, other strategies); portable classrooms would not count as mitigation. - Raising the excise tax for residential construction from $1.00 to $2.00 per square foot of habitable gross space (additions remain at 50% of the full tax), and increasing nonresidential excise tax from $1.00 to $1.50 per square foot. - Exempting residential construction occurring in the Hancock or Cascade Elementary School Districts from the excise tax for 10 years to encourage development in under‑capacity districts. - Adjusting the distribution percentages of excise tax proceeds (school share currently 70% with roads 23%); staff proposed moving library set‑asides into broader government capital to increase the roads share to 25%.
Staff said developments that have already paid an AMC would receive a credit ($1 per square foot) against the new excise tax. The city of Hagerstown submitted written comments and Joanna Wu (City planning staff) read the letter into the record asking that funds collected for school capacity be exclusively dedicated to capital projects that increase seating capacity and that municipalities be notified when projects are added to capital budgets. Ed Schreiber of the Washington County Home Builders Association requested more time for membership review and cautioned that doubling the residential excise tax would exacerbate housing affordability concerns for single‑family builders.
After questions and discussion, several commissioners requested more data about how the changes would affect projects inside municipalities (which currently do not pay the APFO), and how the proposed excise tax compares with existing AMC values. The board left the public hearing open and asked staff to accept additional written comments for two weeks before further consideration.
Ending: The hearing record will remain open for two weeks; staff will collect additional comments and return the proposal to the board for further deliberation.
