Impact fee experts told Harford County officials that proposed fee increases for developers are a step in the right direction, but will not fully cover the cost of school infrastructure needed for student population growth from new development.

Impact fees are one-time fees paid to the county by developers building new residential structures and can only be used to fund school site acquisition, school construction or school renovations. The revenue from fees cannot be used to cover school operating expenses such as salaries for new teachers.

Harford’s current fees — which haven’t been increased since 2005 — are:

  • $6,000 per single family detached unit
  • $4,200 per townhome/duplex
  • $1,200 for all other housing structures including apartment units and mobile homes

The county hired Maryland-based impact fee analysis firm TischlerBise to analyze how much Harford should increase its fees to align with the modern economy. TischlerBise advised that the fees should be:

  • $12,819 per single family detached unit
  • $13,693 per townhome/duplex
  • $7,989 per apartment unit
  • $10,683 per mobile home unit

However, because of state legislation that enables Harford to collect impact fees, fees cannot exceed $10,000.

Legislation proposed to the County Council by County Executive Bob Cassilly in October aimed to increase fees to the maximum $10,000 for single-family homes and townhomes, and $7,989 for apartments and mobile homes.

County Treasurer Robert Sandless said county officials have discussed with members of Harford’s delegation to the General Assembly whether the $10,000 limit could ever be increased.

“When these fees were started, I think $10,000 was a high amount because these fees a few years ago would have been a reasonable amount,” Sandless said. “That is true any time you have a set dollar amount for spending thresholds.”

Of Maryland’s 23 counties and Baltimore City, just Anne Arundel, Calvert, Carroll, Frederick, Montgomery, Prince George’s, Queen Anne’s, St. Mary’s and Harford counties charge impact fees.

Montgomery County charges the most in the state with a maximum impact fee of $30,343 and Carroll County charges the lowest impact fee at $3,000. If passed, Harford will place in the middle below Anne Arundel County’s $13,223 impact fee and above Talbot County’s $4,030.

Carson Bise, president of TischlerBise, was unable to say why Montgomery County has a high impact fee, but Sandless alluded to the county’s increased land and labor costs as a potential factor.

During a public hearing for the bill outlining the increases for impact fees Tuesday night, Bise explained that the calculation for the impact fee increases was based on:

  • School facility square footage per student
  • Cost of construction per square foot
  • Acre of land per student
  • Local land cost per acre

Analyzing the county’s development pipeline, Bise estimates that during the next 10 years, Harford schools will have an additional 2,643 students.

The 10-year growth estimation was plugged into the square footage, acreage and construction cost formula to determine that the capital cost per elementary school student is $29,232, middle school student is $33,284 and high school student $39,013, Bise said.

According to 2023 enrollment data from Harford County Public Schools, 21 of the school system’s 33 elementary schools are either at, or over, 90% capacity. Of those, five are either at, or over, 100% capacity.

Only one county middle school is over 90% capacity while the others range from 65% to 87%. None of the eight county high schools are over 90% capacity. High school capacity, according to the 2023 data, ranges from 67% to 87%.

Both combination schools in Harford County — facilities that operate as a high school and middle school — are just over 90% capacity with the Havre de Grace combination school at 91% and the Patterson Mill combination school at 92%.

“From the presentation it is clear that even with this legislation, there is a gap between the cost and the receipt and we run into that all the time with fees,” Councilman Jacob Bennett said. “I think all of us on the council recognize the important need that this funding source covers and it should be simple to support it as is at the maximum level we are able to.”

Councilman Aaron Penman disagreed and said that increasing impact fees will only increase housing costs as the additional cost will be passed from the developers to homebuyers.

“A barrel of oil goes up $10 and the price of the pump goes up … we have to measure that to decide what is in the best interest of the county,” Penman said. “When you increase the trash fee and you increase the phone fee and you increase the EMS fee and you increase the impact fee, it has a cost to our community.”

During the public hearing, five residents voiced their support for the legislation, saying Harford County had been “leaving money on the table” by not increasing fees for 10 years.

Stephanie Flasch, president of the local land use advocacy group Friends of Harford, said the current fees are “significantly low” and have resulted in school construction fees being the responsibility of Harford taxpayers.

“Increasing these fees is not a barrier to affordable housing, rather it ensures developers contribute to the infrastructure needs of our expanding communities,” Flasch said. “These funds represent a fair and necessary solution to balance our growth with critical infrastructure.”

Joppatowne resident Jeff Beck said that had proposed fee increases been in place in 2022, the county could have received an additional $2 million in impact fee revenue from the 388 single-family home development Ridgeley’s Reserve in Joppatowne.

“I think keeping impact fees low sends the message that Harford County is for sale and is a discount store for developers,”  Beck said.

The only speaker in opposition of the proposed increases was attorney Joseph Snee, who routinely represents developers in the county.

Snee said Harford has been “stagnant” and the economy has suffered due to “overregulation that has stunted the county’s growth.”

He called impact fees nothing more than “politically expedient means to construct public schools.”

“It is the cumulative effect of these fees that is killing the golden goose and that is home building — the most important industry in Harford County,” Snee said. “That is all that it does and unlike sewers, unlike roads, the amount of educational services that will be used by any single family home, town house or otherwise, is very difficult to determine when it comes to schools.”

The Harford County Council will vote on impact fee legislation, Bill No. 24-033, during a future meeting that has yet to be determined.

Have a news tip? Contact Matt Hubbard at mhubbard@baltsun.com, 443-651-0101 or @mthubb on X.