Harford County homebuyers and taxpayers may end up covering school costs that developers don’t pay — and the county council wants the state to change that.
The council voted 4-3 Tuesday to ask Maryland lawmakers to raise the cap on what the county can charge builders for each new home they put up. The fee, called a school development impact fee, is meant to offset the cost new housing puts on local schools. Under state law, counties cannot charge more than $10,000 per unit — a limit set in 2005 that has not changed since.
What’s happening: Harford County estimates a new single-family home creates about $13,000 in school-related costs. A new townhouse creates nearly $14,000. But the county is already charging the maximum $10,000 allowed under state law for both types of homes, leaving a gap between what developers pay and what it actually costs to serve the students they bring.
What the council did: The council passed Resolution 14-26, which asks the Harford County delegation to the Maryland General Assembly to raise the state cap from $10,000 to $15,000 per housing unit. The resolution does not raise the fee itself. Only the state legislature can lift the cap, and only after that could a future county council decide whether to charge more.
Council Member Jacob Bennett, who introduced the resolution, was direct about what the vote does and does not do.
“Raising the cap doesn’t raise the fee,” Bennett said. “It just empowers our local council to raise the fee if they so wish, so that developers pay an equitable share of their impact on the community.”
The backstory: Bennett said the county has known about this gap for years. When the council passed Bill 24-033, members recognized that the $10,000 cap no longer reflected real costs.
“We knew a single family home costs us around $13,000 per home, and that new townhouse costs us nearly $14,000 per home,” Bennett said. “But our cap, which was set in 2005, has it at $10,000.”
About 19 months before the meeting, Bennett said he wrote individually to each member of the Harford delegation urging them to act. The delegation did not move on the issue in two consecutive legislative sessions.
“Unfortunately, in two sessions, we haven’t been able to make progress,” Bennett said.
A previous attempt by the county to address the gap through its own legislation was found to violate the state’s enabling law, meaning the county has no path forward without state action.
Why Bennett pushed it now: Bennett said his time on the council is ending and he did not want to leave without making one more formal request.
“With my time on the council coming to an end soon, I just didn’t want to leave this office without asking the delegation one last time,” he said.
The stakes for taxpayers: Council President Patrick Vincenti put the choice plainly: if developers do not pay more, residents will.
“It’s either going to come from those people that are investing, or it’s going to come from you as the taxpayer,” he said.
What’s next: The resolution now goes to the Harford County delegation to the Maryland General Assembly. State lawmakers, not the county, have the final say on whether the cap changes.
The resolution passed the same night it was introduced. Under council rules, resolutions of this type do not require a public hearing before a vote.
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