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The Hagerstown City Council's doubts about enacting an Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance just to get a share of county excise taxes need to be resolved quickly, for several reasons. The first is that both governments should be working to standardize the requirements for development. Creating a separate impact fee within the city limits would not only be confusing from an economic-development standpoint, but could also lead to what we've seen previously - developers trying to play the two governments against each other.

SMITHSBURG - A developer's plan to build 90 homes southeast of Smithsburg suffered a setback Tuesday night when the Smithsburg Town Council voted 4-1 against annexing the development into town. Annexing the land would have allowed the development to use Smithsburg's water and sewer systems and might have helped the developer, Cloverly Hill LLC, get around county zoning rules that limit the number of homes allowed on the property, Cloverly president Daniel Cross said. Councilmembers Thomas L. Chiarizia, Shirley D. Aurand, Dennis "Jack" Wenthe and Jerome Martin voted against the annexation of the 63-acre site after citizens expressed concerns about the impact the development would have on the town's schools, utilities and other infrastructure at a public hearing Sept.

Odds and ends from a columnist's notebook: Remember when "impact fee" was a dirty word and political poison as well? Like land-use planning and the zoning ordinance, the idea has gotten more popular as taxpayers begin to realize that if something isn't done, a big part of the bill for new schools will be sent to them. In the 2003 session of the Maryland General Assembly, Washington County was given authority to levy real-estate transfer and excise taxes because there's a backlog of projects needed in existing schools, not to mention space that will be required as the population grows.

letters to the editor - 1/20 - F7 County ordinance makes developers pay their fair share To the editor: I am responding to your editorial of Wednesday, Jan. 9, entitled "New projects require county road upgrades. " Reference was made to two large residential development projects, one proposed between Marsh Pike and Leitersburg Pike and the other along Mt. Aetna Road, near the golf course. After briefly summarizing the projects, you state: "even if the county government doesn't have the funds to fix these problems now, it must quickly take steps to secure rights-of-way and make sure that developers donate enough land - and cash - to deal with the increased traffic their projects will bring.

tammyb@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - Washington County school system officials are feeling a little squeezed. Meeting with members of the Washington County Delegation to the General Assembly on Tuesday, county Board of Education members and administrators told the lawmakers that demands placed on the school system both by development and federal mandates under the No Child Left Behind Act are making life difficult for county educators....

andrews@herald-mail.com WASHINGTON COUNTY - Any rumors of unfettered, "exploding" growth are greatly exaggerated, Washington County Commissioners President Gregory I. Snook said in a mostly rosy State of the County address Tuesday morning. The rate that the county's population has grown - recently, about 1 percent per year - might be a little higher when 2004 estimates come out, Snook said. For housing, the imminent growth is more pronounced. The county and the City of Hagerstown issued a combined 1,263 residential building permits in 2004, double what they issued four years earlier, a chart showed.

Scheduled meetings this week of the Washington County Commissioners and Hagerstown Mayor and Council (the Washington County Board of Education is not scheduled to meet): WASHINGTON COUNTY COMMISSIONERS County Administration Building 100 W. Washington St., Hagerstown Tuesday, April 9, 11 a.m. Agenda • 11 a.m.: Public hearing - Modification of water and sewer rates and certain other fees FY 2014 • 11:15 a.m.: Joint public hearing - Modification of charges, rentals and fees at the Hagerstown Regional Airport • 11:30 a.m.: Sole source contract award for one SPX Genfare's Vendstar ticket vending machine for use by the Washington County Transit Department - County Commuter • 11:45 a.m.: Depart for 401 Museum Drive • noon: Tour and luncheon meeting with The Museum of Fine Arts Board County Administration Building 100 W. Washington St., Hagerstown, Room 227 Tuesday, April 9, 1:45 p.m. Agenda • 1:45 p.m.: Real property acquisition - 334 E. Oak Ridge Drive • 2:15 p.m.: Budget discussion - General fund budget • 3 p.m.: Closed session (to discuss the appointment, employment, assignment, compensation, and/or performance evaluation of appointees, employees or officials over whom the public body has jurisdiction; to discuss other personnel matters that affect one or more specific individuals; to consider a matter that concerns the proposal for a business to expand in the...

WASHINGTON COUNTY -- Gary Rohrer, Washington County's first director of public works, retired Sept. 30 after a 20-year career with the county that included advocating for strong policies to manage growth, overseeing hundreds of millions of dollars in capital projects, and devising policies and procedures to bring fairness and efficiency to the growing county. Rohrer, 62, a Washington County native who had worked for Frederick and Howard counties, was hired by Washington County in 1989 as director of planning and review.