Apfo

HAGERSTOWN gregs@herald-mail.com Hagerstown City Council members on Tuesday disagreed with some wishes of the Washington County Board of Education, saying they will push for wording on a new law that will aid some downtown redevelopment as well as not create financial difficulties for developers or homeowners. At its Tuesday work session, the City Council took up a discussion on the city's proposed Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (APFO), which would in part link the ability to build new homes to the amount of available space in local schools for new students.

Last week members of the Hagerstown Planning Commission talked about their fear that adopting an Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (APFO) would give the Washington County School Board veto power over in-city development. Let us suggest that both groups look at the situation not as a matter of who controls what, but about how both can work together for orderly growth and development. Adopting its own APFO would allow the city to get a share of the building excise tax that is collected by the Washington County government.

gregs@herald-mail.com Members of the Hagerstown Planning Commission on Wednesday expressed concerns with the proposed county excise tax and related adequate public facilities ordinance (APFO) that could go into effect as early as July 12. Their comments will be forwarded to the Hagerstown City Council, which is scheduled to take action on the measures in late July. The county's building excise tax would collect between $13,000 and $31,000 on each new home, depending on the type of home and how many are being built at one time in a development.

daniels@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - The Hagerstown City Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday to introduce legislation restricting the amount of new home construction in the city, even though they will not be in a position at that time to adopt the adequate public facilities ordinance (APFO). "I think if we introduce the ordinances next week ... it keeps the process moving," City Administrator Bruce Zimmerman said during the council's work session Tuesday. "It doesn't take effect until you actually vote to adopt the ordinance.

Chief: Senior pranks were 'pretty tame' SMITHSBURG - Smithsburg Police Department Chief Michael Potter said Tuesday that recent "senior pranks" that accompany the end of the school year were "pretty tame" compared with previous years. Potter said police halted several of the planned student pranks before any damage was done. Among the successful efforts was an incident at Smithsburg High School in which the license plates from nearly 30 vehicles parked near the school's tennis courts were removed and thrown into a pile.

gregs@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - The Hagerstown City Council took cautious steps Tuesday toward adopting a set of proposed regulations that would restrict the amount of new home building in the city based on the amount of available space for new students at local schools. "The fear is that the county absolutely could have control over development in the city," City Councilman Lewis C. Metzner said of the discussion over the proposed set of rules know as the adequate public facilities ordinance (APFO)

julieg@herald-mail.com SHARPSBURG - A motion to have the Town of Sharpsburg collect Washington County's Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance fee for the county government failed to get a second on Monday night. So the county will collect that fee, County Commissioners President Gregory I. Snook said in a telephone interview after the meeting. Sharpsburg Town Attorney Charles Wagaman told the mayor and town council the town would be collecting the school portion of the county Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (APFO)

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.

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....

The chickens are coming home to roost, so to speak. Excessive developer influence on the Washington County Commissioners has created a crisis in school funding. These commissioners have been unwilling to require developers to pay for road upgrades, and now we are millions of dollars behind the curve on road construction. Our sewer system is reaching capacity and we still have close to $50 million of sewer debt. Developers have been making huge profits and these commissioners have done virtually nothing to recover any of the costs of development.