It would exempt residents moving a house from one place to another.
Councilman Steve McKay
Frederick, Md (KM) Some changes are being proposed for Frederick County’s impact fee ordinance. The fee is imposed on new home construction to help mitigate its impact on nearby public schools and libraries.
Councilman Steve McKay has come up with an amendment to the ordinance which exempts residents from the fee if they’re moving an existing house from location to another. He says he came up with these proposed changes after hearing about one local situation. “Basically, a local family wanted to move a trailer home from one part of their farm to another part of the farm, and they happened to be in separate parcels or separate lots. And they were told in order to do that, they would need to pay the impact fee,:” he says.
The impact fee is imposed on new home construction, and McKay says this relocation does not increase the county’s housing stock. “And, therefore, I decided that I would seek to clarify this particular situation with this piece of legislation,” he says.
This proposed change, under the amendment, would be retroactive from January 1st, 2017 and later.
“This condition shall only apply to an existing dwelling unit which has been continuously habitable and occupied for at least one year prior to the proposed relocation” says McKay. “I thought that was a reasonable restriction in that circumstance.”
McKay briefed his fellow Council members during a workshop on Tuesday, September 13th. The legislation is expected to be formally introduced to the County Council next week.
By Kevin McManus