State drainage law draws fire from area municipalities

Friday, Oct. 30, 2009

The law, passed in 2007, contains a requirement that redevelopment projects in municipalities cannot increase the amount of stormwater runoff they generate, said La Plata Mayor Roy Hale. In addition, the projects must retain 50 percent of that runoff on the lot.

The law does not allow holding ponds or underground storage tanks to slow the release of runoff, Hale said.

"The law makes it extremely difficult to manage redevelopment projects, especially under the principals of Smart Growth," he said.

"When the state implemented the new stormwater management requirements we realized that the law ran afoul of some of the state's Smart Growth initiatives."

Hale said the La Plata Town Council submitted legislation to the Maryland Municipal League but the group did not want to move forward with the bill because the organization wanted to place priority on legislation that would help municipalities weather the rough economy, he said.

League officials do support La Plata's effort to submit a bill that would refashion the Maryland Department of the Environment stormwater management requirements to make it more user-friendly, Hale said.

Hale said several projects in town, including the Candy Clark Boutique on Centennial Street and the Edelen Station condominium complex near town hall would have been severely impacted by the new law.

Ward 4 Councilman Joe Norris said the town would never have been able to rebuild following the April 2002 tornado that nearly destroyed La Plata's business district if the new law had been in effect.

"The law makes it almost impossible to develop or redevelop lots in town because they're too small; they can't meet the new regulations," he said. "The law completely defeats the purpose of Smart Growth in towns."

In Leonardtown, Town Manager Laschelle McKay said that projects such as the recently completed Executive Inn and Suites hotel would not have been possible under the new law and that the Clark Farm and Leonard's Grant housing subdivision will have to redesign their plans in order to meet the new rules.

"It really seems to fly in the face of Smart Growth principles," McKay said at the Oct. 12 meeting. The Executive Inn "would never have happened under this ordinance."

McKay gave the Leonardtown Town Council a handout sheet, composed by former La Plata Mayor William Eckman, explaining the problems with the law.

Eckman is currently consulting La Plata officials on the law, and he gave a presentation to a meeting of the Southern Maryland Municipal Association this summer warning of the law's pending impact.

"It's going to kill your small towns," Eckman said in an interview Oct. 13. "Your small towns will not be able to redevelop."

Eckman said the land requirements for meeting the new stormwater management rules will encourage developers to build houses on large lots in the rural areas in order to avoid the expense of land in incorporated areas. Eckman said this is in spite of the fact that high-density housing generates less runoff per unit than standalone housing.

"They are penalizing high-density housing," Eckman said. "It's just so completely contrary to Smart Growth. …It's a really serious thing."

Eckman has called for changes in the law that would exempt homes built on an acre or less of land and take the amount of impervious surface generated by new buildings.

But the clock is ticking. The law has been on the books since 2007, but the MDE only recently posted a sample ordinance for towns to follow. Leonardtown has until Nov. 10 to submit a sample ordinance to MDE, and the local ordinance must be in place by May.

"I don't think it was on anyone's radar screen until we had to deal with it," McKay told the council.

Eckman said he has been in contact with Del. Sally Y. Jameson (D-Charles) about making changes to the law at next year's Maryland General Assembly session. However, Del. John F. Wood Jr. (D-Charles, St. Mary's) said he has not heard anything from Leonardtown about potential changes.

MDE officials said the law is important to boosting the ailing health of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

"This is just an element of an effort to reduce nitrogen pollution [in the state's waterways]," said Jay Apperson, MDE spokesman, adding the MDE plans to monitor how the regulations will impact the state's Smart Growth initiative. "We're trying to ensure that there are no disincentives to Smart Growth. A methodology is being developed to track any impacts on Smart Growth as part of the implementation of the regulations so that modifications [to the law] can be made if necessary."

Hale said the law needs to be revised so that it fits the Smart Growth goal of the state without crippling redevelopment in small towns.

"We believe that this is extremely important for redevelopment and that it needs to be brought before legislators to show the conflict between what the state is trying to accomplish with the law and how it conflicts with the Smart Growth initiative," Hale said.

nmcconaty@somdnews.com