Town worries drainage rules will stall growth

Leonardtown's manager warned the town council Monday that the state's new stormwater management law could hamper further redevelopment and disrupt two housing projects already under construction.

Town manager Laschelle McKay said that projects such as the recently completed Executive Inn and Suites hotel would not be 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.

The part of the law that rankles McKay and the administrators of other small towns across Maryland is its requirement that redevelopment projects not increase the amount of runoff they generate, and must retain 50 percent of that runoff on the lot. The law does not allow holding ponds or underground storage tanks to slow runoff release, according to McKay.

"It really seems to fly in the face of Smart Growth principles," McKay said, referring to the name for high-density growth principles that have governed state planning for the last decade.

Executive Inn "would never have happened under this ordinance," she said.

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

Eckman is currently consulting with 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 Tuesday. "Your small towns will not be able to redevelop."

Eckman said that 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 Maryland Department of the Environment 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.

Jay Apperson, spokesman for MDE, said the agency is carrying out its legislative mandate to control Chesapeake Bay nutrient pollution and noted that the regulations level the playing field for developers who are already practicing bay-friendly stormwater management.