Planners Question Repaying Clarksburg Developers

Repaying Developers Could Violate Law

The Montgomery County Planning Board has cast doubt on a plan to repay developers at least $60 million for improvements in Clarksburg, saying the County Council might have erred when it gave preliminary approval six years ago.

Developers told the Planning Board they would create the roads, green space and sewers in exchange for development rights. The promise was part of a mid-1990s agreement to lessen the strain on the county budget for services needed by new development.

But several years later, the developers asked the council to set up special taxing districts, known as development districts, in Clarksburg to collect money from residents to repay the developers for the infrastructure improvements.

The Planning Board said in a letter to the council released Friday that the proposed districts could be set up even after a development is approved but that the Clarksburg funding proposals appear to violate the law. The districts are awaiting final council approval.

County law does not envision creating taxing districts to benefit a single developer, as the Clarksburg proposals would, unless the developer is building amenities for the wider community, the board's letter said. The letter also noted that the board advised the council in 2001 and again in 2002 that it could change the law to create the type of taxing district Clarksburg's developers are seeking.

But the council never changed the law, and the Planning Board suggested in its letter that that might have been a mistake.

"As we read the law now, it would appear that would be necessary," said board Chairman Royce Hanson, a lawyer and planner.

The board's letter also said it is bad public policy to allow a single developer to have its own taxing district, saying all developers or residents should share the costs of building needed community amenities.

"The concept of development districts is not well suited to single-developer projects. . . . Such infrastructure should be provided, if feasible, through the cooperation of several developers, or through a fee or tax . . . on all users or all property owners," the letter said.

The controversy arose in late March when the Clarksburg Town Center Advisory Committee, a community group, complained that residents would be taxed $1,500 or more per household annually for 30 years. The committee questioned whether residents had been properly notified and said the tax would shift financial obligations illegally from developers to residents.

Several county agencies are examining those claims, and their reports are expected in a few weeks.

Spokesmen for Newland Communities, the developer of Clarksburg Town Center, did not return calls seeking comment.