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Planners Question Repaying Clarksburg Developers
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Similar proposals for special taxation districts in Clarksburg Village and Arora Hills, part of the planned 14,000-home Clarksburg community, also await council action.
Hanson said the board might not have been as forthright in 2001 and 2002 as it needed to be with the council about the flaws in the law and the need to amend it. "It could be that the board didn't stress that enough," he said. He was not a member of the board then.
Amy Presley, head of the Clarksburg advisory committee, said she was "pleased but not surprised that the Planning Board chairman and the board agreed with the findings in our report. We look forward to seeing how the County Council is going to respond." The report said the council failed to set up the Clarksburg Town Center taxing district correctly and also questioned whether the district could be set up after the development was approved.
Council President Marilyn Praisner (D-Eastern County) said her staff was examining the Planning Board's letter. Praisner said the board validated the use of the special taxing districts, and she noted that the board said they could be set up after a development is approved.
"The Planning Board said the Clarksburg Town Center Advisory Committee was wrong in saying that the development district could not be used to fund things the Planning Board had reviewed as part of development approval," she said.
The debate over the tax could create a political problem for many recently elected county lawmakers. Several new members of the council, as well as County Executive Isiah Leggett (D), pledged during last year's campaign to make developers more accountable for the effects of growth on the county. Leggett has asked Marc P. Hansen of the county attorney's office to examine legal issues linked to the development tax.
The county's independent inspector general, Thomas J. Dagley, is also examining county funding for the special taxing districts.
County budget officials have been allocating the money to repay developers for at least three years, even though the tax has not been finally approved by the County Council, budget documents show. It does not appear that any payments have been made. Dagley said he is examining the road projects to gain a better understanding of how county officials estimate costs and allocate funds.
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