Commissioners reach compromise on construction halt

The sticking point this week for commissioners was the date which the moratorium takes effect.

Board President Jan H. Gardner (D) and Commissioner Kai J. Hagen (D) wanted the moratorium to take affect on Feb. 19, the night of a public hearing on the issue. After plenty of debate, Commissioner David P. Gray (R), who argued for stricter terms, agreed to vote in favor of the moratorium with an affective date of Jan. 8 – the day of the press conference.

‘‘Thank you,” Board President Jan H. Gardner (D) said to Gray. ‘‘I appreciate the compromise.”

Commissioners Charles A. Jenkins (R) and John ‘‘Lennie” Thompson Jr. (R) voted against the moratorium.

Jenkins has been against the moratorium from the beginning, because he believes it is not fair to builders who already started the county’s approval process.

Thompson voted against the moratorium because the terms were modified. When it was first announced, the two-year moratorium applied to home building in developments that have yet to start construction. Construction would not proceed even if the development had passed the county’s growth-control policy. The policy requires developments to prove schools, roads, water and sewer can handle an influx of new residents. Following advice from county attorneys, commissioners changed the terms. Originally, the moratorium would have applied to about 10 housing developments. Now only about five will be forced to stop.

‘‘I had hoped we would have made a substantial difference in land use in Frederick County,” Thompson said. ‘‘I hate to say it, but I was in error in my hopes.”

Gardner and Hagen countered that the moratorium would still be effective since some new projects would stop immediately, because they do not have APFO approval.

‘‘The moratorium is also about projects that would come in the door,” Hagen said.

The moratorium is intended to allow the board time to update the 1998 comprehensive plan, a document that outlines the future of housing growth, and modify the county’s growth-control policy. Development in the county’s 12 municipalities is not subject to the suspension. Affordable housing and commercial businesses are also exempt.