Residents warn against rapid growth

Community members worry potential surge in new homes will overwhelm North Laurel’s infrastructure

The legislation, which applies to the area from Interstate 95 to the Anne Arundel County line, requires developers making use of the loaned housing allotments to include residential and commercial space in their developments and to purchase public-use land to offset the rapid growth.

‘‘It’s kind of a piecemeal solution to a comprehensive problem,” said North Laurel resident Tom Flynn. ‘‘They know they’ve got to do a lot of redevelopment along the Route 1 corridor ... [but] basically this legislation is a concession to the developers with no consideration for the impact on the citizens.”

The legislation does not stipulate how much public land the developers will be required to set aside, but the land must be fit for the building of public facilities such as schools and playgrounds.

Howard County Executive Ken Ulman (D) proposed the legislation, which is set to go into effect by the end of August.

County Councilwoman Jennifer Terrasa (Dist. 3) of Kings Contrivance, whose district includes Savage and North Laurel, said the new law allows for public-use facilities the county needs.

‘‘I share folks’ concerns about the burden on the existing communities ... but it doesn’t add any units,” she said. ‘‘We’re saying [to developers], ‘These are allocations you’re allowed to build anyway, and we know we’ll need schools in the Route 1 corridor [sooner] than that.’”

North Laurel resident Stuart Kohn said the council should have rejected the proposal.

Kohn said he had done a projected Route 1 corridor population calculation based on a three-person-per-living-unit constant and found that the area will have approximately 58,000 residents by 2015.

‘‘That’s why I don’t want Route 1 [revitalization] till the hospitals can handle it, until the roads can handle it,” he said. ‘‘I’m very concerned about the traffic.”

Base Realignment and Closure, or BRAC, will rearrange military operations at bases nationwide and bring at least 14,000 new residents to the Fort Meade area, according to the Anne Arundel County Web site. And if a slots referendum passes in the fall, the gambling machines could arrive at Laurel Park in Anne Arundel County, bringing thousands of Maryland and Washington, D.C.-area denizens to Laurel roads on a weekly basis.

‘‘We’re not prepared,” Kohn said.

But Terassa said the new legislation will not add even more residents to the expected BRAC-related influx.

‘‘BRAC doesn’t have its own allocations so this isn’t in addition to BRAC locations,” she said. ‘‘The housing stock is what it is.” Ê