More red flags over Clarksburg

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

More red flags over Clarksburg

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It would be unfortunate, even shameful, if Clarksburg becomes a metaphor for shoddy government oversight of major Montgomery County development projects.

You’ll recall a group of citizens, hiring its own lawyers, unearthed lapses in the county’s development reviews, which effectively allowed hundreds of homes to be built too tall or too close to property lines in Clarksburg. Those embarrassing revelations brought about a major shakeup at the county’s Planning Board last year, sanctions against the builders and reforms — or the promise of reforms — in the way development plans are reviewed and approved.

Now a new report from that same group of citizens is prompting fresh questions about who is ultimately obligated to pay for more than $66 million in roads and other public facilities in and around the Clarksburg Town Center, Clarksburg Skylark and Clarksburg Village neighborhoods. Many had presumed these public improvements were the responsibility of developers in exchange for clearance to expedite construction years ago.

These citizens are raising legitimate red flags over impending plans by the County Council to approve additional special tax districts in Clarksburg and environs. Homeowners could face annual levies averaging $1,500 for up to 30 years — on top of property taxes — to cover developers’ costs, according to one estimate.

Last week’s report by the Clarksburg Town Center Advisory Committee Inc., ‘‘Clarksburg Development Districts — The Illegitimate Transfer of Private Financial Obligations to the Public,” has sent aides and lawyers for the County Council, the county executive, the Planning Board and the private developers rushing to study documents that spell out terms and conditions for the area’s development. Some of the agreements and resolutions are from the early 1990s.

Among the immediate questions are whether the districts run afoul of negotiated agreements between planners and developers to cover costs in the first place, and whether homeowners had the proper notice and opportunity to comment on the creation of the proposed tax districts.

These questions come amid sweeping reviews of all growth and development policies. The reviews, mandated in December by the County Council, are expected to come up with recommendations for ways to ‘‘strengthen the relationship between the pace of growth” and providing public infrastructure in new communities, and examine the effectiveness of growth rules, which at one time were national models.

In the wake of the latest report, elected leaders have promised a thorough review of their actions on Clarksburg, some dating from 2000, in starting the process for special tax districts.

With respect and trust in the development review process yet to rebound, these fresh questions do little to repair the erosion in public confidence over how the county regulates growth and developers.