How the County Council Created a Perpetual Wedge Issue

In Howard County, the legacy of Rouse has led to a community that prides itself in its economic and racial integration. The inclusionary zoning policies that he championed still influence people’s views on the importance of affordable housing. Unfortunately, continuation of such policies requires stewardship that does not currently exist in today’s Howard County developers.

Instead, such policies are used to create wedge issues during debates of important legislation. Wedge issues help create the necessary space to confuse and destroy progress in important policies.

After the APFO bill the County Council passed last year was declared invalid due to rules pertaining to the age of a bill, the special interests who oppose any meaningful growth management process found just the right amount of time they needed to take advantage of the second chance they miraculously gained.

They decided that they will achieve this by partnering with certain members of the County Council and injecting affordable housing as a wedge issue.

The opponents of the bill made two claims: first the reduction is “housing supply” would make homes more expensive. Second, Howard County will lose “Communities of Opportunity” State Credits because of the bill.

According to one of the opponents, “Communities of Opportunity” are well-off areas that have the potential to help create better conditions for families that are struggling. Not only were these opponents not able to back up their claims, they neglected to mention that certain areas in Howard County’s part of Laurel, which were once considered “opportunity areas” have been taken off that list “due to increased concentrations of poverty, subsidized houses or minorities”, as reported by the Baltimore Sun in 2015.

Their claims were further puzzling, since the APFO bill exempts affordable housing from the allocations school test. Also, as one member of the Board of Education asked, is it fair to subject children who live in affordable housing to poor quality education?

Lo and behold, it worked. The wedge issue created a crater-size loophole for developers to continue building with impunity.

If anyone ever doubted the power of developers in Howard County the outcome of the APFO bill, CB1-2018, should cement it. An amendment proposed by Councilwoman Mary Kay Sigaty provides the County Council fast-track authority to approve projects; even if the area schools where the development proposal is planned are overcrowded.

The APFO bill added an “affordable housing” loophole that approves development if it contains a handful of “affordable homes”. How can this occur? Developers are very skilled at manipulating zoning and development regulations. It is conceivable to imagine a scenario where a developer proposes a plan with affordable housing while simultaneously petitioning for an alternative compliance that allows little or no affordable housing.

Now developers will bring every new development as an affordable housing project by adding a handful of “affordable homes” to ask for approval of their projects. By adding the loophole, the Council approved a perpetual pitting of schools and affordable housing.

Every new project will now be framed as an affordable housing project that will lead to the same arguments witnessed during the vote.

In its second annual report published in March 2014, the Columbia Downtown Housing Corporation (CDHC) said it is facing “major structural impediments to achieving [its] affordable housing goal.”

One of them was “Developers do not have any legal or financial incentive to participate in helping us achieves our goal”.

Those same developers made a concerted effort to scuttle the APFO legislation by expressing faux concern about affordable housing. Their representatives on the Council – who did nothing to fight for affordable housing in downtown Columbia and gave everything away in return for nothing – were so vocal and even scolded members of the public who attended the hearing for expressing disbelieve at the pretzel logic being used for pushing the loophole.

How much longer can the public tolerate as special interests use cynical wedge issues for profit, while public facilities deteriorate and tax-payer coffers are plundered?