On February 4, Director of Intergovernmental Relations Dominic Butchko testified before the Appropriations Committee in opposition to HB 38 – School Construction and Housing – School Zones and Adequate Public Facilities Ordinances.
As drafted, this bill would broadly limit the enforceability of all Adequate Public Facility Ordinances (APFOs) to four years.
For context, APFOs help counties manage rapid development where infrastructure—typically schools, but also water, sewer, or roads—cannot keep pace with growth. Counties may control some infrastructure, but classroom size and redistricting are solely decided by school boards and their administration. Outside of providing the state-mandated funding for school districts, Maryland’s county governments have no role in or influence over decisions made by the school districts
Because of the lack of authority or influence, counties are concerned that the bill (both as drafted and as potentially amended) would effectively punish jurisdictions for decisions over which they have no influence. If the intent of the sponsor is to ensure school districts regularly evaluate classroom size and capacity in order to influence requirements around redistricting, a better approach would be for the State to establish some incentive or require that the local school systems do so.
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