BAMBY Act Drops, Session of Housing Takes Shape

Months of work by county officials have entered an exciting phase with the recent release of the BAMBY Act.

Days after the General Assembly adjourned the 2025 legislative session, county leaders launched a months-long effort to develop an affordable housing package that could garner broad local support and meaningfully expand Maryland’s housing supply. Today marks a major milestone in that work: the final language of the Building Affordably in My Back Yard Act (BAMBY) is now public.

Senator Benjamin Brooks and Delegate Nick Allen are sponsoring the comprehensive package, organized around four pillars: land use, market tools, state actions, and protecting renters.

FOUR PILLARS OF BAMBY

LAND USE

  • *Regulatory and construction certainty: Defines when a residential or mixed-use application is “complete,” requires prompt completeness notice, and provides regulatory certainty by applying the laws in effect at submission for at least three years.
  • *Development-friendly payment schedules: Clarifies that a county or municipality may require up to 50% of a residential (including mixed-use) development excise tax or impact fee at building permit issuance, with the remaining balance due before issuing a certificate of occupancy (or equivalent).
  • Fast-track approval pathways: Authorizes counties to create an administrative review process for most housing development decisions, while retaining final decision-making authority.
  • Housing production targets: (Retains the Governor’s 2025 Housing Targets through 2030.) By January 1, 2031, and after each decennial census, requires the Governor to set statewide and local housing production targets (including for zoning municipalities), allows jurisdictions to propose justified alternatives, publishes final targets online, and mandates annual progress reporting through 2051.
  • *Project design guidelines for affordable units: Counties must adopt project design guidelines for qualified projects, addressing elements such as parking, height, setbacks, lot area, open space, circulation, landscaping, lighting, architecture, and signage.
  • *Pre-approved permit applications: Counties must implement a pre-approval process for standardized model home designs so approved plans can be reused without redundant reviews—reducing permit timelines for production homes while maintaining code, zoning, and design compliance.

*Impacts counties with 150,000+ residents (excluding municipal populations) and all municipalities.

MARKET TOOLS

  • Affordable unit tax relief: Enables a county to temporarily reduce or exempt housing-sensitive taxes/fees for qualified affordable housing projects when the county finds a housing shortfall, and to offset that reduction by increasing those taxes/fees on other (non-qualified) property classes.
  • Mobolize growth areas: Authorizes counties to establish an annual tax in priority funding areas that applies to residential or mixed-use–zoned properties that are not being developed to permitted uses or densities, with revenue dedicated to affordable housing, school construction, or other housing-related purposes.
  • Prevent corporate house hoarding: Authorizes counties to create a special property subclass for non–principal residence homes owned by large-scale owners (20+ properties), excluding units rented at affordable rates or subject to affordability covenants or subsidies.
  • Prioritize Primary Residences: Gives owner-occupant purchasers priority by limiting sellers, for the first 30 days a single-family home is listed, to accepting offers from buyers who intend to use the property as their primary residence. (Similar to HB751 of 2024)
  • Promote homeownership: Upon a finding of a housing shortfall, a county may impose an additional transfer tax of up to 5% when owner-occupied property is transferred and will no longer be owner-occupied.
  • Report on downsizing incentives: By December 31, 2027, requires the Comptroller to report to the Governor and General Assembly on state tax policy options to better encourage homeowners — particularly older adults — to downsize or move to more affordable homes.

STATE ACTIONS

  • Streamline state procedures: Requires state agencies to review and streamline housing-related processes, regulations, and approvals—prioritizing qualified projects and evaluating delegation to local governments—with a final report due December 2027.
  • Report on housing infrastructure: Requires the Maryland Department of Planning to publish a comprehensive statewide assessment of how water, sewer, schools, and transportation infrastructure support or constrain housing development in Maryland.

PROTECTING RENTERS

  • Responsible owner registry: Requires residential property owners in Maryland to file an annual certificate with the Department of Housing and Community Development identifying a sworn public contact, which DHCD must share with local governments upon request.

Check out the BAMBY Act Matrix: https://www.mdcounties.org/BAMBYmatrix

MOORE HOUSING PACKAGE

In addition to the county-backed BAMBY Act, Governor Wes Moore recently unveiled a three-bill housing package: the Maryland Transit & Housing Opportunity Act, the Starter and Silver Homes Act, and the Housing Certainty Act. County leaders have been actively negotiating with legislators, administration officials, and stakeholders — and a workable compromise appears not only likely, but potentially close at hand.

Highlights of the MACo Position:

  • Housing Certainty Act: Support an impact fee and regulatory certainty framework that respects local conditions while advancing more predictable, efficient development.
  • Starter and Silver Homes Act: Avoid one-size-fits-all mandates that disregard on-the-ground realities, override local APFO and density guardrails, or permanently weaken local tools for responsibly managing growth.
  • Maryland Transit & Housing Opportunity Act: Ensure growth does not outpace infrastructure capacity, avoid negative impacts on county budgets, and align impact fee/excise tax provisions with the Housing Certainty Act.