(6/25) With only two developments in Emmitsburg's future, Brookfield and Emmit Ridge, and nothing else on the horizon, the Town Council voted to update the Public Facilities Ordinance to include a new fee on residential developments geared at benefiting the Town’s school system.

The changes will focus on how the Town evaluates public school capacity when reviewing new residential developments. Developers will be given the option to contribute money to the Town that will be specifically used to fund school improvements such as expanding facilities and upgrading infrastructure.

The existing ordinance allows the Planning Commission to determine whether a school can handle a new development by using the School Adequacy Test conducted by the Frederick County Board of Education. The test looks at the current and projected enrollment numbers at the elementary, middle and high schools that would serve the potential development. If any of these are found to exceed 110% enrollment capacity, then the test is considered a failure, and the development cannot proceed unless mitigation steps are taken.

Currently the only mitigation option would be to request redistricting, which is a complex and time-consuming process. The changes to the ordinance would allow a developer to choose to pay a mitigation fee instead of redistricting, but only if the school adequacy test is found to be under 120% and the development passes.

The Council decided that 120% was too high for the school adequacy test threshold and they discussed lowering it to 115% instead. Eric Soter, of Rodgers Consulting said if the Town were to start at 100%, any new development would likely need to pay the new fee which would include Emmit Ridge, a 48-single-family detached development on Timbermill Run, because it currently trips the APFO Ordinance. Soter recommended that the Town start at 105%, which would allow Emmit Ridge to proceed.

Although Thurmont Middle School (54% capacity) and Catoctin High School (70% capacity) serve Emmitsburg residents they are considered to "have adequate space to accommodate" more students. The issue lies with Emmitsburg elementary, "The current capacity after March is probably 98%," said Soter. "I think they have 225 seats and the capacity is 218."

Soter pointed out that some of the potential students could likely end up at Mother Seton Catholic School, which has unofficially acted as a secondary elementary school for Emmitsburg and has a considerably higher capacity at 460 students. Emmit Ridge specifically would produce an estimated six elementary students with more students for the middle and high schools.

If the Town agrees to use the same fees as the County, they are estimated to be $10,400 per dwelling unit. The developer would also pay around $18,000 in County impact fees, plus whatever fees the Town decides to implement. "We didn’t want to chase developers away, but under this proposal we would ask the developers to pay a school fee not only to Frederick County but a duplicate fee to Emmitsburg," said Commissioner Valerie Turnquist. "I have a concern about it raising housing costs."

"It does affect the affordability," confirmed Soter. These fees would have a direct impact on the cost of a home as they are typically passed onto the home buyer in the purchase price. The funds accrued from the developers would be put into an interest-bearing account and only used for school projects.