In our continuing efforts to help facilitate a smooth transition for BRAC with our military partners at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, Harford County Government is working to help enhance the military housing at APG at no cost to county taxpayers. 

In 1996, Congress authorized the Residential Communities Initiatives Program (RCI) which allows for the privatization of military housing across the country.  Through a combination of private and public resources, the United States Army has been able to upgrade the quality of homes that it provides for service members.

RCI is a critical component of the Army’s effort to eliminate inadequate housing and make Army installations safe, attractive and modern places for service members and their families to live. To that extent, the Army has privatized 98% of its on post family housing the U.S. and the APG initiative is one of the last remaining sites to be addressed.

The firm chosen by the Department of Defense for the APG housing initiative is Picerne.  Picerne is not and will not be under contract with Harford County Government to build or modernize housing on the APG.  The Army and Picerne form a partnership in which the Army contributes the ground in the form of a lease and Picerne contributes its construction, development and management expertise.

Picerne takes on debt in the Capital Markets by leveraging the rental income stream, also known as Basic Allowance for Housing. The debt, combined with the Net Operating Income of the project, will be used for the construction and renovation of all homes during the six-year initial development period.  All income from the project is reinvested into the project.

Recently, Picerne partnered with the Army on six installations (Ft. Meade, Ft. Bragg, Ft. Polk, Ft. Rucker, Ft. Riley and Ft. Sill, serving as developer, property manager and general contractor.  In doing so it was recently recognized by the Association of Defense Communities for its efforts to improve housing for the warfighters.

Picerne, supported by the Aberdeen Proving Ground, has requested that Harford County designate the on-base redevelopment of family housing as a “Priority Development Area” and thus help facilitate the issuance of conduit taxable municipal bonds to finance the redevelopment.  This proposal does not require any taxing for financial support from the taxpayers of Harford County and it does not adversely affect Harford County in any way.

Harford County does benefit from the redevelopment of the Post, as nearly $68 million of the Picerne Project must be spent on local, small and disadvantaged businesses in our community.  The conduit bonds do not require the credit or taxing powers of Harford County or the State of Maryland and will only be backed by the credit of the military family housing project.

I have tried my best since 2005 to do all I can as County Executive to support our friends at the APG as we prepare for the challenges and opportunities that BRAC brings to our region.  Providing cost effective housing and attractive housing for military families that live on post here in Harford County is also in the best interest of the county. 

Therefore, Harford County Government supports the Picerne Project at APG and we look forward to helping to bring this initiative to fruition in the near future, once again at no cost to the taxpayers of Harford County.  This is our chance to truly help our men and women in uniform who protect our basic freedoms.

Harford County Code requires a comprehensive zoning review a minimum of every eight years. On August 11, 2009 County Council President Billy Boniface and I signed Harford County Bill 09-23.  The signing of this bill was the culmination of a 14 month process that began in May 2008 when the legislation to initiate the Comprehensive Zoning Review Process was approved.  

The Harford County Department of Planning and Zoning received 327 applications from land owners requesting zoning changes.  Each application was reviewed for consistency with Harford County’s goals regarding land use, growth management, resource protection, and economic development.  Coming on the heals of completing an 18 month process to rewrite the Zoning Code and Development Regulations,  this review of over 300 rezoning requests was completed with professionalism by the P&Z staff.  Harford County citizens can be assured that each and every application received a thorough analysis that examined the surrounding communities and considered future use and needs.  

The County Council President and Council members in turn carefully reviewed each recommendation they received from the Planning & Zoning Department and the Planning Advisory Board.  Each Council member was keenly engaged with community leaders and neighborhood representatives within their districts to ensure that citizens concerns were heard, communicated, and negotiated.  

The updated Zoning Code established Transfer of Development Rights program and there were several applications requesting RR zoning that were within areas designated for Rural Residential use in the 2004 Land Use Element Plan.  This is another tool that will help Harford County preserve farms and farmland.  

The overall review of the requested zoning changes included comments from citizens and advisory groups.  The Planning and Zoning staff and I met with officers from the Friends of Harford to discuss their review of all the requested zoning changes.  I cannot over emphasize how much I admire the work of the Friends and the volunteer time that they devote to this process.  

Planning and Zoning conducted four public input meetings.  The County Council conducted three public hearings.  And new technology was introduced this year on the County website that featured an interactive page that allowed citizens to view each application via GIS tracking and also provide comment.  

I am grateful for the hard work and dedication of the Planning and Zoning staff during this process.  I commend the County Council President for his role in managing this important land use issue.  And, I feel especially fortunate to be the Executive of a county whose citizens are involved, engaged, and always committed to keep Harford County a great place to live, work, and raise a family.

These have been challenging times for our economy and the affects have reached down to local government. 

As I worked to put together the budget for FY 10, I discovered an obvious and major decline in revenues.  Raising taxes was and will not be an option!  This meant that the expenditure or spending side of the budget was the place to find solutions.

The budget I  presented to the County Council is smaller than last year's budget by $75 million.  Half of that is a reduction in operating expenses and the other half is a reduction in capital projects.

The FY 10 budget contains no new programs, no new positions, no salary or cost-of-living adjustment and real reductions in each department that reports to the county executive.

We still face pressure from the State in picking up programs that previously were the responsibility of the State, as well as a reduction in the State funding formula.

This Blog is our first attempt to use this technology to provide citizens with a forum to communicate directly with the county executive on matters of importance to them.  Each week we will try to open a new topic for the public.

I hope you will use this tool to help us guide your county government in the direction you believe it should take.

Thank you.