Many ideas are on the table for how to address housing affordability

By CAMERON ADAMS

cadams@newspost.com

This is part 2 of a two-part series looking at housing affordability in Frederick County. Part 1, which was in Thursday’s Frederick News-Post, was an overview of the issue.

In an effort to rethink affordable housing, Frederick County has hired the consulting firm Thomas P. Miller and Associates to help.

Ben Helkowski and Aaron Finley, consultants from TPMA, spoke to a room full of elected officials, housing experts and curious observers in the lower level of Urbana Regional Library on Wednesday.

Finley described the life cycle of housing needs as a journey from being a student or single professional to getting established, growing a family, settling down, retiring and downsizing, before ultimately aging comfortably.

He said these represent a variety of housing needs, and Frederick County echoed the situation he sees in many communities.

Finley said housing stock for the middle phases — growing and establishing families — of that journey “are relatively common.”

“What are less common is housing that meets the needs on those two ends,” he said.

Finley said starter homes, affordable rental units and downsizing options “can meet the needs on both ends.”

The lack of affordable housing to support the full continuum of stages that home buyers experience has been expressed widely by experts and elected officials, though they offer different ideas for best next steps.

To address the dearth of affordable housing throughout Frederick County, solutions ranged from renters’ rights to new ways to think about built spaces.

Some ideas focus on specific ways to increase housing supply, like through accessory dwelling units, requiring affordable houses within new developments or finding creative solutions to other underused land. Other ideas are about the impacts of housing, such as on the surrounding environment or supporting infrastructure.

Overall, the housing market is continuing to increase at a consistent clip. Average home sale prices increased 2.8% in Frederick County in 2024, according to MarketStats data.

The Department of Assessments and Taxation, in an annual report, said overall property values within the county increased at a rate of 28.6% to 30.8% over the last three years. This is based on the state’s practice of reassessing one third of the properties in a county each year.

Despite these strong market indicators, Nia Condrey, owner of Purpose One Realty, said the housing stock is lacking across the board, but especially at the entry-level end of the market.

“There aren’t enough homes being built for what we need in the market,” said Mary-Ellen Mitchell, CEO of Housing Frederick, a group that provides resources and education to prospective home buyers. This sentiment was shared by all building and real estate industry officials contacted for this story. Further, elected officials at the municipal, county and state level echoed the notion that housing solutions for all were critical to having sustained economic growth.

These trends reflect national ones, as the National Association of Realtors said Friday that existing home sales declined by 0.7% in 2024 compared to 2023. That made 2024 (See RESIDENCES A12) “

One thing that I really focus on within this work is breaking down the stigma of what people consider to be affordable housing.

VINCENT ROGERS,

Frederick County director of housing

New condominiums and townhouses that were built in the Gambrill Glenn development in Frederick.

Staff photo by Ric Dugan

(RESIDENCES from A1) the worst year for home sales since 1995, according to their data.

National experts blamed high mortgage rates and rising home prices for the comparatively weak housing market.

State records show a housing shortage of 96,000 units across Maryland.

County records estimated the county will need to increase its housing stock by 57,000 units by 2050 to keep up with demand.

COUNTY LEVEL

Finley and Helkowski presented preliminary findings and sought input as part of the 10-Year Housing Study and Strategic Plan overseen by Vincent Rogers, director of housing for Frederick County.

The consultants said they will not only publish findings on the current state of housing, but also propose specific policy and strategic directions for the county. Some ideas might involve working in conjunction with municipalities.

Rogers said in an interview in December that his approach to improving access to affordable housing has been through both tangible programs and cultural sentiment.

“One thing that I really focus on within this work is breaking down the stigma of what people consider to be affordable housing,” Rogers said.

One method the county is using to achieve these goals is Community Development Block Grants.

CDBG funding is a program through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development aimed at revitalizing neighborhoods, stimulating economic growth and improving community facilities and services for lowto moderate-income communities.

In October, the county announced that it is guaranteed to receive an estimated $720,000 in CDBG funds each year for the next three years, as well as $210,000 a year in HOME Investment Partnerships Program funding.

Previously, cities and towns had to apply for funding through the state in a process that Vivian Laxton, a county spokesperson, said was competitive.

“We won’t know for certain how much, but we know we will be getting something,” Laxton said at the time of the new approach.

Rogers said his work on the county’s CDBG Program was an effort “to bring the municipalities as much as we can.”

He added that municipal governments and leaders would better know how to make the types of wide-ranging improvements the funds allow in order to improve the lives of those in affordable housing. This includes access to transit, employment and other vital services.

Though the CDBG funds do not go directly to affordable housing, Rogers said, they would “likely be used for public infrastructure that would be needed for any kind of future development in those areas.”

He said incremental improvements can add up over time.

The county is also considering how to use its stock of land to create more affordable housing.

For instance, Rogers pointed to property near Prospect Center as a place the county is looking to develop its own land for affordable housing.

“But,” he said, “it can’t all be done by local government.”

Rogers said the county is exploring options such as accessory dwelling units or allowing places of worship to be able to use their land for such housing. These are often referred to as “Yes in God’s Backyard” developments.

In the city of Frederick, then-Alderman Derek Shackelford proposed an ordinance in 2021 that allowed for accessory dwelling units or independent residences, no bigger than 800 square feet per city code, on the same lot as single- family homes in the city. That has been in effect since October 2021.

In her State of the County address in October, County Executive Jessica Fitzwater said that the housing study will be used “to develop a countywide housing strategy.”

Fitzwater said “no single solution will solve the housing affordability problem our region is facing,” but the county is committed to removing “barriers for people who want to remain in their own homes,” as well.

IMPACT OF HOUSING

Both Rogers and Fitzwater referenced Livable Frederick, a project developed within the Division of Planning and Permitting aimed at holistic, wide-reaching goals for the future of the county.

The project published a housing update that noted that housing costs go beyond rent or mortgages. Commutes can play a big factor in the cost of living.

Livable Frederick calls for “a large share of our new homes and jobs to be located in areas where there are options available to residents to walk, bike, take transit, or drive shorter distances to reach their daily destinations.”

Cutting down on transportation costs in such a way would also allow money earned in the county to further enrich communities. Currently, a majority of workers in Frederick County live outside the county and a majority of residents work outside the county, according to 2021 Longitudinal Employer- Household Dynamics.

County Council Member Steve McKay proposed a bill in June that would limit new homes from being developed in areas with overcrowded schools.

McKay’s moratorium bill sought to prevent larger residential developments from recording new plats if the project were part of a feeder area for a school that had reached 120% of its state-rated capacity, until conditions improved.

Further, if a school exceeded 175% of its state-rated capacity, new building permits would be halted, as well.

The bill included a County Council override provision.

“We really shouldn’t continue building houses into overcrowded school districts. Period,” McKay said. “Slow it down until we can get the school situation under control.”

The bill allowed for affordable housing, as defined by county code, to be built no matter the situation of the schools those areas fed into.

McKay said he received a lot of pushback from developers who historically built affordable homes as part of larger projects, and they did not have a way to build such homes as stand-alone ventures.

He described such disagreement as simplistic supply- and-demand-based arguments.

“It was a, ‘Hey, I took economics my freshman year of college 30 years ago, so I know what’s going on,’” McKay said. “It’s a much more complex, sophisticated situation.”

He added that another county tool that had not helped the situation was the Moderately Priced Dwelling Units requirement for new housing developments.

“We allow developers to buy their way out of building the actual dwelling units,” McKay said.

In September, McKay and Council Member Mason Carter sought to prevent developers of age-restricted housing developments from paying a fee in lieu of building 12.5% of the housing units as MPDU.

Further, McKay said he thought that other developments should be subject to county executive review before being able to use the feein- lieu provision.

Despite pulling the bill last year, McKay said he will bring the proposal back to the council before the current term ends in 2026.

At a Dec. 10 budget priorities meeting, Frederick City Council Member Donna Kuzemchak advocated for smartly planned growth, so that adding affordable housing did not hurt the financial interests of the city.

“If we are adding this giant development in the middle of nowhere, then you have to provide the roads all to it, you have to provide all the waterworks, everything,” Kuzemchak said. “That costs more, not just financially, but environmentally.”

PLACE MAKING

Another solution experts seek to explore is called formbased code. It’s an approach that seeks to look at the form of built elements within a community — buildings, roads, parks, sidewalks, etc. — rather than adhering to rigid zoning code.

Kuzemchak and Council Member Kelly Russell both called for more focus on formbased housing during that meeting.

In a county Planning Commission meeting on Jan. 13, during a discussion on formbased code in the South Frederick Corridor, Denis Superczynski, planning manager with the county’s Division of Planning and Permitting, referenced Barcelona, Spain, as an example of a place that can flourish with the form of a city being the dominant force of development.

Superczynski said that both science and cultural history indicate certain built places are more comfortable, pleasant and profitable from a land-use perspective.

“Everybody has stood in an environment where buildings are far off the road and they’re very low and you just don’t feel like you’re in a place,” he said. “There’s a dominance of the road and the streets and sidewalks that doesn’t seem to be matching up to the level of potential activity.

“And we’ve all probably stood in places like Manhattan or Mumbai or something, where you’ve got incredible tower buildings and you just feel like a grain of sand from a Kansas song. You feel really insignificant in that environment.”

Superczynski added that traditional zoning leads to uniformity or a jumble of components without a place-making plan. Formbased code aims to allow both more flexibility for the developers and a more holistic set of goals to achieve for those living in that environment.”

This can create a development environment more responsive to market needs, such as more affordable housing.

For instance, Superczynski said that form-based code would allow home owners or businesses to benefit from the cumulative effects of the choices made by neighbors working toward the agreed-upon form of the community.

“You’re supporting a network,” he said. In April, Gov. Wes Moore signed three bills aimed at housing affordability on the state level.

One looks to incentivize the building of new houses, another seeks to limit vacant houses and the last expanded protections for renters experiencing housing instability.

“We made the choice to put housing front-and-center this year because we know this issue can’t wait,” Moore said in a statement at the time. “Building a stronger housing market can’t wait. Tackling a housing shortage of 96,000 units in Maryland can’t wait.”

Maryland State Housing Secretary Jacob Day said in October that housing, particularly with Moore’s bills, ought to support the broader local economy.

“I am confident that the communities that we build today are going to determine our economic trajectory in the future,” he said. “Building beautiful places, building lovable places, places where people will follow with their investments is how we’re going to ... be a place that lives up to capitalizing upon the assets that we all know we have. This is a special state and we ought to be booming.”

New homes on Furgeson Lane in Frederick.

Staff photo by Ric Dugan