Creating More Jobs Through BRAC

 As Anne Arundel County becomes the nation’s center for cyber security and information technology, we will benefit from a major influx of high-paying jobs to the Fort Meade area.

When the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) program was approved in 2005, 5,695 jobs in three agencies (Defense Information Systems Agency, Defense Media Publications, and the Adjudication Office for the Department of Defense) were chosen to move to Fort Meade.  The National Security Agency has added an additional 4,000 jobs at Fort Meade.  As defense contractors follow, it is expected that western Anne Arundel County will gain 22,000 new jobs by 2015.

And this doesn't even include the jobs coming here as a result of Cyber Command.  Fort Meade has been designated as our nation's center for cyber security, potentially bringing another 40,000 jobs to our county.

The good news is that the construction of buildings on Fort Meade is on schedule and the federal workers who are being relocated under BRAC will be in place there no later than September 2011.  The bad news is that very little has been done to prepare for this massive influx of people.  In fact, a recent report predicts that there will be 30-minute traffic jams around Fort Meade during peak hours throughout all of 2011.

We’ve known for four years that employment in the Fort Meade area was going to expand dramatically in 2010 and 2011.  Why have we wasted this time and accomplished almost nothing to improve the road system around Fort Meade?  Where are the plans for improving mass transit?  How come the Odenton Town Center project at the MARC station continues to struggle through one county-induced delay after another?  And why is so little being done to encourage businesses and incoming workers to make Anne Arundel County their home?

Transportation

It is crucial that we provide efficient routes for workers to reach their jobs.  The most immediate need is to widen Route 175 from the I-295 interchange to the entrance to Fort Meade.  Unfortunately, the State is twenty-nine months past the May 2008 deadline to decide whether to expand the roadway towards the Fort or into land belonging to businesses on the east side of the road.  Since this decision hasn’t been made, the road design process hasn’t begun.  And, as a result, we were unable to apply for the federal highway funding available under the federal stimulus package to expand Route 175.  Leadership from the County Executive’s office to demand expeditious answers for such a critical transportation artery could have moved this process along; none was forthcoming.

Odenton Town Center

Plans to create a residential and commercial center around the Odenton MARC station have been under development since 1968.  As population in the Odenton area doubled in the last two decades to 60,000 people, all county executives with the exception of Bobby Neill have thrown up roadblocks to this project designed to bring restaurants, services and homes to Odenton’s long-waiting residents.

As just one example, it took four years to convince Janet Owens to conduct a fiscal impact study for the Center, of which the county paid only $10,000 of the $80,000 cost.  The study, completed in 2007 as John Leopold took office, determined that Odenton Town Center would generate over $1 billion in tax revenues for Anne Arundel County over 20 years.

Despite requests going back to the 1990s to study utility capacity and the 2004 approval of a master plan for the Town Center, the county has just recently discovered that there is insufficient sewer capacity for the project.    Increasing capacity will take four years and cost $12.7 million.

The county has sufficient capital in its Enterprise Funds to pay for this sewage project upfront.  As development of Odenton Town Center progresses, the county would be more than compensated for this outlay by an estimated $96 million in sewer, water, and impact fees as projects currently on the books build out, all of which would be paid upfront by developers.  Nonetheless, John Leopold asked the developers to make additional payments to cover at least a portion of the cost of expanding the sewage treatment capacity, in essence asking them to pay twice for this capacity and further delaying progress.

A similar stalemate exists on developing Town Center Boulevard, a road that will provide a direct route from the MARC station to Fort Meade.   Since the road will cross wetlands, it has taken ten years to get approval from the Maryland Department of the Environment.  The developer has agreed to fund the $17 million cost of the road in return for future reductions in impact fees.  However, the Army Corps of Engineers is now feuding with the county’s Department of Public Works, and a contract between the developer and the county remains unsigned.

Encouraging Relocation to Anne Arundel County

Anne Arundel County does not receive tax revenue from governmental agencies or federal employees working at Fort Meade.  However, defense contractors who locate in the county provide well-paying jobs and contribute greatly to our commercial tax base.  Therefore, we should be doing everything in our power to encourage these and other businesses to locate in Anne Arundel County.  Unfortunately, the county has developed a reputation under John Leopold for being unfriendly to business.  As a result, some of these contractors are likely to drive a few miles further up the road and locate in Howard County instead.

Rather than just commuting in for work, we should be recruiting incoming Fort Meade employees to live in western Anne Arundel County.  Not only will this increase the value of real estate in the county, but these additional well-compensated residents will help local businesses thrive.  The state has a program to encourage Northern Virginia’s DISA employees to move to Maryland.  However, John Leopold has done such a poor job of coordinating with the state that Howard County is running the BRAC recruitment efforts in Virginia!

Moving Forward

These difficult problems need rapid and innovative solutions. Instead of an aloof County Executive who rarely meets with people, we need a County Executive who will throw herself whole-heartedly into the fray, making tough decisions and forcing progress to be made.  Joanna relishes the opportunity to use her ability to get things done to resolve these challenges so the county can take full advantage of being the center for defense-oriented information technology and cyber security in the nation.