The First LEED-certified Modular Home Ever Built by High School Students in the USA was the winner as one of the Green Projects of the Year for 2009
(Bel Air, MD) – The Maryland Chapter of the US Green Building Society, an organization committed to a prosperous and sustainable future for our nation through cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings, recognized Harford Habitat for Humanity (HHH) and Harford Technical High-School recently for their partnership to create the “Habi-Tech Project,” a LEED certified modular home, by naming the project the winner of the 2009 Young Professionals Award. Dave Guttman, HHH Construction Manager, Mike Svezzese, Harford Tech Carpentry Teacher, and Principal Chas Hagan accepted the award recently on behalf of the partnership.
Bank of America, Harford Technical High School, Habitat for Humanity and other community businesses and organizations worked together to build the home in 2009. The house is ...Continue Reading
A bill to repeal Harford County’s impact fee created some strange bedfellows when it was first introduced by Dion Guthrie, a Democrat representing Edgewood and Joppatowne and Chad Shrodes, a Republican representing the rural north.
Now, the repeal effort has sparked a rift among the leaders of the anti-tax Tea Party movement and drawn a number of local organizations into the fray. The bill is scheduled for what may become a lively hearing October 20th (today) at 7 p.m. in the County Council Chambers at 212 S. Bond Street in Bel Air.
The impact fee offsets the impact of new household creation on the cost of public schools by dedicating revenue specifically to public school construction needs.
Bel Air Tea Party organizer Tony Passaro would be expected to join other anti-tax advocates and support the repeal, but he sent a recent email to the members of the Harford County ...Continue Reading
Do you support a tax increase to pay for recently-built schools? Should Red Pump Elementary School or other school construction projects be stopped?
If your answer is NO to either of these, then oppose Bill 09-29, School Development Impact Fee, because this Bill stops the school impact fees charged on new homes.
New homes bring more kids into the school system. History reveals how many additional kids, on average, will come to school from those houses. Without new homes, we wouldn’t need to build new school capacity. (Renovate, yes, but not increase the total space for more students.)
Now consider BRAC. We’re told that the next few years will bring tens of thousands of new, high-income workers to Harford. For every 1,000 new houses they buy, their impact fees provide over $8,000,000. ...Continue Reading
The following letter was received from Tea Party organizer and House of Delegates candidate Patrick McGrady:
Editor,
Since July 2005, the Harford County government has levied an Impact Tax on every new home construction permit. The idea of the Impact Tax seems noble enough- the money raised from the tax goes into the Harford County Public Schools Capital Budget account so that it must be used only for new school development, property acquisition, or school renovation. These homebuyers are being unfairly double-taxed, this tax is keeping productive construction projects on hold, and this is keeping hard-working Harford County workers out of work on and State Unemployment rolls.
Here in Harford County, we pay property taxes at the County and municipal level. On a home that is assessed at $250,000, the annual County portion of taxes amount to $2,705. This tax amount is the property owner’s share of the County Government, including school construction. ...Continue Reading
Blaming the provision for a “complete shut down” of new home construction in the very areas where BRAC transplants should be looking for local housing, the president of the Harford County Chamber of Commerce has asked the Harford County Council to allow its Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance – which imposes a building moratorium within in area where the school district has crossed a capacity threshold – to allow the legislation to sunset as originally intended.
In an email exchange at about 1:45 p.m. Monday, Harford County Chamber of Commerce President Bill Seccurro told the county council that “construction in the development envelop has been non existent over the past three years and has caused a complete shut down in the very area where construction should be occurring and where families relocating with BRAC should be purchasing housing.”
Seccurro goes on to blame the Harford County Public School System for failing to balance ...Continue Reading
(Bel Air, MD – March 3, 2009) As part of Harford County Government Administration’s focus on serving the most vulnerable members of our community in today’s difficult economy, the Department of Community Services has awarded $75,000.00 award of HUD Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds to Harford Family House, Inc. This agency provides sixteen furnished apartments and support programs for families who are working to transition from homelessness to self-sufficiency.
The federal funds will be used for common area improvements to Harford Family Houses’ facility in Aberdeen. Constructed over forty years ago, the building is undergoing a much-needed three-year renovation to replace worn features, maximize best use of space and increase energy efficiency.
Harford Family House, Inc. has enjoyed a high success rate in each of the last two years, with at least seventy-five percent of the families who exit the program moving to permanent/stable housing. Most families have one year in ...Continue Reading
(Bel Air, MD – January 14, 2009) – - On January 28, 2009, Harford County Government, local homeless service providers, community volunteers, and local police agencies will come together in a coordinated effort to conduct a one day count of homeless persons in Harford County.
Harford County will use the data collected during this point-in-time count for the Continuum of Care application the County submits to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development each year. This competitive application is to renew funding Harford County currently receives for homeless transitional and permanent supportive housing programs, as well as to apply for additional (new) funds.
The counting will occur in 2 stages:
1. Sheltered Homeless Persons – (adults, children & unaccompanied youth) who are living in emergency shelters, transitional housing, domestic violence shelters, or motels/hotels (vouchers). These clients will also be surveyed by the programs that serve ...Continue Reading
Since the housing market began its dramatic landslide last year, I’ve been pushing my fiancé to buy a house under the impression that this may be the most affordable time for first-time buyers. There’s a lot of real estate out there for sale, most of which has been sitting stagnant for several months. The lenders and agents continue to harp that this is a buyer’s market. And they’re right—it’s the best time to be a buyer if you’re not trying to sell a house first and have 20 percent to put down.
Being 20-Something Today
I’ve learned a lot since I started looking at homes, and one of those lessons is that unless you can put 20 percent down on a house, you’re monthly mortgage is going to be painful. There isn’t a lot of incentive for young people just getting started to do anything other than ...Continue Reading
