05 May ‘Affirmative Action’ needed for OTC Achievement

Until Anne Arundel County adopts a land-use version of “Affirmative Action” for Odenton Town Center (OTC), it will never develop as has been promised for decades and will not return the revenues the county will be depending on to pay for improvements to schools, roads and services for all residents. Simply, for a stated period of time in the western part of AA County, only development in the OTC and close proximity should have preferential treatment. Expedited permitting, real estate tax deferrals, Tax Increment Financing Districts and other time and monetary incentives should only be available in OTC. This is the one and only way to offset the disadvantages the area faces compared to other jurisdictions and worse, compared to other parts of the county in the immediate “neighborhood”.  You would think this county would pull out all the stops to derive the millions in tax revenues available from OTC development. Instead it acts as if the money it needs now and for the foreseeable future will come from “elsewhere”.  If the County does not support its decades of talk and its own plan for the OTC, those revenues will continue to go elsewhere!