Developers might get a break from the proposed Chesapeake Bay Green Fund that would charge them by the square foot for construction that contributes to polluting storm-water runoff.
The bill, sponsored by House Environmental Matters Committee Chairman Maggie McIntosh, D-Baltimore City, originally called for a $2 impervious-surface fee to be charged to developers for every square foot of impervious surface constructed outside state-established growth areas, and 25 cents per square foot for surfaces added inside those areas. “Impervious” means water can?t penetrate and, therefore, becomes runoff.
The fund could bring in an estimated $125 million annually.
“We underestimated the amount of impervious surface out there,” McIntosh said Wednesday during the bill?s hearing in her committee. “I think we can reduce the fees and come up with the same amount of money.”
McIntosh did not elaborate on the amount the fee could be reduced.
Under the revised plan, the fee would apply only to new businesses and homebuilders, and could be reduced by as much as 25 percent if the developer agrees to implement pollution-control measures. Government projects would be exempt, and McIntosh said she would amend the bill to also exempt work-force housing projects.
Under the bill, 35 percent of the proceeds would go to the Maryland Department of Agriculture to help farmers reduce harmful runoff on their farms; 30 percent would be divided equally between the Department of Planning and the Department of the Environment to help smaller local governments plan better for growth; and another 10.5 percent would go to the Department of Natural Resources for wetland and oyster habitat restoration.
State Natural Resources Secretary John Griffin said the green-fund proceeds were meant to help the state fill a $5 billion hole in funding for Chesapeake Bay cleanup programs.
“Please ? keep that focus in mind so you don?t spread it out so far that we lose sight of that goal,” Griffin said.
