Judge’s ruling on Annapolis residential project creates a construction moratorium for city’s major developments

Citing a judge’s ruling that Annapolis does not have enough police officers for its population, the Annapolis Police Department and the city’s Office of Law say they will no longer sign off on major construction projects in Maryland’s capital. The policy change has indefinitely stalled all in-process major construction projects that had not yet received what’s called an adequate public facilities certificate. Since 2005, those certificates have been required to affirm that Annapolis has sufficient public services to support the new construction, including sewer systems, stormwater management facilities and police officers. The city’s adequate public facilities ordinance mandates that a minimum of 3.2 police officers be employed for every 1,000 residents.