The head of the leading trade association for builders in Maryland said Carroll County rushed its decision to increase to its new housing impact fee, denying builders the opportunity to offer public opposition. On July 27, the Board of Carroll County Commissioners voted to increase the fee from zero to $3,000 per single-family home beginning Sept. 1. The charge on developers is meant to provide funding for school construction.

State transportation officials said they will seek more than $3 billion in federal funding to ease congestion around the American Legion Bridge, a move that could potentially provide traffic relief in the region without privately managed toll lanes. The application submitted Monday seeks a $2.4 billion federal grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The application, however, does not preclude a public-private partnership model favored by former Gov. Larry Hogan (R).

 

As students from across the city have one more week of summer before they return to school, Baltimore City teachers are returning to work today. Many of us who work in education have spent the summer wondering how many of the system’s teachers would return to the classroom. Over the past school year, there has been a steady stream of stories about teacher shortages. What is lost in these stories are detailed accounts from those most acutely feeling the challenge — teachers, specifically Baltimore City Public Schools teachers.

As Canadian wildfire smoke passes over Baltimore City again, I sit in deep contemplation about how to show up as a good community organizer. I run a program called Free Baltimore Yoga, and we host more than three free yoga classes a week. Many are outdoors. When the first wave of wildfire smoke passed over the city and the Air Quality Index soared to 150, Free Baltimore Yoga canceled all classes until the air quality was below 100.

Frederick’s mayor and aldermen have some important development decisions ahead as they consider two proposals that will have a major impact on the future of the city. The first, and far easier, decision is whether to rezone the site of the Westridge Square shopping center along West Patrick Street, which could be a major step in the revitalization of the city’s troubled Golden Mile.

I feel like I write this column over and over again. It’s probably not the last time. About a month ago I explained that my long-planned Amtrak trip to Montreal, for which my son and I were learning French, had been canceled because of the heat from Canadian wildfires, a literal casualty of climate change. Undeterred, I pivoted, adding stops in Mystic, Connecticut, and Maine, with a longer stint in New York on either end.

For the past couple of years, Maryland’s state government has been flush with cash thanks to an economy rebounding from the coronavirus pandemic and an influx of federal money from the American Rescue Plan, CARES Act and other stimulus programs. Those days are in the past. That was the warning from Gov. Wes Moore on Saturday as he addressed local leaders at the Maryland Association of Counties conference in Ocean City, telling them the state is entering “a new season of challenge.”

The record run of low unemployment in Maryland reached its sixth straight month as the state reported a drop of 0.2 percentage points to 1.8% in preliminary data released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). According to the survey data, Maryland also gained 2,000 jobs in July. The other services sector experienced the most growth with an increase of 2,500 jobs.

COVID-19 cases are rising again in Maryland and around the country, a smallish wave so far but a reminder that the virus is sticking around and could cause trouble in the fall and winter when flu and respiratory syncytial virus could also make another significant comeback. A new COVID variant has emerged that is better at circumventing people’s immune defenses and spreading faster, prompting a rise in hospitalizations and a continued small number of daily deaths. How many cases there are is unknown with fewer tests performed and reported.

A room full of women who lead some of Maryland’s districts, counties and local agencies gathered for a luncheon at the Maryland Association of Counties in Ocean City on Friday to talk about the role and influence women can have in government and administrative positions. The “Women of MACo” luncheon was filled with dozens of women in leadership positions, who cheered remarks from the state’s first Black speaker of the House of Delegates, Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County).