Baltimore County considering ‘clarifying’ bill after overriding veto on school overcrowding

Weeks after overriding County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr.’s veto of a school overcrowding bill, the Baltimore County Council is now considering a corrective bill to supplement that legislation.

The council is workshopping a ‘clarifying’ bill that would amend parts of the recently passed Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance , which caps development in areas of the county where schools are oversubscribed.

The newest bill, which the council discussed Monday, would institute an advisory committee overseen by council and county executive appointees that would collect data and recommend planning changes to alleviate school overcrowding. Olszewski cited the committee, which initially had oversight power and would have had only council appointees, as one of his reasons for vetoing the original bill . The new clarifying bill allows for county executive appointees and changes it to a non-binding advisory committee.

The bill also exempts units that count toward a federal compliance agreement the county must comply with to produce 1,000 affordable housing units by 2027.

“One of the things we’ve never had in Baltimore County is a public board that just deals with school overcrowding. Ultimately, this is going to be a great thing for the county because it will shed some light on the issues we have with school overcrowding,” said Councilman Mike Ertel, a Towson Democrat who is one of the bill’s three sponsors. “Right now, all that work is done under the (school system’s) department of strategic planning, and often that information is not readily available or readily shared with the different bodies in the county.”

School overcrowding has plagued Baltimore County educational institutions for 30 years. Council Chair Izzy Patoka, a Pikesville Democrat, sponsored the first ordinance, which passed the council despite opposition from Olszewski, Baltimore County Superintendent Myriam Rogers, housing advocates and developers, who said it would further curtail housing production . Baltimore County faces a 2027 deadline to build 1,000 affordable housing units to settle a federal housing discrimination complaint, but has issued fewer permits in recent years as regional housing production has declined .

The council overrode Olszewski’s veto July 1 and announced plans to introduce the clarifying bill. At the time, Olszewski called the clarifying legislation a “Band-Aid solution” that took a “convoluted approach” and underscored the original ordinance’s “flaws.”

“We remain focused on addressing school overcrowding while also meeting our moral and legal obligations to expand access to attainable housing, and are optimistic that (the clarifying legislation) will help address key concerns from our administration about the Council’s original APFO bill,” county spokesperson Erica Palmisano said via email.

The ordinance does away with an adjacency clause that allowed developers to build in overcrowded areas, provided a neighboring school district had enough capacity to absorb extra students. Schools are considered overcrowded if they are at 105% or more of their recommended capacity, a change from the previous definition, which set that limit at 115%.

We The People, a good governance group, said in an email Monday that it opposes the clarifying bill, citing the lack of school board or school system representatives on the advisory committee.

“The bill does not incorporate the input or comments from the school system (so that the Council and BCPS can work in lock-step on school capacity issues) or even agree on a definition of ‘school capacity’ in the first place,” wrote group leaders Nick Stewart and Pat Keller.

The council will vote on the clarifying bill Aug. 5.