Growth in Charles County narrowly outpaces goal

Charles County continues to grow and plenty of development will follow suit.

The local planning commission heard key statistics from last year in their 2023 annual report at a July 1 meeting.

While it may appear on the surface that the county is growing rapidly, the average annual rate of growth has decreased over the last several decades, the annual report said.

Between 1970 and 1980, the growth rate in the county was 4.32%. The population growth rate between 2014 and 2023 was 1.2%.

The 2023 population growth rate of 1.1% scrapes by the yearly 1% target.

“People have the perception we’re building all of these houses, there’s runaway development. In fact, the development is being channeled to specific areas at the rate of 1.1%,” Dawud Abdur-Rahman, a planning commission member, said.

Growth between 2021 and 2022 slowed to less than 1%, the report says.

“Talking about trends for the future, we’re looking at St. Charles as a current factor in overall development,” Joel Binkley, a planning supervisor for Charles County, said at the planning commission meeting.

St. Charles is allowed to build more than 20,000 total housing units including single-family homes, townhouses and apartments, the annual report says.

About 7,000 units still remain to be built in St. Charles communities, including 6,792 units in Wooded Glen and Piney Reach and 208 units in Fairway Village and other parcels of land. T

he St. Charles communities account for a large amount of development approvals within the county, according to a presentation given to the planning commission.

Granted building permits came in well over the average for the decade, with 880 being granted in 2023 as opposed to the 777 per year 10-year average.

Single-family home development was the lowest it has been in 10 years, with the county just getting over 300 permits granted. Conversely, apartment building permits were granted at the highest rate since 2013, with just around 300 granted in 2023.

The number of new housing units is currently below the county’s target of 32,000 by 2040, the presentation said.