By Jason Flanagan


Funds to help pay for a parking garage at one of Howard County’s busiest MARC stations will be coming soon after the state approved a new tax incentive zone near Fort Meade on June 15.

Howard County is the latest recipient of the state’s Base Realignment and Closure Revitalization and Incentive Zone, a new program aimed at giving local governments money to help pay for much-needed infrastructure upgrades near military bases slated for major expansion.

“This is going to promote and support infrastructure development that otherwise might not have happened, or might have occurred at a slower pace,” said Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, whose office awarded Howard and Aberdeen as the latest recipients of the special zoning.

Areas designated as BRAC zones receive 100 percent of the value of the assessed state property tax and 50 percent of the assessed local property tax for a maximum total of $5 million. That money is used by city and county government to leverage against bonds for capital projects in areas where thousands of jobs will bring more commuters and residents.

The state last year approved its first five BRAC zones in Odenton, Laurel, Andrews Air Force Base, Frederick and Baltimore.

Anne Arundel plans to use money from the BRAC zone to help pay for needed road and wastewater improvements for the massive Odenton Town Center project.

Baltimore’s BRAC zone is the multi-billion dollar Westport development. Plans are in place to improve the surrounding roads.

Howard’s BRAC zone, one of two approved this year (Aberdeen also won a designation) is the Savage Town Center, a 12.7 acre planned development near the Savage MARC station. The bond money would help pay for a 704 space parking garage over the current existing surface lot.

The Savage station currently services about 450 daily commuters, roughly 10 percent of MARC’s total ridership, and will likely see an increase following the BRAC expansion. The station is one of the two stations close to Fort Meade.

Though a garage at the Savage station will likely not ease the congestion of the 5,000 new workers come to the fort, the parking structure will serve the 578,000 square foot Savage Town Center, which includes 416 residential units that may house some of the new employees, official said. The mixed-use development will also include a 152-room hotel, 78,000 square feet of office space and two retail buildings that could be used by BRAC-related agencies, officials said.

Part of the BRAC zoning designation requires the state to turn over property to developer Petrie Voss to build the proposed town center.

Officials also hope that a garage will ease the existing traffic burden in the area and promote more use of the MARC train service, officials said.

“One key ingredient is the utilization of existing infrastructure,” said Raj Kudchadkar, Howard’s deputy BRAC director. “We wanted to get away from sprawl. We wanted to concentrate around areas already prone for development.”

The BRAC zones are too new for any measure of success, as none of the seven recipients have filed for money, said Mark Vulcan, director of tax incentives for the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.

Money for the BRAC zones will not come until next fiscal year. Officials hope the economy will rebound enough to increase payments to local governments who are struggling to pay for road and water system upgrades before the big move.

Officials say they are confident BRAC zone funding will appear in next year’s budget, as BRAC represents one of the few economic growth engines still churning despite the worsening conditions.

“Groundwork in the statute is already there,” Vulcan said. “We’re all in this together, and we’re going through the same things together. We should keep our fingers crossed.”

Aberdeen won the other BRAC zoning designation for 782 acres of development that requires improvements to Route 40, wastewater upgrades and school capacity increases.

July/August print edition. Posted July 6, 2009. 

State property turned over to Petrie Ross for 578,164 square foot Savage Town Center development:

• 78,000 square feet for office space
• 350,000 square feet for residential (416 units)
• 30,164 square feet for retail (two buildings and two restaurants)
• 120,000 square feet for a hotel (152 rooms)

Source: Office of Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown