Frederick growth to resume after water supply set

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) — An executive order that has barred the city of Frederick from annexing land for development for more than five years could be lifted as early as February now that a Potomac River water supply is assured, Mayor W. Jefferson Holtzinger says.

The inevitable resumption of annexations — the city already has identified 10 parcels totaling more than 1,400 acres — promises to revive a growth rate that sizzled for a decade before water worries prompted limits on annexations and new development plans.

The Board of Aldermen voted 3-2 on Dec. 20 to adopt guidelines for the mayor to follow in prioritizing development plans. That action cleared the way for Mr. Holtzinger to lift his predecessor’s 2002 order prohibiting growth at the city’s borders. Practically, the annexations can’t resume until the city of 59,000 completes it’s connection to the Potomac next month.

Slow-growth advocates have warned of runaway development once the ban is lifted, but Mr. Holtzinger said his administration won’t rush the annexations.

“I think we’re going to have a very thorough process,” he told the Frederick News-Post on Wednesday.

In 2000, Frederick County officials discovered that flawed calculations had led the city to overestimate its future water supply. Then-Mayor James S. Grimes ordered a temporary moratorium on annexations in March 2001. His successor, Jennifer P. Dougherty, signed the executive order prohibiting annexations immediately after her election in 2002, a severe drought year.

Mr. Holtzinger, then the city’s chief engineer, had pushed for the restrictions, insisting that the city had to slow its rapid growth while seeking new water sources. The restrictions have worked: during the 1990s, Frederick’s population surged by 31 percent, or more than 3 percent a year; in the 2000s, growth has slowed to less than 2 percent annually, despite the real estate boom in the first half of the decade.

Removal of the annexation ban is tied to completion of the city’s link to the county’s 15-mile Potomac River pipeline. The first phase of necessary improvements to a water-treatment plant should be completed next month, enabling the city to receive 1.5 million gallons a day, said Michael Marschner, director of the county’s Division of Utilities and Solid Waste Management. A second round of improvements will eventually deliver 8 million gallons of Potomac water to the city, he said.