The Montgomery County Planning Board last month voted to raise its Bethesda park impact fee by $1.08 per square foot, or about 11 percent.
The new rate took effect July 1. The county said it will use the additional revenue to help pay for the county parks department’s acquisition of parklands, site cleanup and planning design, and construction of new facilities, along with other improvements in downtown Bethesda.
Park-impact fees were established as part of the Bethesda downtown sector plan — a 20-year growth plan the Montgomery County Council passed in 2017.
The growth plan paves the way for 4.2 million square feet of additional development.
Developers pay the park-impact fee to the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. In exchange, they get the right to build additional density on their property beyond what is allowed in the Bethesda Overlay Zone according to the zoning code.
The overlay zone was established as part of the downtown sector plan as a way to lay out how developers could be awarded density greater than existing zoning requirements.
Before July 1, developers had to pay $10 per additional square foot of density., The planning board voted last month to raise it to $11.08 per square foot.
Elza Hisel-McCoy, a master planner and regulatory supervisor with the planning department, said in an interview Wednesday that the zoning code requires that the planning board increase the park-impact fee on July 1 of odd-numbered years.
He said the board also decided last month that development site plans submitted to the board before July 1 will pay the old rate of $10 per square foot as long as the board acts on the application by Dec. 31. Applications accepted after July 1, he said, would pay the new rate.
Hisel-McCoy said the average amount of extra density developers purchase is about 200,000 square feet.
According to the planning department’s downtown Bethesda development tracker, which was updated in June, seven developments are purchasing additional density using park-impact payments. The impact payments range from $1.1 million for a future development at 7607 Old Georgetown Road to more than $5 million for Marriott International’s new headquarters.
According to Mark Pfefferle, the planning department’s chief of development review, only Marriott has paid its park-impact fee so far. The fees are paid just before building permits are issued.
Dan Schere can be reached at Daniel.schere@moco360.media.
