Carroll County Board of Commissioners Meeting: October 30, 2025 Work Sessions on DRRAs and Nells Acres/Ridenour Way
Carroll County Board of Commissioners Meeting: October 30, 2025
The Carroll County Board of Commissioners met on October 30, 2025, in open session. The morning session included the approval of several routine contracts and purchases (consent calendar). The afternoon session featured two work sessions: a briefing on Development Rights and Responsibilities Agreements (DRRAs) and an update on the Nells Acres development and the proposed Ridenour Way extension. No public comments were recorded during the discussion.
Consent Calendar
- Contract Award – Mill & Overlay Parking Lot – COVE Building: Approved award to JEMS Contracting, Inc. in the amount of $86,320 for milling and overlay of the parking lot at 115 Stoner Avenue, Westminster, including a new ADA-compliant ramp.
- Approval to Purchase – One (1) Kohler Diesel Generator: Approved purchase, removal, and installation of a 37KW Kohler Diesel Generator at Mayberry Tower from Fidelity Power Systems for $110,000.
- Contract Award – Replacement of Water Valve Bolts within the Freedom District Service Area: Approved award to Mid-Atlantic Utilities, Inc. for $116,475 to replace cast iron bolts with stainless steel bolts at 33 locations.
- Contract Award – Purchase of a Replacement Diesel Generator for the Freedom District Water Treatment Plant: Approved award to Fidelity Power Systems for $828,533.60 for a turnkey 1000 KW Rehlko diesel generator.
- Exercise Option to Purchase – Agricultural Land Preservation via the Installment Purchase Agreement (IPA) on the Alice Edwards Property: Approved a resolution to exercise the option to purchase a conservation easement on the 137.675-acre farm at 4701 Arters Mill Road, Westminster, for $565,887.94 (40% of fair market value, paid over 20 years with 5% annual interest).
- Items 7 and 8 (Briefing/Discussion/Decision on Chapter 156 – Adequate Public Facilities and Concurrency Management, and Change to Ordinance – Renewable Energy Certainty Act) were listed on the agenda but were not discussed in the afternoon session; no action was recorded.
Discussion Items
Work Session – Development Rights and Responsibilities Agreements (DRRAs)
- Staff presented a refresher on DRRAs, which are voluntary agreements between the county and developers to lock in zoning and land-use regulations for large projects (minimum 125 residential units or 25 acres for mixed-use). Key features include a public hearing, developer-hosted community meeting, and documentation of public benefit (though no quantified requirement). The county’s enabling ordinance (Chapter 161) was passed in October 2024. No applications have been received to date. Commissioners discussed the process, potential benefits, and the need to ensure that mitigation agreements are transparent and involve the Board of County Commissioners. The work session was informational only; no action was taken.
Work Session – Update on Nells Acres & Ridenour Way
- Staff provided an update on the Nells Acres development (Phase I and II) and the planned Ridenour Way extension, a parallel road to Maryland Route 26. The developer of Nells Acres II agreed to provide $220,000 and engineering plans for a 1,600-foot segment of Ridenour Way as mitigation for traffic impacts. The segment would connect to Old Liberty Road and Panorama Drive, providing an alternative route for residents. However, Commissioners expressed concerns that the mitigation does not adequately address congestion on Route 26 and may create new problems for existing neighborhoods. Commissioner Krebs noted that the county has invested over $2.5 million in the project and questioned its feasibility given right-of-way constraints (including a house in the path) and the lack of a direct connection to a traffic signal. The Board discussed the need for a realistic assessment of the entire Ridenour Way corridor and alternatives such as leveraging funds for Route 26 improvements. Staff recommended using Baltimore Metropolitan Council (BMC) funding for a preliminary engineering study of Ridenour Way and Dickinson Road to evaluate costs and property acquisition requirements.
Key Outcomes
- DRRAs: No applications are pending; staff will continue to monitor interest. The Board emphasized the importance of clear public benefit documentation and direct Board involvement in mitigation agreements.
- Nells Acres/Ridenour Way: The Board directed staff to proceed with the BMC-funded study ($60,000 total, $12,000 county match) to assess the feasibility, costs, and property acquisition needs for the Ridenour Way and Dickinson Road corridors. The Board also requested that staff return with options for short-term mitigation on Route 26 and that any future decisions on Ridenour Way be based on realistic cost-benefit analysis and community input, including consultation with fire/EMS. The Board did not take a formal vote on the Ridenour Way segment; the work session concluded with a commitment to further study.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon, Commissioners. So by request, um you asked us to come back and and give a refresher on uh DRRAs or DARAs. Um I'm not sure if there's a uh absolute correct presentiation. I'm used to DRRA, so forgive me, Commissioner. No, that's all right. Municipal municipal background, yes, for me. So DRRAs are development rights and responsibilities agreements. And uh last year the county um put in our code uh the ability to implement them. But I'm going to go back and just refresh everybody's memory as to what they are and then and talk about um what our process is for utilizing them, and then happy to answer any questions. So again, just a quick refresher, I'm not gonna read through everything, but essentially a DRA is was enabled by the state of Maryland in 1995 to uh uh was enabling legislation to allow jurisdictions such such as ourselves to um to implement these um these agreements. And uh this was in recognition of Maryland being a late vesting state, and it provided some allowances to developers and some um some surety in the in the development review uh development process. Essentially a DRA is an agreement between a local jurisdiction such as ourselves and a developer for certain things. And uh whether uh and I'll get into kind of the specifics. One of the key elements of a DRA is that it locks in the codes at the time of the execution of the DRA. And that's what gives the some assurance to the developer in that when the agreement is made, whatever codes are in place, um that if codes change, then they are not uh required to uh to uh adhere to those new codes. So again, it's it's in response to the late vesting that that uh Maryland has. So um why would we want to implement them? So again, it provides a developer with stability in their land use regulations. A developer makes a significant investment when they start down the development process. And having unsure not being sure as to what kind of codes they may be subject to after a year or two of working through developing those plans, there's a there's a risk there, and um some developers are willing to make that risk, but in a large um project, sometimes projects can take over a decade to to fully build out. Um a DRA gives them that assurance that the codes aren't gonna be changed on them. So it encourages them to then uh it may encourage some developers to want to initiate development in in a jurisdiction. Um DRAs, and again, this is an agreement between the local jurisdiction and the developer. Um some DRAs have benefits to the county. Um in agreement to to uh freeze the regulations, um the developer may um provide something to the county. Um Frederick County had used these for a number of years and they had large subdivisions with well over a thousand some um some dwelling units, and as part of the DRAs, um school sites were given, um fire station sites were were given, that sort of thing. So that was all part of the agreement. This would just be county. Okay, so the state's not going to defer the stuff they put on in the next 10 years. Correct. They're the ones that put the owner's regulations on, but we can just for ethnic. These are primarily like zoning type type codes, which are our responsibility. If the state were to change stormwater management regulations or something like that, they would still have to follow through with those. And there's always a provision that local government can still change regulations if essential to protecting public health safety and welfare. So we're not a hundred percent locked in, but we would have to have a good reason to change regulations and enforce those on the developer. So does a DRA apply to all development? No, it's entirely voluntary, and it has to be an agreement between the county and the developer. There's no legal requirement that we have to enter into a DRA. So if we don't want to do one, we don't do it. State law, the enabling legal legislation had a couple of requirements that need to be included in the DRAs. Things like how long the agreement would be, permissible uses, density, maximum heights, and so on and so forth. And when we adopted our DRA language, we incorporated all of these requirements from the state. So if there is some sort of provision that we are going that the developer is going to say give property or something along those lines, that would need to be documented in the DRA agreement. State law also requires that a public hearing be held allowing citizens to weigh in on the agreement. And like most contractual agreements, it can be amended or terminated by both parties. So how DRAs have been used in other counties. Since it was enabled in 1995, there are 11 counties who have um who have uh enabled their own legislation. Two counties, Howard and Queen Anne's, have since repealed their DRA ordinances. Frederick and Charles have amended their DRA legislation after having used them, and we weren't able to find any examples since then that they continue that they've used them. Four counties, Enronville St.
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