Housing Affordability, Schools, Public Safety Top Priorities In Anne Arundel County

ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, MD — Anne Arundel County's top priorities include smart housing development that limits traffic, improving schools and investing in public safety.

County Executive Steuart Pittman (D) unveiled these goals during Tuesday's annual State of the County Address, where he touted strong financial outlooks and pushed for unity over division.

"The coming years will bring disruptions, to our lives and to the work of county government," Pittman said in the prerecorded speech, posted here. "But the state of our county is strong, and by healing wounds and building trust, we will become even stronger."

Adding Housing

The second-leading concern for county residents is housing affordability, Pittman said, citing the most recent Anne Arundel Community College poll.

The county's median home sale price is $502,000, up from about $482,000 last year and roughly $280,000 in 2011.

"I don’t buy the argument that we’ll solve our housing problems by increasing the supply of luxury homes," Pittman said. "Those will be purchased by wealthy people from all across the mid-Atlantic region who don’t do the essential jobs that make our county thrive. Our next housing initiatives must be targeted to our essential workers."

Pittman said the county has:

• "Brought back the workforce housing density bonus
• "Reopened school feeder areas with redistricting and new legislation to prevent overcrowding
• "Created an affordable housing trust fund paid for with real estate transfer taxes on properties that sell for over $1 million."

He said additional passed or pending legislation would:

• "Require a percentage of new units in subdivisions of ten or more homes to be moderately priced
• "Allow homeowners to build accessory dwelling units
• "Remove restrictions on building new housing in high-density commercial areas."

The Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis is improving its subsidized units. The Department of Public Works is creating a wastewater treatment plan for the mobile home parks along the Patuxent River in South County.

"Possibly our greatest housing challenge is to preserve the affordable units that exist today, and protect the families living in them," Pittman said.

Limiting Traffic

Pittman said the two new apartment complexes on Riva Road have "generated a lot of traffic concerns because getting past Annapolis High School and the county and school system offices is already a struggle at peak hours."

He said, however, that a new signal optimization system has cut 4 p.m. travel times nearly in half. A forthcoming left turn restriction will further reduce congestion. Additional sidewalks and a transit center at the Park and Ride lot on Harry S. Truman Parkway will offer further traffic relief.

Commuter rail will see more rides after the proposed 900-unit development at the Odenton MARC Train Station.

"Maybe the greatest obstacle to responsibly addressing our housing shortage is legitimate
concerns about traffic," Pittman said. "Throughout the county, we’re moving away from sprawl development and toward multimodal transportation that starts in town centers. That’s how we accommodate growth responsibly."

Improving Schools

With pay lower than other nearby districts, Anne Arundel County struggled with a post-pandemic teacher shortage.

Anne Arundel County Public Schools, however, raised starting salaries. AACPS was one of the first school systems to provide a starting salary of at least $60,000, which the Blueprint For Maryland's Future requires by July 2026.

There are now 40 fewer teacher vacancies than this time last year.

"Our recent test scores show that our recovery from the pandemic is surpassing most of our
peers and that our clearest progress has been in our Community Schools, the ones with the
highest rates of poverty. Those schools now have staff engaging directly with whole families and
neighbors, and it’s working," Pittman said, pointing to career counseling starting in middle school.

There are currently zero bus driver vacancies, fixing the bus delay and cancelation issues that inconvenienced families when in-person classes returned.

Pittman thanked "the taxpayers who have been willing to pay more for what we now get," and he applauded Superintendent Mark Bedell for redistricting that eased overcrowding.

"A good measure of whether our school system is healing wounds and building trust, is results from the recent Board of Education races," Pittman said. "Candidates who ran on changing course mostly lost. Candidates who expressed support for the current direction mostly won. So our progress will continue."

Investing In Public Safety

The county executive said his administration "has done more than talk the talk" about public safety.

Pittman said the county has "increased our investment in police by 87%, fire by 71%, and emergency management by 76%." The money has funded additional first responders and pay raises. It has also bought new fire stations, fire engines and fire boats. Police have gotten new training and operations facilities.

Pittman also highlighted services to prevent recidivism and repeat criminal offenses.

"Our re-entry hub at Ordnance Road, and the full menu of re-entry services being coordinated at
Community Action Agency, are turning former offenders into productive members of our
community. That’s a smart investment," Pittman said.

The county has also developed a gun violence interrupter program in some of the most affected communities.

The Gun Violence Intervention Team, led by the Department of Health, has hired and trained locally respected residents in the Severn area around Meade Village, and in Annapolis in and around Harbour House and Eastport Terrace.

"These brave men and women have directly engaged with residents who are most likely to be both victims and perpetrators of gun violence, and mediated conflicts that we know would otherwise have resulted in bloodshed," Pittman said. "This work is healing wounds and building trust in places where it’s needed most."