Roland Park Considers Special Tax District

Roland Park is considering creating a special benefits district with the power to levy a surtax on homes.

The Roland Park Civic League discussed the possibility during its meeting Thursday.

The neighborhood has some ambitious plans that involve helping maintain a park surrounding a rehabbed and to acquire 17 acres of land in the neighborhood now owned by the Baltimore Country Club, and maintain it as a public open space.

In order to undetake these projects, the neighborhood must find a way to increase the amount of revenue coming in.

A benefits district would require enabling legislation to be passed by the Maryland General Assembly and would be placed on the ballot for approval during a general election. A minimum of 58 percent of the votes cast in the district would have to support the benefits district being created.

Currently, organizations such as the Roland Park Civic League are funded through fees dictated in the neighborhood’s covenants. But those fees when they were created were not indexed for inflation and if every home in the neighborhood paid the full fee equivalent it would result in $207,000 a year being collected. 

Roland Park has had some problems collecting the covenant fees. About 20 percent of the neighborhood’s homes don’t pay the fees and an additional 20 percent only pay the minimum required.  The fees are determined based on the amount of frontage a property in the neighborhood has.

During the meeting Ken Rice, chair of the Roland Park Community Foundation, said it isn’t practical for the neighborhood to sue or try to collect outstanding fees via legal collection methods.

A special benefits district would allow for a surtax to be assessed on homes and collected like a property tax. There are currently four benefits districts in the city including in

Philip Spevak, president of the Roland Park Civic League, said the idea of creating a community benefits districts is still in the conceptual phase, but that there have been conversations with the Rolden and Hoes Heights neighborhoods about creating a benefits district. A benefits district usually incorporates more than one neighborhood.

Rice said he understands that a benefits district isn’t the perfect solution and that not all of his neighbors would support the proposal.

“They’re not a panacea,” Rice said.

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