A Commitment to Quality Attainable Housing For All
Like much of the nation, Anne Arundel County faces a housing supply crisis. Creating the conditions for housing supply growth lies predominantly with local government. Ensuring a sufficient supply of quality housing accessible and affordable to all income levels and ages is a critical component of Anne Arundel County’s future success.
Our challenge
Residential construction has slowed to unacceptable levels. Fewer than 1,000 single-family building permits were issued in both 2023 (904 units) and 2024 (932), per the BMC Building Permit Data System. Multi-unit construction has slowed to a crawl, with only 25 units permitted in 2023 and 226 in 2024. In FY23, the Maryland General Assembly Department of Legislative Services found that, when trying to redeem a state housing choice voucher, the Housing Commission of Anne Arundel County had an average waitlist stay of 6 years.
Lack of housing constrains economic growth. Employment is not growing because people are not moving to Maryland. They are not moving to Maryland because there is nowhere for them to live. Maryland’s economy has effectively been at a standstill since 2017, relative to the rest of the DMV and the country. The Comptroller’s Report found that employment in the state only grew by 1% from 2016-2023, compared to 7.4% nationally. This means that our average annual real wage growth in that time of 4.3% trailed the national average of 7.4%. It also means that our state GDP barely grew in that time (1.6%), compared to 13.9% growth nationally during that time.
Pete Smith’s commitment to full-spectrum housing
Anne Arundel County must take decisive action to get back on track. The next county executive must focus on initiatives that increase the supply of available housing.
Pete’s government will take a data-driven approach to tackling this crisis, with measures that are proven to be effective in municipalities across the country. These initiatives are geared towards increasing the supply of available housing. If the supply of housing increases, housing prices will fall, and more working people will be able to afford suitable housing in the county. These measures will, in turn, inject much-needed life into the county economy, enabling us to realize the county’s economic potential and improve living standards for everyone.
Pete Smith Housing Plan
Pete Smith’s plan for housing in Anne Arundel County is built on three pillars: Identifying and promoting locations for housing; Getting to yes by streamlining local approval processes; and leveraging a variety of partnerships.
Pillar 1: Identifying and promoting locations for housing
Strategy: Targeted Zoning Review
The County Administration should review very low-density and low-density residentially zoned to assess opportunities to build more units, while taking into consideration the availability of public water and sewer connections. Such a review would include full assessments of traffic, environmental, and other impacts, and would include community stakeholders. About 15% of the county’s land is currently included in these zoning categories. The results of such a review are intended to be limited, identifying areas for incremental new affordable units to be developed in areas with accessibility and other features that would create a community or neighborhood that has access to needs.
Strategy: Identification of surplus property
Anne Arundel County should redouble its efforts to create an inventory of publicly owned properties that may be declared surplus and made available for residential development. This review should be conducted in cooperation with the Board of Education, state, and federal partners to maximize development opportunities and look for potential synergies and/or land swaps.
Certain identified parcels could be provided to the Housing Commission of Anne Arundel County, Arundel Community Development Services, Inc. or other organizations to create a land bank that would provide financial leverage to public-purpose agencies to create units that can include income restrictions that make them affordable. Even small parcels might be later used by a developer who packages multiple parcels for a project. The commission can then use the funds to develop new affordable housing.
Strategy: Residential Infill Floating Zone to add housing in older neighborhoods
Aging neighborhoods are the perfect place to promote responsible growth, increase housing supply, and support revitalization. Anne Arundel County should consider the creation of a Residential Infill Floating Zone (RIFZ) that could facilitate new construction in established neighborhoods, allowing for both connectivity and added density.
The floating zone would be applied with approval from the Anne Arundel County Council in residential neighborhoods that are at least 40 years old, and would allow for the construction of detached single-family homes, duplexes, townhouses, and low-rise multifamily buildings of up to four stories (building height 45’)
Strategy: Place-based housing strategy
Anne Arundel must maximize the housing potential of areas that have been identified for residential growth. The next administration must make sure that transit-oriented development and mixed-use higher-density projects in designated commercial corridors move forward and include a certain percentage of affordable units, beyond what is currently required by the MPDU Program.
Strategy: Legislative solutions to fill gaps in market - like cottage homes
Throughout the country, there is a growing acceptance of small home living, particularly in areas that recognize the need for more flexible, affordable housing solutions. Benefits include keeping costs low, building equity, and providing amenities in cottage clusters. Council Bill 92-25, introduced by Pete Smith and adopted in February 2025, allows for the construction of small homes – some call them cottage homes or tiny homes – of up to 800 square feet in size in certain areas of Anne Arundel County.
Such construction will encourage affordable and innovative housing options through lower construction costs. Builders could construct between 8 and 20 cottage homes per acre, depending on the type of residential zoning in the area, and would also be allowed in certain commercial and mixed-use areas. The homes would be available for those earning up to 80 percent of the median income in the Baltimore area. The target price range for the homes would be around $200,000 and provisions in the law mean they will stay affordable for years because they can’t be rented out or flipped by speculators. A Smith administration will continue to explore legislative solutions to fill market gaps.
.
Pillar 2: Getting to yes by streamlining the local approval process
Strategy: Removing APFO roadblocks
Anne Arundel County’s Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance is designed to make sure that residential development does not outstrip school, road, and other infrastructure capacity, but often becomes an "administrative wall" that stifles affordable housing growth.
Targeted exemptions from APFO are necessary to facilitate residential development, particularly for affordable supply.
Strategy: Expedited approvals and fee waivers
Anne Arundel County can encourage the construction and expansion of residential housing by waiving fees related to permitting and development. Communities in Maryland and across the country have used this tool to increase the availability of housing and enhance the economic welfare of their communities.
As one example: an Anne Arundel County Housing Expansion Incentive program would create a 90-day window for property owners and developers to take advantage of fee waivers. Under one potential model, developers would place fees in an escrow account, and would be returned upon completion of a project. The Expansion Incentive Program would create a rapid infusion of supply into the housing market, moderating costs.
Strategy: A focus on affordable units to reduce backlog
The county's waiting lists for low-income housing (80% of the area median and below) are staggering, with up to 30,000 names waiting for units and housing choice vouchers.
Affordable rental housing is needed to fully meet the needs of the disabled, elderly, or other hard-to-house families in our county. Pete Smith is committed to addressing this gap and will convene a high-level working group to develop recommendations and set an achievable annual goal for bringing new units online.
PILLAR 3: Leveraging partnerships
Strategy: Partnerships with Non-Profits and Employers
To accelerate the development of affordable housing, the county administration should build and strengthen partnerships with non-profit developers such as Habitat for Humanity, as well as major employers. These partnerships can expand the county’s development capacity, allowing us to meet housing demand more efficiently now and in the future.
A Pete Smith administration will recognize that these partnerships may be slow-developing and may not occur naturally, so it will take a proactive position in envisioning, creating, and guiding them.
Strategy: Leveraging state partnerships
Gov. Wes Moore has prioritized housing production with the signing of a “Housing Starts Here” executive order that offers a roadmap for making progress on housing construction challenges.
Anne Arundel County should lean into the governor’s order by acting as a strong local partner. In addition to identifying buildable land, making tough land-use decisions for up-zoning and streamlining local processes as discussed above, the county administration should work with the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) to establish realistic housing targets and publish progress, showing commitment to Moore’s statewide benchmarks.
Anne Arundel should also compete for the Maryland Housing Leadership Awards by updating comprehensive plans, rezoning for higher density near transit, and adopting inclusionary zoning policies.
Strategy: Workforce housing
Facilitating workforce housing in Anne Arundel County requires aligning zoning, incentives, and partnerships to meet the needs of teachers, first responders, nurses, and service workers. The county can update zoning to allow mixed-use, higher-density projects near transit and job centers, while streamlining permitting to reduce costs and delays. Leveraging public land for housing, paired with state and federal tax credits, can attract private investment. Inclusionary zoning and density bonuses encourage developers to build affordable units. Finally, collaborating with nonprofits and employers ensures housing solutions remain accessible, sustainable, and connected to community services.
Tactic:
A Pete Smith administration will explore rent-stabilization programs to preserve and promote rental affordability throughout Anne Arundel. Rent stabilization (capping annual rent increases) can be effective at preventing sudden rent spikes that displace working families, teachers, police officers, and service workers, and keeping existing units affordable for longer periods, especially for lower-income or cost-burdened renters. But the policy must be coupled with supply-side solutions. Anne Arundel has a large structural shortage of both market-rate and income-restricted units. Stabilization protects existing tenants but doesn’t increase the supply needed to support the workforce.