Adequate Public Safety Ordinance (APSO)

The County Commissioners of Charles County are hereby requesting proposals from qualified consulting firms to conduct a study in order to draft and implement an Adequate Public Safety Ordinance (APSO) and evaluate and recommend a potential funding source, such as a Public Safety Impact Fee (Impact Fee). The APSO will assist with managing growth by ensuring that new development is not adversely impacting the adequacy of the local public safety infrastructure (Fire, Police, and Emergency Medical Services). The study will evaluate the County’s existing public safety capacity and projected needs based on population growth, and then determine what the specific criteria will be that constitutes “adequate” public safety. The study will also evaluate the options for potential benefit assessments such as impact fees, to be levied on new development projects to fund the necessary expansion of public safety infrastructure.

In tandem to the addition to the above, the study will also consider land donations and fee-in-lieu options for parkland development. State enabling legislation was adopted in 2024, laying the groundwork for further local policy changes. The study should evaluate existing regulatory requirements related to parkland and open space and make recommendations on ways to strength the program in accordance with the enabling legislation to include possible amendments to the Charles County Subdivision Regulation and Charles County Zoning Ordinance.

The Adequate Public Facilities (APF) element of the Charles County Zoning Ordinance is designed to assure that proposed developments will not adversely affect the health, safety, and welfare of the public by requiring developers to provide new, additional, or upgrades of existing public facilities which are necessary to address the impact on public water, roads, and school facilities from their project, when the existing and planned facilities will not provide or maintain an adequate level of service.

The Adequate Public Safety Ordinance (APSO) would assist with managing growth by ensuring that new development is not adversely impacting the adequacy of the local public safety infrastructure. The APSO could fit into the APF regulations if the APF regulations were expanded to include public safety facilities, as both the APSO and APF seek to assure new development would not adversely affect public facilities. An expanded APF program could be removed from the Zoning Ordinance to create a separate, comprehensive APFO. Alternatively, the APSO could exist separate from the APF program in its own Ordinance.