The Baltimore County Council postponed a vote Tuesday on whether to advance a proposal for a new waste transfer station in Dundalk.
The Eagle Transfer Station would be the county’s first privately run waste transfer station, and would accept garbage to be taken elsewhere for disposal.
To move forward, the project requires an amendment to the county’s 10-year solid waste plan. The council was scheduled to vote Tuesday, but with little discussion, voted 6-1 to defer action on the amendment. Council members didn’t set a timeline for taking up the issue again.
The Baltimore Sun reported last month that the county’s inspector general opened an investigation into a complaint that a political fundraising event for County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. influenced his administration’s decision to sign off on the Eagle Transfer Station.
Baltimore Recycling Center President Jack Haden, who proposed the project, held the fundraiser for the Democratic county executive in June 2021. Olszewski has said the event did not influence decision-making.
At a work session last week, Haden spoke by phone to the council. He called the proposal “very small but needed,” citing factors including estimates that the county’s landfill will reach capacity by the end of the decade.
He spoke again by phone at the council meeting Tuesday, saying he was disappointed the council postponed its vote.
“Why is the county deferring this issue?” he asked. “No reason was given.”
Councilman Tom Quirk, an Oella Democrat, was the only member to vote against deferring the vote. He told The Sun he opposes the project and feels the county shouldn’t delegate waste transfer services to a private entity. The county runs its own transfer stations in Cockeysville, Halethorpe and White Marsh.
Bill on development fee waivers approved
The council also voted unanimously to approve a bill that requires the county administrative officer to notify the County Council of any request to waive development fees.
“This legislation is to put sunlight on this process,” County Administrative Officer Stacy Rodgers said at last week’s work session.
The council previously postponed a vote on the measure after residents raised concerns that the legislation lacked criteria for when fees could be waived. Critics said it could lead to favoritism for certain developers at taxpayer expense.
An amended bill approved Tuesday requires the administration to consider several factors when waiving fees, such as whether the developer is a nonprofit or for-profit entity; whether the project will be located in an economically disadvantaged community; and whether the project will “positively impact” the community.
A January report by the inspector general found that beginning in 2011, the county improperly waived millions of dollars of inspection and permit fees and performance securities for the Metro Centre at Owings Mills. The waivers began under the administration of the late County Executive Kevin Kamenetz, but Olszewski’s administration continued to waive certain fees until this April.
The Olszewski administration also has waived a total of $25,000 in fees for two other projects, both in 2021, according to Erica Palmisano, the county executive’s press secretary.
Those projects were an effort by the nonprofit Land Preservation Trust to restore just under a mile of degraded stream banks of Piney Run near Butler; and a stormwater retrofitting initiative at the state fairgrounds, funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Chesapeake Bay Trust.
