{"id":23361,"date":"2025-07-02T16:46:53","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T16:46:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/?p=23361"},"modified":"2025-07-29T13:16:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T13:16:10","slug":"santa-fe-realtors-promote-diverse-housing-options-in-housing-strapped-region-2-3-2-2-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3-3-2-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-4-2-4-2-2-3-2-4-2-2-3-2-2-2-2-3-3-2-2-3-2-2-2-3-2-3-2-2-2-2-3-3-2-2-2-3-2-2-44","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/homepage\/success-story\/aacar-advocacy0725","title":{"rendered":"Anne Arundel County Association of REALTORS\u00ae Uses Advocacy Everywhere to Oppose Increased Connection Fee for New Developments"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"When a new budget provision in Maryland\u2019s Anne Arundel County threatened to dramatically raise the statutory allowance for increasing new development connection fees, it got the attention of the local REALTORS\u00ae. Not only would such an increase stifle production of sorely needed housing in the Annapolis region, but the proposal seemed to fly in the face of the County Council\u2019s recent policy assertions in favor of new housing production. Tapping into the REALTOR\u00ae Party\u2019s Advocacy Everywhere, the Anne Arundel County Association of REALTORS\u00ae (AACAR) demonstrated public opposition to the fee increase for new developments, and the bill was withdrawn.\r\n\r\nAACAR Government Affairs Director Max Gross had observed that the members of the County Council did not seem strongly invested in this particular budget provision. It also seemed distinctly counter to the council\u2019s own goals and recent legislation, such as the passage of two bills to increase moderately-priced dwelling-units and incentivize increased density, and the creation of new zones approved for mixed-use development. He concluded, therefore, that the bill, which was projected to increase connection fees by more than $1K per development project, would be especially vulnerable to public pressure.\r\n\r\nGross is new to the Government Affairs Director position and had recently learned about Advocacy Everywhere \u2013 along with the rest of the REALTOR\u00ae Party\u2019s advocacy resources \u2013 in GAD training. He talked it over with his Association Executive, then received authorization from his Legislative Committee to oppose the measure. With a phone call to the Advocacy Everywhere team at NAR, he applied for a call to action to be generated; with his review and approval, the call went live the following morning: first for those who had signed up for REALTOR\u00ae Party Mobile Alerts, and via email two hours later to the rest of the AACAR membership.\r\n\r\nOne hundred emails were sent in response, with every council member receiving at least one. Within hours, one of the lawmakers called to ask if the REALTORS\u00ae were behind all the emails; the following day, the local building association called with the same question, as council members were asking them, too. (The builders were grateful for the effort, notes Gross.) That evening, he testified at the county\u2019s public budget hearings. Because all council members had received the email, which served as a clear explanatory memo, he was able to gloss over the basics and address the issue on a more collegial, less adversarial level. Shortly after, the bill was withdrawn from consideration.\r\n\r\nThe process was much simpler than Gross had expected: \u201cGenuinely, this was so easy \u2013 I didn\u2019t have to do much at all, because there\u2019s a system in place and the folks at NAR are so knowledgeable and responsive.\u201d Thanks to NAR\u2019s effective and efficient program, he says, and to the engagement of AACAR leadership and the effort of members who made their voices heard, \u201cWe are slowly but surely making progress toward a better built environment with more ample housing in Anne Arundel County.\u201d\r\n\r\nTo learn more about how the Anne Arundel County Association of REALTORS\u00ae is working to optimize conditions for the creation of more affordable housing, contact Government Affairs Director Max Gross at max@aacar.com or 410.544.4554.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the power of the REALTOR\u00ae Party\u2019s Advocacy Everywhere program, the Anne Arundel County Association of REALTORS\u00ae led the successful opposition of a new budget provision that would raise connection fees for developers. A proliferation of emails to county council members made it clear that this was not a good look for lawmakers supposedly committed to creating more affordable housing.","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,33,296],"tags":[655,1862,501,435],"class_list":["post-23361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-us","category-success-stories","category-success-story","tag-advocacy-everywhere","tag-anne-arundel","tag-land-use-initiative","tag-maryland"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23361"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23503,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23361\/revisions\/23503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}