Berlin Approves Road Map For EDU Allocation

BERLIN - Half of Berlin's remaining equivalent dwelling units (EDUs) will be released for use as soon as the state approves the new capacity management plan, with the second half released the year after.

The Berlin Mayor and Council approved the capacity management plan at the Monday night meeting. This type of plan is required by the state of Maryland whenever a wastewater system is at 80 percent capacity.

'It's required. It does explain how we're going to manage out existing capacity,' said Berlin Administrative Director Linda Bambary.

Council Vice President Gee Williams added, 'It really helps to quantify what we're planning for.'

Projects not already in the plan will have to wait for the plant expansion to get sewer service, estimated to be complete in two and a half years.

'No one else can get any capacity,' Bambary said.

Five hundred EDUs worth of capacity is already reserved for the 218 infill lots in town, according to the capacity plan.

The five incompletely built subdivisions in the plan, Austin Acres, Buttercup, Decatur Farm, Franklin Knoll and Walnut Hill, will use 114 EDUs.

Four other residential subdivisions, the Bay Street Duplexes, Cannery Village, Nelson Avenue Townes, and Purnell Crossing, will share 157 EDUs. Those developments are in the pipeline, but not yet fully approved by Berlin.

Seventy EDUs will be reserved for commercial development, including the new ACE Printing location, the Crossroads offices, Nelson Avenue Townes commercial spaces and the Seahorse Professional Center.

'It basically treats our reserve very conservatively,' said Williams, explaining the town wants to protect, not exploit, the remaining capacity.

Staff used a more conservative method of averaging peak flows to determine the number of unused EDUs.

According to the capacity management plan, the current plant can handle another 432 EDUs of flow, with 216 EDUs available the first year, and 216 the next year.

Allocation will be spread out over residential infill, commercial, new and existing subdivisions and institutional uses.

The town will create an allocation ordinance to handle the new capacity from the plant expansion.

'We do have the skeleton of it but it'll still need some work,' said Bambary.