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.

She expects the
allocation ordinance to be presented this summer.