The Democratic majority of the Anne Arundel County Council defeated a Republican-backed bill designed to roll back an incentive for developers to build more affordably priced housing.

The 4-3 vote along party lines followed impassioned public testimony at the end of a four-hour legislative meeting Monday night. The result marks a victory for proponents for expanding housing, but disappointed a Glen Burnie community that mobilized in opposition to an affordable-housing development there.

It means one of the county’s landmark housing laws remains undisturbed, for now.

Facing a housing shortage, the County Council unanimously passed a bill in 2024 that allowed developers to build more homes than a parcel’s zoning allowed so long as they included residences for the county’s workforce, or households making slightly less than the $122,000 median income. Teachers, nurses and government workers celebrated the legislation.

But when a developer proposed to build 171 townhouses on a former bus depot in Glen Burnie under the legislation, neighbors organized to stop — or at least scale back — the project, citing traffic and crime concerns.

Responding to his constituents, Councilman Nathan Volke advanced legislation that would limit workforce housing projects to areas served by freeways and principal arteries. The Pasadena Republican said his bill balanced the need for housing with infrastructure limitations.

“Listen to the people we represent,” Volke implored his colleagues, referring to the dozens of Glen Burnie residents who arranged to have a bus drive them to the council meeting. “Listen to the community. Listen to the concerns they have. … This matters to them.”

But on the other side was Councilwoman Allison Pickard, a Glen Burnie Democrat and proponent of bolstering the county’s housing stock. She expressed frustration that residents seem to push back every time a housing project is proposed in or near their communities.

“When does it stop? Why do we, the stably housed and financially secured, get to stop the next generation from owning homes?” Pickard asked. “And that’s what we’re doing. We do it at every turn.”

Councilman Pete Smith, a Democrat who represents northern Anne Arundel but who sometimes votes with his Republican colleagues out of “councilmanic courtesy,” may have cast the deciding vote. He said his childhood housing insecurity motivated him to vote against Volke’s bill.

“This bill is countywide,” he told Volke. “It’s not just your project. It also impacts my district.”

A last-ditch effort by Volke to save the legislation by postponing the vote so he could amend it to only impact the Glen Burnie development failed along party lines.

Volke’s measure received pushback from Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman, a Democrat, and Maryland Housing Secretary Jake Day, who called it a “step backwards.” Anne Arundel County Connecting Together — a coalition of faith-based groups — and the Anne Arundel County Association of Realtors also opposed the bill.

Neighbors Jigna Patel, Anita Patel and Kyle Nembhard, who attended Monday’s bill hearing, have been the most vocal members of their community in opposing the development plans due to concerns about potential street congestion and a walking path that would connect their community to a “high-crime area.” Though they said they welcomed more housing in their neighborhood, they thought the proposed scale went too far.

Eighty-two people submitted written testimony in support of Volke’s bill, many using the same language.

“High density Workforce Housing in R5 communities must have adequate road access and should not be built on local or collector roads,” one of the common comments read.

Several people echoed another refrain, saying that “no one deserves to live in overdeveloped, overcrowded areas with inadequate road access just for the sake of creating housing.”

About half a dozen people testified in opposition of the bill.

Kristina Korona, president of the Anne Arundel County Teachers Association, told the council that workforce housing is critical because educators, especially those early in their careers, and support staff can’t afford to live in the communities where they teach. She said the lack of affordable housing also negatively impacts students.

Max Gross, government affairs director for the Anne Arundel County Association of Realtors, said the council is considering changing rules it passed only 18 months ago because of relatively few outspoken voices.

“The council is sending the message that you cannot invest in this county without this board right here saying ‘yes.’ Even introducing this is sending that message,” said Gross, later adding: “A vote for this bill is a message to the Realtors, the homebuilders, the community: Keep out.”

If the council passed the bill, it would effectively be turning its back on the same people labeled heroes with yard signs during the COVID-19 pandemic: first responders, health care workers and teachers, said Janssen Evelyn, deputy chief administrative officer in Pittman’s administration.

“They deserve a chance to live in the communities that they serve,” Evelyn testified.

Maryland is short a minimum of 96,000 houses, according to state data, with some estimates pegging the shortage at as much as 150,000. Marylanders overwhelmingly want more housing, polling data shows, especially at more affordable price points, and they want more government intervention to make it possible. But housing policies designed to make developing affordable housing simpler and easier often attract loud opposition, too, making such laws politically fraught.

Such nuance has kneecapped similar proposals in neighboring jurisdictions. On Thursday, in Baltimore, a zoning revision that would eliminate mandatory parking minimums drew such fierce pushback from one former council member that the hearing was recessed briefly.

Anne Arundel County has some of the state’s most expensive home costs, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. And in 2024 it commanded the second-highest gross median rent — or rent plus utility costs — in the Baltimore area, at more than $2,100, trailing only Howard County, a Banner analysis of new U.S. Census data found.

Anne Arundel‘s median home price was about $513,000 in the first three months of the year, the Realtors association data showed, meaning half of all homes sold for more and half for less. Only Montgomery and Howard counties had higher median sales prices in the state.