Carroll County found itself at a crossroads in 2025.
The ninth-largest county in Maryland and a part of the Baltimore metropolitan area, the county has seen greater population growth and interest from developers in recent years. Yet Carroll has also long been a hub for agriculture and has the second-largest agricultural land preservation program in the United States.
This past year, the county’s Board of Commissioners grappled with energy projects, development strategy, property rights and a growing county staff. Many of these issues were more than just routine votes — they signaled how the county might handle growth and demographic change in the coming years.
Here are four of the biggest political decisions that the commissioners made in 2025 and how they could shape county policies in the new year.
The Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project
On New Year’s Eve in 2024, utility company PSEG applied for a permit to build a 70-mile transmission line through Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick counties. Ever since, the county commissioners have amped up efforts to fight the transmission line in court, leading a statewide charge against the project.
PSEG argues the power line will provide much-needed stability to Maryland’s electric grid, but as the company tried to gain access to private land where the transmission line is proposed to be built, Carroll County residents pushed back. If built, the power line will cross through the land of 860 property owners, including some farms in Carroll’s agricultural district.
All of the county commissioners and Sheriff Jim DeWees have vowed to stop the project and preserve private properties. Carroll’s leaders say they have taken the lead on fighting the project — and they have criticized leaders from neighboring counties for not being as forceful.
This fall, the commissioners filed several briefs with the state’s Public Service Commission expressing their opposition, and in November, all three impacted counties jointly filed a motion to dismiss PSEG’s application for the power line’s permit.
Starting in June, the U.S. District Court of Maryland ruled in a series of cases to grant PSEG access to private property as long as it alerts landowners of visits. But with an appeal to those decisions pending, and the state far from a decision on whether to grant a permit for the project, the issue is sure to come back up in 2026.
Budget season: school funding and EMS staffing
In 2025, Carroll had to adapt to rising costs in the local budget as it debated funding for the 2026 fiscal year, which runs from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026.
This year’s $581 million county budget saw a $13 million increase in funding for Carroll County Public Schools. Over 42% of the county budget goes toward the school system, with federal and state funding covering the remainder of CCPS’s $480 million operating budget.
Over the past few years, the county has taken on the responsibility of providing paid staff for the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services, which used to be privately operated in each town. Building up the department has cost the county about $20 million annually.
The department now has about 230 full-time positions, in addition to volunteers, and department officials have said they’re hoping to request at least 40 new paid positions for fiscal 2027.
2025 was also the third consecutive year that Carroll County voted to increase its water and sewer rates, a decision that came as the county works to replace its aging water and sewer infrastructure. Starting in July, the county’s 26,000 water and sewer customers saw an average quarterly bill increase of about $11.
Despite these fiscal pressures, Carroll’s commissioners voted unanimously to approve the budget and did not increase the county property tax rate.
Juggling housing and population growth
Carroll County’s population has increased by about 5,000 since the 2020 census. With more people comes more demand for housing and infrastructure.
The county has historically used its Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance to manage the timing of new development to not overburden local schools, water systems and roadways. However, officials have reported throughout 2025 that the county is in a “housing crisis,” with many finding few affordable options.
In March, county commissioners voted to expedite the permitting process for residential buildings, speeding up housing projects that were already in talks.
But in December, they voted to temporarily restrict a few types of growth in Eldersburg, including senior housing and clustered housing subdivisions. Commissioner Susan Krebs, who represents Eldersburg, and residents from the area have said growth is leading to heavy traffic and overcrowding.
Some developers have warned that the development ban could lead to lawsuits against the county.
The commissioners are planning to take a closer look at the county’s zoning codes during the first few months of 2026 to make changes to keep commercial growth more organized.
Solar on farmland
Carroll County has seen an influx of solar project applications — something that the commissioners are continuing to fight as state lawmakers look to ramp up Maryland’s solar energy production.
In Carroll, all solar projects currently seeking a permit are proposed to be built on farmland. To local officials, the possibility of solar projects taking up arable land far outweighs the benefits of these energy developments.
It’s been an uphill battle to stop solar on farmland. 2025 saw the approval of the Renewable Energy Certainty Act, a state law meant to speed up permitting for solar energy by exempting these projects from some local zoning regulations. Carroll County had previously banned solar farms on land that is zoned for agriculture.
In 2025, the state’s Public Service Commission approved five solar projects in Carroll, moving them forward to county officials who will review their zoning changes. Five more projects submitted initial permit applications to the Public Service Commission.
In a first for the state, the Public Service Commission also rejected a permit for a solar farm in November after receiving pushback from the county commissioners and residents. This project and one other — both located on the same street in Sykesville — are still pending final approval from the state.
Have a news tip? Contact Lily Carey at LCarey@baltsun.com.
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