State and local lawmakers are exploring a series of changes for flood-prone Ellicott City that they say could help the 244-year-old river town control water flow and provide relief to local businesses.

The deadly flash flood on July 30 devastated the historic town in the Tiber-Hudson watershed.

Del. Bob Flanagan, a District 9A Republican, is seeking to permanently exempt businesses in historic Ellicott City from property taxes, a move Flanagan said is necessary to preserve the district.

“There are special burdens and responsibilities associated with having businesses in the historic district, including flood risk. We need to encourage businesses to stay there,” Flanagan said.

Flanagan is also seeking $500,000 in state funds, matched by the county, to fund stormwater management projects. A majority of the Howard County delegation must approve both bills before they are formally introduced in the General Assembly.

Since the flood, the county has shifted from focusing on managing the quality of water to managing the quantity of water, said Councilman Jon Weinstein, a Democrat who represents the area.

“Because of limited flexibility in the watershed to do these projects, we are essentially being forced to do some things that have less of an impact,” Weinstein said. “That has to change.”

The county is working with the Maryland Department of the Environment to carve out exemptions in state guidelines that would allow the county to build large facilities to hold floodwater away from Ellicott City.

For the last 15 years, state guidelines have focused on controlling the quality of runoff that enters the Chesapeake Bay. Counties can build bioretention ponds that naturally filter water. But state guidelines limit the county's ability to build large flood-management facilities.

“There are significant regulatory and legal hurdles to create the large-scale solutions that the county and the state needs in Ellicott City,” said Josh Greenfeld, vice president of government affairs for the Maryland Building Industry Association.

With more than 90 percent of the Tiber-Hudson watershed developed, the county is scrambling for space to find bigger and deeper facilities that can hold large amounts of water.

“In the bigger scheme of things, an area like Ellicott City may need some special criteria to figure out what in the world to do,” said Jim Caldwell, director of the county's Office of Community Sustainability.

The council is considering several measures that aim to tighten stormwater regulations. A bill proposed by Weinstein and Council Chairman Calvin Ball, a Democrat, would bar developers from seeking waivers on wetlands, flood plains, steep slopes and other environmentally sensitive areas.

Weinstein and Ball have also proposed increasing the amount of water that stormwater-management controls, such as ponds, can hold. The change updates the county's design guidelines to manage 100-year storms. That bill would also require the county to review design guidelines for stormwater management tools every three years.

A proposal by Weinstein to halt development for nine months in the area was tabled this year as the council works through a series of changes that could moot the impact of the bill.

If passed as amended, the halt would only affect a project for nearly a dozen houses on Church Road, according to a county analysis.

Councilman Greg Fox, a Republican, said the council did not buckle to pressure from developers.

“Some things may sound good as a fix, but then you realize it doesn't accomplish the fix,” Fox said. “That's what happened here.”

Weinstein said the proposed halt got developers' attention and pushed some to present “innovative ideas” to tackle potential flooding problems.

“We created the space for a conversation,” Weinstein said.

One possible option is a proposal by David Woessner of Bohler Engineering to build large embankments along streams and a culvert that would allow water to flow through. During storms, the water would back up to the flood plain instead of rushing down Main Street, Woessner said.

Woessner said the county should also consider enlarging existing stormwater-management ponds so they can handle 100-year-storms.

The legislative proposals before the council do not address old development that predates stormwater management. Most of the development in the watershed was built when little to no stormwater management guidelines existed.