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Click Here to Join MDP's eMail ListMaryland Planning Directors' Roundtable
Convening regularly for the purpose of sharing ideas on smart and sustainable growth
Maryland is projected to grow by over 1,000,000 new residents by the year 2030. Between now and 2015, BRAC will 
bring over 25,000 new households to the State.
From environmental protection and resource conservation to neighborhood revitalization and transportation, growth and community character is on the minds of every jurisdiction.
The Maryland Planning Directors Roundtable brings together the planning leadership from across the State. The Roundtable allows counties and municipalities, rural and urban jurisdictions alike, to talk about the challenges relating to sustainable growth and to share experiences and ideas and planning best practices. The Maryland Planning Directors Roundtable is open to all planning officials in Maryland’s 23 counties and 157 municipalities. Meetings are held every three months.
Upcoming Roundtable Meeting
Winter 2010 Meeting
Thursday, January 21, 2010 - 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Banneker-Douglass Museum, Annapolis
Secretary of Planning Richard Hall invites planning professionals throughout the state to attend the first meeting of the Maryland Planning Directors' Roundtable of the New Year on Thursday, January 21, 2009. The meeting will be held at The Banneker-Douglass Museum from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Chuck Fox, Advisor to the Administrator, EPA's Chesapeake Bay Program, will speak to the Roundtable on Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) and other Bay Program information. Check-in and networking will begin at 8:30 AM.
Click here for the January 21st Agenda.
Last Roundtable Meeting
Fall 2009 Meeting
Thursday, November 19, 2009 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Banneker-Douglass Museum, Annapolis
Agenda for the November 19th meeting
See pictures of the meeting at MDP's flickr
Director of Planning Services for MDP, Richard Josephson, AICP, opened the meeting, introduced the attendees and briefly commented on the State’s Growth Plan being called PlanMaryland. Below are the two handouts.
Why Do We Need PlanMaryland?
PlanMaryland: An Overview
Other handouts:
Frequently Asked Questions about Planning Commission/Board and Board of Appeals Training Course
An Assessment of HB1141: the Water Resources and Municipal Growth Elements.
Richard then introduced Peter Conrad, Director of Local Planning Assistance for MDP. Peter opened the next session, which took a look at the requirements of House Bill 1141 from the 2006 session of the Maryland General Assembly.
House Bill 1141 significantly affected comprehensive plans and annexations. HB 1141 required that two new elements be included in local comprehensive plans by October 1, 2009: All county and municipal governments must include a Water Resources Element (WRE) and all municipalities must include a Municipal Growth Element (MGE).
Mr. Jack Lenox, AICP, Director of Wicomico/Salisbury County Planning Department, and Mr. Jon Arason, AICP, Director of Annapolis Department of Planning and Zoning, each provided details about their respective efforts to develop these elements for their jurisdictions’ comprehensive plans. Mr. Lenox gave a review of Wicomico County’s process for the Water Resources Element. Mr. Arason presented the City of Annapolis’s path toward their Municipal Growth Element. Following each presentation, those in attendance had the opportunity to ask questions and make comments on their own experiences.
Presentation on the MGE by Jon Arason, AICP
GrowthPrint: Measuring and Prioritizing within Maryland’s Growth Areas
Matt Folley, from MDP’s Land Use Planning & Analysis unit, presented the technical methodology for GrowthPrint and discussed the role of GrowthPrint in the context of PlanMaryland as well as its relationship o to other targeting mechanisms within the State.
The Maryland Department of Planning uses geographic information systems (GIS) and synthesis of planning and socio-economic data to assess Maryland’s effort to manage and target growth-related state programs. GrowthPrint is a web mapping tool to help practitioners and the public visualize where this targeting is taking place and to help identify areas where further targeting makes the most sense. It builds on Maryland’s smart growth laws by further prioritizing areas for revitalization and redevelopment.
Using locations of existing state programs, GrowthPrint illustrates the State’s efforts in revitalization, redevelopment, and other growth-related activities. Existing programs (e.g. Designated Neighborhoods, Enterprise Zones, Community Legacy, BRAC Zones, TOD) are used to map where the State is targeting these efforts.