Publication Order Form for printed publications

Annual Reports, Models & Guidelines, Plan Maryland, Other Publications

The Final Report of the Governor's Task Force on Workforce Housing

Annual Reports

2007 MDP Annual Report

Models & Guidelines

27- Smart Growth, Community Planning and Public School Construction

The publication examines smart growth, energy efficiency, and community centered public schools in Maryland. It provides a model process for use in site selection to ensure quality smart growth for schools and communities across the State. It is ideal for everyone involved in planning public school facilities as well as the general public. The booklet includes detailed narratives, graphs, charts, maps and construction specifications to adequately address several issues around school construction, including; legislative changes to the state public school construction program; improving public schools in existing neighborhoods; improving public health by increasing walkability and safe bicycle access; energy efficiency; school site size; shared use opportunities; school transportation issues; county and municipal planning and zoning; future school site in existing communities and more.

26-The Water Resources Element:Planning for Water Supply and Wastewater and Stormwater Management
This Models & Guidelines document, The Water Resources Element: Planning for Water Supply and Wastewater and Stormwater Management, has been produced to provide counties and municipalities guidance in writing their water resources element to comprehensive plans.
In addition to guidelines, this document includes a model water resources element which contains all of the components of a completed WRE that could be adopted.Click here for the Water Resources Element Analytical Framework flowchart.

Click here to view the Water Resources Element Supplement

25 - Writing the Municipal Growth Element to the Comprehensive Plan
Managing Maryland’s Growth: Writing the Municipal Growth Element is the 25th publication in the Models and Guidelines series developed by the Maryland Department of Planning (MDP) to provide technical assistance to local governments. This publication will assist those who are preparing the municipal growth element that House Bill (HB 1141) requires in all municipal comprehensive plans by October 1, 2009.

Click here to view the Water Resources Element Supplement

24 - Adequate Public Facilities Ordinances
June 2006
This booklet updates the 1996 Models & Guidelines on Adequate Public Facilities Ordinances and provides a definition of APFOs. It offers guidance and direction to local jurisdictions that are considering the adoption or refinement of an APFO, including how to determine whether an APFO program is appropriate, how to design a program, legal issues and municipal applications.

23 - Infill and Redevelopment, October 2001
This report includes model zoning codes, examples of existing zoning codes from jurisdictions throughout the country, and a list of minimum requirements that jurisdictions must meet in order to qualify for certain State incentives. This is a companion report to the Smart Neighborhoods Models & Guidelines.

22 - Big Box Development, December 2001
This publication examines the trends and impacts of big box retail development, regulation strategies, and implications for Smart Growth.

21 - Smart Neighborhoods, September 2001
This report provides sample code language that local governments can use to address some of the impediments to smart neighborhood development found in land use regulations. This is a companion report to the Infill and Redevelopment Models & Guidelines.

20 - Revisiting the Comprehensive Plan: The Six Year Review, June 2000
This is a resource guide for the periodic assessment of local Comprehensive Plans and implementing regulations and programs.

19 - Sizing and Shaping Growth Areas, December 1998
This is a resource guide for local governments that are considering the creation or refinement of growth boundaries.

18 - Sensitive Areas: Volume II, February 1998
This publication contains descriptions of four broad categories of sensitive areas including tidal wetlands, nontidal wetlands and waterways, groundwater and mineral resources, and landscape conservation. It covers definitions, reasons for protection, protective measures, mapping resources, and a detailed biography.

17 - Smart Growth: Designating Priority Funding Areas, November 1997
This publication features strategies and methodologies to determine the boundaries of Priority Funding Areas in response to the "Smart Growth" Areas Act of 1997. It includes models for calculating residential density, land capacity and future land needs, guidelines for designating rural villages, and a format and procedure for submitting PFAs to the Maryland Department of Planning.

16 - Smart Growth: Municipal Implementation, October 1997
This guide to the "Smart Growth" Areas Act of 1997 offers ways to meet the requirements and take advantages of the benefits of the Act. It includes municipal-county impact fee agreements, school facility standards, and PFA certification models.

15 - Mineral Resource Planning, March 1997
This booklet provides an overview of planning and zoning issues for mineral resources extraction. The discussion is concentrated on sand and gravel surface mining, but includes coal and stone resources. County level planning is the primary focus, but some municipal mineral extraction programs are addressed.

12 - Urban Growth Boundaries, August 1995
This report examines urban growth boundaries as a technique for concentrating growth in development areas and discouraging it elsewhere. It explains how boundaries are used in Maryland and in other states, outlines the elements that must be present for a growth boundary to be successful, and presents a step-by-step procedure for creating and enacting a boundary.

11 - Achieving Environmentally Sensitive Design, April 1995
This report can help local jurisdictions reconcile protection of sensitive areas and concentrating development. The report describes how regulations can hurt rather than help the environment, offers general design guidelines for protecting forests, wetlands, steep slopes, habitat, and water quality and includes examples of environmentally sensitive projects and flexible ordinances that put innovative projects on a fast track.

10 - Overlay Zones, March 1995
This booklet describes overlay zoning as an important growth management tool and includes examples for both resource protection areas and growth areas. Overlay zones can be an effective and efficient method for adding or modifying zoning rules to address a planning issue that does not coincide with the boundaries of existing zones.

9 - Transferable Development Rights, January 1995
This publication offers practical advice to local governments considering use of transferable development rights, describes existing TDR programs in Maryland and other states, and provides guidelines for preparing TDR ordinances and model zoning codes.

8 - Clustering for Resource Protection, October 1994
This publication offers practical advice to local governments considering use of clustering, contains several planning and zoning models, and a model conservation easement. (Note: This report is out of print, but it can be viewed at the MDP library or at a public library in Maryland.)

6 - Interjurisdictional Coordination, June 1994
This report discusses the significance of interjurisdictional planning in local comprehensive plan preparation, describes effective mechanisms for interjurisdictional planning, and reviews the ways in which interjurisdictional coordination is features in local plans.

5 - Achieving Consistency Under the Planning Act, April 1994
This booklet describes the consistency requirements of the 1992 Planning Act and recommends immediate and longer term actions that will help achieve consistency of land use decisions with the Comprehensive Plan and the Planning Act.

4 - Regulatory Streamlining, February 1994
This report contains examples of streamlining tools and discusses procedural and substantive planning techniques.

3 - Preparing a Sensitive Areas Element, May 1993
This document covers the four environmentally sensitive areas that require protection under the 1992 Planning Act: streams and their buffers, 100-year floodplains, habitats of threatened and endangered species, and steep slopes. It includes information to aid in identifying and defining sensitive areas and formulating protective goals, objectives, and implementation techniques.

2 - Procedures for State Project Review Under the Planning Act of 1992, January 1993
This document includes text from the 1992 Economic Growth, Resource Protection, and Planning Policy Executive Order that establishes procedures for review of capital improvement projects for consistency with the State's growth policy.

1 - Procedures for Review of Local Construction Projects; Project Review Checklist; Compliance Schedule for Local Government; and Work Program for Updating Comprehensive Plan and Implementation, October 1992.

Other Publications

• A Shore for Tomorrow - A Visioning Series from the Maryland Department of Planning
  If the Eastern Shore is to maintain its traditional landscape, vibrant communities and resource-based economies, proper planning and land management must occur. It is MDP’s hope that the issues and recommendations outlined in this report will influence future growth policy on the Shore and lead to land management practices that will further preserve its unique character. The driving factor in the creation of this first report, A Shore for Tomorrow, is the rapid growth that has occurred in recent years on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. This report primarily focuses on growth from a land use perspective.
  
• Planning Guidance Bulletin
  Sensitive Areas Element House Bill 1141 from the 2006 Maryland Legislative Session requires that agricultural and forest lands intended for resource protection or conservation be included as part of the sensitive areas element of county comprehensive plans. From that same session, House Bill 2 requires that counties seeking state certification of their agricultural land preservation program designate Priority Preservation Areas (PPAs) and add a PPA element to their comprehensive plan. This bulletin is intended to provide general guidance to a jurisdiction drafting these elements.
• Growing Smart
  Smart Growth is a series of individual decisions that we all make together - from the length of
  our daily commute, to the price of a new home, to the condition of our neighborhood schools.
  What, where, and how we grow affects our health, taxes, traffic, the environment and our
  economic status.
• Maryland Green Buidling Task Force Publishes Final Reports
  The 19-member Green Building Task Force delivered its final report to Governor Martin O’Malley, Lt. Governor Anthony G. Brown, President of the Senate Thomas V. “Mike” Miller, Jr., Speaker of the House Michael E. Busch, Senator Joan Carter Conway, Chair of the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee and Delegate Maggie McIntosh, Chair of the House Environmental Matters Committee. The report includes a summary of Maryland’s green building efforts and offers over 35 well-informed recommendations to address this vital challenge to Maryland’s environmental sustainability
• Article 66B of the Annotated Code of Maryland
• Making Maryland the National Leader in Planning and Smart Growth
  The report of the Planning and Smart Transition Workgroup to the O'Malley-Brown Adminstration, January 19, 2007
• Planning Commission Duties and Responsibilities
  Where people live, work, and play, how they travel, and the quality of theseexperiences, depends in large part upon something few people ever think about: land use planning. Though perceived as a strictly bureaucratic process, land use planning is actually a prelude to the dynamic rise of new buildings, triumphant rebirth of towns, proud continuation of farming, and even the inconspicuous but meaningful task of protecting property values.
• Overview of Planning Programs
  As a service to local governments, the Maryland Department of Planning (MDP) and the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) created the following overview of recent trends and key planning tools and programs available to help local governments better manage growth while balancing environmental constraints.
• Owings Mills Transit Oriented Development Planning Study
  The Maryland Department of Planning, working with state and local agencies, completed the Owings Mills Transit Oriented Development Study. The report examines existing conditions in Owings Mills, MD, as well as analyzes alternative growth scenarios and the impacts on land use, transportation, and auto-emission effects.
• Natural Soil Groups of Maryland- This publication examines the varies soil groups and how they relate to land use planning in Maryland. It addition it covers the geomorphology of Maryland and evolution of natural soil groups. (Download The Natural Soil Group Maps by County: Allegany, Anne Arundle,Baltimore County, Calvert, Caroline, Carroll, Cecil, Charles, Dorchester, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Howard, Kent, Montgomery, Prince George's, Queen Anne's, Somerset, St.Mary's, Talbot, Washington, Wicomico, Worcester)
• 2001 Infrastructure Needs Survey Report, November 2002 -Based on results from the Statewide Infrastructure Needs Survey, this report summarizes Maryland's infrastructure needs (as reported by local governments and state agencies) and assesses the fiscal capacity of local governments to meet those needs.
• 2001 Infrastructure Needs Survey Brochure, November 2002 - This pamphlet summarizes the findings and recommendations of the 2001 Infrastructure Needs Survey Report.
• Making Smart Growth Work: Meeting Public Facility Needs in Growth Areas, November 2002 - This publication discusses strategies for simultaneously achieving environmental goals and building infill development in existing communities.
• Public School Enrollment Projections, 2005 - 2014, August 2005. This publication provides data and analysis regarding enrollment projections for elementary, middle, and high schools.
• Smart Growth Coloring Book, 2002
• Smart Codes: State incentives for Adoption and Application of Smart Neighborhood and Infill Codes, March 2002. This document explains the incentives used by the State of Maryland to encourage local jurisdictions to adopt and apply Smart Codes. Smart Codes are land use regulations that make it possible to develop something other than conventional suburban-style development.
• Planning 2001, MDP's 2001 Annual Report, November 2001
• Maryland's Coastal Bays: Alternative Futures Project, September 2001. This publication quantifies the effects of three different future growth scenarios in the Coastal Bays
• Maryland National Road Corridor Partnership Plan, July 2001 - This plan identifies the many ways that communities and civic groups in the can work to preserve and enhance the National Road Scenic Byway corridor.
• Smart Growth and Neighborhood Conservation ("The Green Book"), July 2001. This booklet is an introduction to Maryland's Smart Growth and Neighborhoods Conservation program and goals.
• List of Smart Growth Programs, 2001 update. This list of State programs that support Smart Growth includes contact information.
• Maryland Land Preservation and Recreation Plan, March 2001. This plan provides policy guidance for local and state land preservation and recreation planning, in accordance with state and federal law.
• Report of the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Task Force, August 2001
• 1998 Infrastructure Needs Survey: Part I, 1998
• Smart Growth and Neighborhood Conservation Initiatives, February 1998. This booklet provides an overview of the 1997 Smart Growth and Neighborhood Conservation initiatives, the Smart Growth Executive Order, and programs offered by the State in support of Smart Growth.
• Atlas of Agriculture in Maryland, 1998. This richly illustrated atlas uses maps and graphics to depict the agricultural industry in Maryland, detailing its location and protection, as well as threats to the industry.