The State of Maryland owns 498,434.4 acres of land, which is called real property. The buildings located on the land are also called real property. The land and buildings are used for parks and open spaces, roads and highways and related activities, office space, institutions such as colleges and universities, hospitals, youth detention centers, prisons, armories, airports, etc. There are State agencies that operate their programs in the buildings and on the land, and they regularly review their current and future needs for land and buildings to determine how much they will need to provide their services.

When it is realized that all of the land and/or buildings are no longer needed to effectively provide services, they are declared excess by the state agency. It is at this point that the State looks for governments and others to partner with to create good outcomes on those properties.

Within the Maryland Department of Planning, there is a division called the State Clearinghouse for Intergovernmental Assistance who conducts an open process that protects the interests of Maryland’s citizens by protecting Maryland’s natural and built resources. The Clearinghouse process works to reduce or eliminate spending taxpayers dollars to buy or keep real property that is not needed. The Clearinghouse process notifies state, regional, county and local government officials about the real property asking them to review and make comments. Using guidelines that are consistent with Smart Growth principles, the Clearinghouse studies the best outcome for the property and makes a summary of findings and/or a recommendation to the Department of General Services, to the state agency located on the land and to the Board of Public Works.

The Board of Public Works, which is composed of the Governor, the Comptroller and the Treasurer, reviews the Clearinghouse recommendation and makes the final decision about the real property. It may decide that the property is surplus or it may decide not to declare it surplus. If the real property is declared to be surplus, the Real Estate Office within the Department of General Services will market and manage all further actions with the property. If the Board of Public Works finds the property not to be surplus, it returns to the State land inventory as excess real property.

The Clearinghouse comments, summaries of findings and recommendations are valid for three years. After three years, the property returns to the original State Agency who must begin the process anew.

The Clearinghouse review process helps the State to be a good steward over its property by making the most of public investments, eliminating double or wasteful spending and guaranteeing the honesty of the process for managing or disposing state-owned real property.

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