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Press release from the Office of the Governor

See the introduction to Maryland's DRAFT Watershed Implementation Plan

MD Department of the Environment press release
September 2, 2010

They call it the mystery ship: a wooden vessel that may have sailed the Hudson River and the East Coast, transporting goods between the flourishing Colonies. Its remains were found last month in the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York City. They've since been moved to a science lab in Maryland, where each day brings new discoveries.

Listen to story at NPR's website 
August 18, 2010

Press Release from Governor Martin O'Malley

MDP offers a compilation of various outside resources to promote greater dialogue about the costs of sprawl. ~M-o-r-e~ 

MDP's Planning.Maryland.gov website

At the site of one of America's darkest days, a team recently uncovered a reminder of its brightest. On July 13, archaeologists at New York City's Ground Zero unearthed 32 feet of an 18th-century ship, 30 feet below the street where the World Trade Center once stood. ~M-o-r-e~

from Preservation, the magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation

To Change the Heritage Area Management Entity from the Redevelopment Authority of Prince George's County to the Anacostia Trails Heritage Area, Inc. ~M-o-r-e~

MDP Press Advisory

$10 million in total tax credits will help stimulate construction jobs and rehabilitations of historic commercial properties and commercial buildings in Main Street areas. ~M-o-r-e~

MDP Press Release

The August-September survey is most concerned with questions that were not asked at the forums.

Click here to the right to take the survey

Click here to read the report for the current survey

Video story on  WJLA ABC 7 News Video On Demand
August 2, 2010

A conservation team from Maryland's archaeology lab is in Manhattan this week, working to recover the remains of a wooden sailing ship found buried at the World Trade Center site.

The ship's fragile timbers are being extracted from the muck, wrapped, labeled and packed for shipment next week to the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory, part of the Jefferson-Patterson Park & Museum in St. Leonard, where they will be treated so they may eventually be reassembled. ~M-o-r-e~

See MDP's press release (07/29/2010) on the project

Maryland's Board of Public Works approved a complicated land deal Wednesday that clears the way for work on State Center, a massive redevelopment project meant to enhance the western edge of the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore. ~M-o-r-e~

Action clears the way for construction to begin on State Center Redevelopment in Baltimore
~M-o-r-e~

O'Malley touts progress on State Center project
Baltimore Sun - July 27, 2010

Gov. Martin O’Malley heralded progress in the mammoth State Center project, saying construction crews will break ground at the long delayed office complex by the fall, Baltimore Sun colleague Annie Linskey reports.
~M-o-r-e~

State Center redevelopment to start in fall, include grocery store
Baltimore Business Journal - July 28, 2010

Gov. Martin O’Malley along with private developers rolled out plans Tuesday for the first phase of the $1.5 billion State Center redevelopment on the edge of Mount Vernon set to begin this fall.
~M-o-r-e~

Governor O'Malley Unveils Plans for First Phase of State Center Redevelopment
Press Release - July 27, 2010

Phase One of redevelopment to create new office and retail near transit hub and support 1,200 construction jobs and attract another 800 permanent jobs in the heart of Baltimore City
~M-o-r-e~

~M-o-r-e~

Not long after I joined the Maryland Department of Planning, I came across a wall poster of the building where the agency is headquartered, only it didn't have a picture of the current State Office Building and surrounding state complex but antique photographs of the neighborhood that used to exist at this site. It was captioned, "Before State Center ... There Was a City Here." ~m-o-r-e~

Opinonator - Exclusive Online Commentary from the New York Times

 Those ideas and others were presented Wednesday in Annapolis at a “Technologies That Can Save the Bay” event... ~m-o-r-e~

The Daily Record, Associated Press
July 21, 2010

See also Tim Wheeler's B'More Green blog, A little tech help for the Bay

Using Data To Drive Community Change About Data Day: Baltimore Data Day is the first free one-day conference to help communities expand their capacity to use technology and data to advance their goals.

~For more events, click to visit the MDP Events Calendar.

Preservation Maryland, in partnership with Maryland Life magazine, seeks nominations for the 2010 Endangered Maryland list. The goal of Endangered Maryland is to raise awareness of some of the state’s most threatened historic and cultural sites. Treasured sites are lost each year due to demolition, vandalism, neglect, lack of funds, and inappropriate development. Once they are gone, they can never be replaced.

Sites will be chosen from across the state and the final Endangered Maryland list will be published in Maryland Life magazine's March/April 2011 issue.

Nominate an Endangered Site Today!

Deadline: Friday, September 17, 2010

~m-o-r-e~

Looking for signs of recovery in our part of the country, we note that homebuilders took out permits to construct nearly 1,900 new residential units in the Baltimore metropolitan area in the first four months of the year. That's a 70 percent rise over the same period a year ago.  ~m-o-r-e~

Baltimore Sun
July 11, 2010

We recently received Maryland’s quota for reducing nutrient and sediment pollution into the Bay.  Because the Bay is a national treasure that belongs to all of us, we’d like your help in determining how we can develop a plan to best meet our target and get our Bay off life support once and for all.  Your feedback is very important to this process, as a draft plan for nutrient and sediment pollution reduction is due to the EPA on September 1st.   

We have developed an on-line suggestion box for you to offer your suggestions for on-the-ground restoration actions, changes in policies or programs, or new funding opportunities.  Your friends, co-workers and neighbors are already offering their ideas and we hope to receive many more.   

We have recently held four listening sessions throughout the state where 200 people have provided their ideas.  You can view the discussions from the listening sessions on the MDE website.  Additional listening sessions are planned for July and August that will focus on specific areas of interest such as agriculture, development and business interests, environmental advocacy and local government concerns.  Details for the upcoming meetings and other opportunities for input can be found on the BayStat website. 

For Marylanders, the Chesapeake Bay is much more than a national treasure.  It is the heart of our State, defining our culture, putting food on our tables and providing jobs for working families.    

The problems of the Bay are manmade, and so are the solutions.  This is a unique opportunity for us to chart new course for the Bay’s future and our own.  I hope you will take an active part in this renewed effort. 

Martin O'Malley
Governor
July 13, 2010  

CROWNSVILLE, MD (July 12, 2010) - Maryland non-profit groups, museums, and governments received 55 matching grants totaling $2,617,146 from the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority (MHAA) for heritage tourism projects and activities that expand economic development throughout the state.  Heritage tourism is "traveling to experience the places and activities that authentically represent the stories and people of the past and present," as defined by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and "includes historic, cultural and natural resources."
~m-o-r-e~

MDP Press Release
July 12, 2010

Story By Wiliiam Marshall
The Recorder (Calvert County)

By John Barry
Baltimore City Paper

by Renee Kuhlman
International City/County Management Association (ICMA)

The watershed advocacy group claims the Corps of Engineers’ verification that the development was eligible for a state wetlands permit was “arbitrary and capricious,” came without well-articulated reasoning, and ought to be overturned.
~m-o-r-e~

By Brendan Kearney

Daily Record Legal Affairs Writer

Full Letter

From Planning: The Magazine of the American Planning Association (APA), July 2010

The Maryland Department of Planning, in cooperation with MACo, will offer a free training opportunity at the MACo Summer Conference on Wednesday, August 18 from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon. The training is being offered to assist planning commission and board members and members of boards of appeals comply with 2009 legislation (SB280 and HB297) that requires an education course to be completed.
~m o r e~

MDP Website

~m o r e~

MDP Press Release July 1, 2010

~m o r e~

MDP Google Map

The video on the MarylandPlanning channel on YouTube made up in sentiment what it lacked in production value: A silver-haired, goateed gentleman rises with a microphone at a meeting of nearly 100 people in Charles County and says something perhaps not often heard at government meetings that size: "Thank you for holding this kind of a forum," he says, stirring crowd applause at the College of Southern Maryland at LaPlata. "Maryland at the state level is listening."
~m o r e~

PlanMaryland Website

Plan.Maryland.gov

Washington Post, Wednesday, June 16, 2010

MDP Website

Planning.Maryland.gov

MDP's Smart Growth Maryland blog

For over 20 years Senator Bernie Fowler has held an annual wade-in event to measure the clarity of the waters of the Patuxent River. Senator Fowler started this event to bring attention to the declining health of this natural resource.

This year, you can participate with Senator Fowler and guess the depth at which he can see his sneakers. Click here to participate in this contest.

MDP, in partnership with MML, is holding a free planning training course on Sunday, June 27th, at the Ocean City Convention Center.

The class is designed for planning commission and board of appeals members but is open to anyone. The course will cover land-use planning basics in Maryland, planning law and roles and responsibilities of citizen planners.

To reserve limited seating, click here!

HUD is also spending $10 million to create metrics calculating the "true combined cost of housing and transportation in a way that underwriters could lend to. ~m o r e~

Fast Company, May 21, 2010

DHCD Press Release

BALTIMORE (May 20, 2010) – Governor Martin O’Malley today signed House Bill 475, the Sustainable Communities Act of 2010. The legislation, a major addition to the Governor’s Smart, Green and Growing program, provides $10 million for the Sustainable Communities Tax Credit  ~m o r e~

MDP Press Release

BALTIMORE (May 19, 2010) – Maryland Secretary of Planning Richard E. Hall presented Governor’s 2010 Smart, Green & Growing awards to the Frostburg Lyric Theatre redevelopment project, the Allegany Arts Council and Garrett County Municipalities, Inc. ~m o r e~

MDP Press Release

From the New York Times

From Roger K. Lewis' column, Shaping the City, in the Washington Post

from the Delmarva Daily Times

from Planning.Maryland.gov

Before it adjourned Monday night, the General Assembly passed the Sustainable Communities Act of 2010. The legislation, a major piece of Governor O'Malley's Smart, Green and Growing Initiative, provides $10 million for the Sustainable Communities Tax Credit...

from the Smart Growth Maryland Blog

State officials are launching this week a yearlong effort to write a statewide growth plan, hoping to forge a consensus on how Maryland can curb sprawl while accommodating 1 million more people in the next 20 years...

Baltimore Sun