The Maryland Department of Planning (MDP) promotes a vision for economic development, flexibility and local authority throughout Maryland. The agency helps Maryland's counties and municipalities in land use and resource planning and provides review and technical assistance on a variety of planning topics. In addition, MDP offers data, analysis and research assistance and policy development and implementation support to local governments as well as communities, businesses and other organizations.​​

MDP's Local Assistance and Training unit publishes Planning’s newsletter, Planning Practice ​News​, to communicate statewide, regional, and local planning efforts of MDP, other state agencies, county and municipal planning departments, local governments, and others engaged in the field of Planning. ​See past newlsetters​.​

New to Our Work

​Boards and Commissions​

​​MDP is involved in many boards, commissions, task forces, and associations. In many cases, the department is the staffing agency. ​

Go to the Boards and Commissions page for links to these boards.

During the 2023 session, the Maryland General Assembly passed SB 382 which establishes the Accessory Dwelling Unit Policy Task Force (Task Force) to study the placement of accessory dwelling units (ADU) on land zoned for single-family residential use and to survey and document a representative sampling of the variety of ordinances, laws, codes, and policies regarding accessory dwelling units at the state and local level. ​

Go to the Accessory Dwelling Unit Policy Task Force​ site for more information

Baltimore ​County East Side Assessment Grant​

Go to the Baltimore County East Side Revitalization Community-Wide Assessment Grant site​

The Maryland Zoni​ng CheckUp

​Go to the Zoning CheckUpsite​​

​Go to the Housing Element Models & Guidelines

Solar Facility Siting Guidance

Go to the Solar Facility Siting Guidance​

Maryland Military and Community Compatible Use

Go to the Maryland Military an​​d Community Compatible Use site​

Reinvest Maryland represents an opportunity for all levels of government to work together, strengthen collaborative efforts to support revitalization and reinvestment, and to engage stakeholders of all types in the effort to rebuild our communities and improve quality of life.​

Go to the Reinvest Maryland web app.

Maryland's Brownfields Redevelopment Assistance Program

The Brownfield​ Redevelopment Assistance Program connects local planning jurisdictions throughout the State with brownfield assessment and cleanup funding opportunities through EPA and identifies additional technical and financial resources to help jurisdictions and other interested parties navigate the brownfield process.

Go to the Brownfield Redevelopment Assistance Program

​Title 12, §12–505, of the Public Safety Article requires that each local jurisdiction shall enforce the current version of the Maryland Building Performance Standards. At a minimum, the local jurisdiction shall implement these standards by reviewing plans, issuing building permits, inspecting the work, and issuing use/occupancy certificates. How local jurisdictions fulfill this responsibility varies among counties and municipalities across the state. To better understand the approaches taken by counties and municipalities that administer the building permit and inspection process, and to identify what software tools jurisdictions use, Planning conducted a survey in fall 2020 of all jurisdictions in Maryland. The full report can be read here.​

Maryland Department of Planning’s (Planning) 2020 survey of county and municipal building permit software systems shows that most counties and larger municipalities are using third-party building permit software, with only two large counties using a software system developed in-house. The smaller jurisdictions that track building permit activity tend to use off the shelf office software, specifically Microsoft Office. More than 40% of Maryland’s counties also provided building permit and inspection services for their municipalities. 

There is a relatively limited number of software vendors supporting building permit tracking for Maryland jurisdictions. The top six software firms used by jurisdictions process 75% of all new housing permits on an annual basis in Maryland. While most counties and a majority of municipalities responding to the survey indicate they report local building activity, less than half of the counties and 20% of the municipalities post building reports online. Based on the survey responses, there appear to be opportunities for increased coordination and sharing of local building permit data with Planning and the potential to develop a statewide building permit reporting system that could help better describe the economic conditions of our communities, which would improve the accuracy of state projections of future development using near real time monitoring of construction activity.