Local and Regional Assistance
The Maryland Department of Planning (Planning) serves as coordinator for the Hurricane Sandy State Recovery Committee to assist Somerset County and its towns with recovery efforts.
We helped create a solar panel guidance document for the Town of East New Market Historic District Commission.
Planning is working with the Town of Port Deposit's Zoning Streamlining Committee to review and update the Town's Zoning Ordinance.
Environmental Planning
Planning is helping the Patuxent River Commission to expand river-related sustainable tourism within the Patuxent watershed seizing upon the economic value of this natural resource.
Planning worked hand-in-hand with Queen Anne's County staff and elected officials to find the best solutions to remediate septic problem areas nine communities on Southern Kent Island.
Planning supported Calvert and Caroline Counties’ agricultural land preservation program administrators to complete applications for state certification of their farmland preservation program.
Planning, with Maryland Department of Natural Resources, participated in outreach to local park directors to develop guidelines for and provide assistance in writing their 2017 Land Preservation, Parks and Recreation Plans.
Planning is providing technical support to Cecil and Calvert Counties to assist in drafting their septic maps.
Smart Growth Design & Development
Planning scoured local zoning and health codes across the state to help Prince George's County understand how other Maryland jurisdictions are addressing urban agriculture and backyard chicken trends as they revise their zoning regulations and subdivision ordinance.
Vigilant monitoring by Planning staff identified an opportunity, through the national office of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), to secure resources to further cultural resources hazard mitigation plan and strategies for the city of Annapolis.
Maryland State Data Center
Planning collected and summarized demographic, economic and social population characteristics and commercial, industrial and residential parcel data to assist the Maryland Department of Commerce (formerly Business and Economic Development) in developing the City’s Economic Impact Estimate as part of the Baltimore Recovery efforts.
Planning assisted the Sparrows Point Terminal LLC project by developing customized maps delineating the study area and providing demographic and socioeconomic analysis to assist in outreach to the residents in the surrounding communities.
We assisted the Baltimore Development Corporation and the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Development by analyzing their business loss file to identify high priority historic properties of concern.
The Governor’s Office of Community Initiatives requested a list of City of Baltimore parcels that met certain size and occupancy criteria. We responded by creating an online map that identifies the specified parcels by neighborhood and links to current state assessments information.
Planning prepared an analysis for the Charles County Economic Development Office showing commuting patterns for residents of the town of La Plata and the surrounding area.
Property Mapping
Every year, Planning updates the state’s 2,300+ tax assessment maps and maintains geographic information systems (GIS) databases for 2.3 million parcels.
We continued our offering of mapped parcel data to users at no cost through our open parcel download service. In the first five months of 2015, these maps and data were downloaded more than 5,400 times through our Planningroperty View and FINDER Quantum end-user products and received more than 4,700 views through our FINDER Online web-based map.
Maryland Historical Trust
We led eighty-nine volunteers, fifteen students and seven professional staff to contribute a total of 372 person-days to the effort to reveal the deep past in Walkersville as part of the 2016 Annual Archeology Field Session at the Biggs Ford archeological site.
The Maryland Historical Trust (the Trust) processed more than 5000 scanned documents, which now provides online access to virtually all recorded documentation for more than 41,000 architectural properties on the Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties along with another 13,000+ archeological sites.
We assisted 20 counties and 24 municipalities in the areas of preservation planning and hazard mitigation planning for cultural resources in the first 6 months of 2015.
Planning leveraged over $2.3 million in private small business investment through $472,593.60 in potential New Small Commercial Tax Credit, part of the Sustainable Communities Tax Credit program.
We leveraged over $5.6 million in homeowner investment through $1,120,315.20 in potential Homeowner Tax Credit program.
Planning leveraged over $39 million in private commercial investment through $7,995,000 in potential Competitive Commercial Tax Credits, part of the Sustainable Communities tax Credit program
Planning staff provided training to the Maryland Department of Natural Resource's Office of Integrated Policy on the Trust's historic preservation review process and requirements to enhance interagency coordination and collaboration.
Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum
Planning’s Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum held its 30th annual Children’s Day on the Farm on June 7, 2015, a celebration of Southern Maryland’s rich agricultural heritage attended by 4,186 people – an increase of more than 15 percent over last year.
Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum provided learning experiences to more than 1,560 Maryland students in the first 6 months of its 2015 educational programs at the park.
Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum and the Maryland Archeological Conservation Lab (MACLab) provided educational lab and field archaeological experiences to 130 members of the public during its 2015 Public Archaeology program in May and June.
More than 20,000 people visited JPPM during the first six months of 2015.
