Earlier this year, the General Assembly enacted legislation establishing eight new Sustainable Growth Planning Principles to guide land use and development policy statewide. In response, the Maryland Department of Planning (MDP) has released the Sustainable Growth Implementation Guide, a new resource intended to help jurisdictions understand how the Principles may be applied in planning documents, projects, and policy development.
MDP developed the Guide with input from multiple state agencies and through Regional Planner Roundtables, where local planners identified areas where additional clarity or technical support could be useful. This Guide is designed to offer a flexible framework that can help jurisdictions anticipate market changes and better align local planning efforts with the state’s goals related to economic vitality, environmental stewardship, and community well-being. It includes examples, best practices, and models for integrating them into local planning processes, and is intended as a companion manual to the new Principles.
