By Kristen E. Humphrey, MLA, Local Assistance and Training Planner
The Maryland Department of Planning (Planning) would like to extend its sincerest thanks to the many participants, presenters, brownfields site tour leaders, and advisory committee members who made our first foray into the brownfields conference arena a terrific success!
by Kristen E. Humphrey, MLA, Local Assistance and Training Planner
On May 11, 2021, the Maryland Department of Planning (Planning) was awarded its first-ever EPA Community-Wide Assessment Grant from EPA Region III. The grant offers Phase I and II environmental site assessments (ESAs) at no cost to public or private owners of contaminated properties in eastern Baltimore County. (Refer to EPA’s fact sheet, Assessing Brownfield Sites, for a definition and description of Phase I and II ESA processes.)
Continue readingby Steven H. Allan, AICP, Planner with the Office of Planning, Education and Outreach at the Maryland Historical Trust, with Kristen E. Humphrey, MLA, Local Assistance and Training
In mid-December 2020, Maryland Historical Trust (MHT) Director, Elizabeth Hughes, informed me that I had been selected for an interim reassignment to help fill a critical staffing need within the Maryland Department of Health (MDH) and/or the Maryland Emergency Management Administration (MEMA). She explained this move was part of a larger effort to tap various personnel from across state government to assist with the COVID-19 response effort as it entered the vaccination phase, moving, hopefully, toward an end of the pandemic.
Continue readingby Kristen E. Humphrey, MLA, Local Assistance and Training Planner
Those of you who follow Planning Practice Monthly regularly may have noticed my name on the some of the bylines, or spotted my profile in a Meet the Staff piece currently posted on Planning’s Facebook page. (I serve as the principal writer and editor for the newsletter as part of my broader Local Assistance and Training Planner role for the department).
You might have also noticed that the newsletter was on hiatus for several months and that this is our first issue following that break. The reason for the break was, starting mid-December to early-January, several Maryland Department of Planning (Planning) staff accepted temporary, but indefinite, assignments with various partner agencies to assist with the state’s response to the COVID-19 crisis. We have been asked to share some of our experiences beginning with this edition.
Continue readingby Deborah Herr Cornwell, PLA, ASLA, CC-P ®, Resource Conservation Planner
The increasing frequency of tidally-driven nuisance flooding has been recognized as a concern by Maryland lawmakers (see Maryland HB1427 – 2019 and SB1006 and HB1350 – 2018), resulting in the requirement for local jurisdictions that experience nuisance flooding to develop a plan to address it.
The legislation set October 1, 2020, as the deadline for plans to be developed. Considering the COVID-19 pandemic and the additional strains placed on resources, an extension of the submission deadline was granted. In compliance with the order of the governor dated March 9, 2021, the regulatory deadline extension will expire on June 30, 2021.
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