MD Planning Secretary Hall’s Letter to Sun Editor Clarifies the Facts About Septic Law

Maryland Planning Secretary Richard E. Hall

Published in the Baltimore Sun‘s Readers Respond, March 11, 2013, titled “Clean water requires everyone’s help“

I am writing in response to Sen. E.J. Pipkin‘s letter to the editor in which he called me the state’s land planning czar (“O’Malley is waging war on rural Maryland,” Feb. 26). The senator may think such name-calling and his “war on rural Maryland” slogan is strategic for him. However, it is bad for rural, suburban, and urban Maryland. This type of rhetoric damages the “One Maryland” approach that has helped bind all of the state’s communities together for many years. As a matter of fact, the state provides more assistance per capita in rural counties than it does in the more suburban and urban counties in Central Maryland.

Video: National Planning Award for Governor O’Malley

This is the video the American Planning Association produced to announce the “National Planning Excellence Award for Planning Advocate” that it gave to Governor Martin O’Malley this spring. He was the first governor so honored in nearly a decade by the national professional planning organization.

MDP Chief-of-Staff honored

MDP's Jenny B. King receives Certification of Appreciation from Jon Laria, chair of the Maryland Sustainable Growth Commission

Maryland Department of Planning (MDP) Chief-of-Staff Jenny B. King receives a Certificate of Appreciation for Maryland Sustainable Growth Commission Chair, Jon M. Laria, in honor of her outstanding performance and dedication to both the Maryland Sustainable Growth Commission and the Task Force on the Future for Growth and Development in Maryland.  Ms. King has served first the Task Force then the resulting Commission as principal staff on assignment from the Maryland Department of Planning since December 2007. Today, Planning Secretary Richard E. Hall named Chuck Boyd, Deputy Director of Planning Services for MDP, and Arabia Davis, Infrastructure Planner, to succeed Jenny as staff to the Maryland Sustainable Growth Commission.

On the Frontline of the Septics Battle

Photo credit: Tom Pelton/WYPR 88.1 FM

Rich Josephson, Director of Planning Services for the Maryland Department of Planning, took a ride in the country with Tom Pelton of WYPR 88.1 FM’s “The Environment in Focus.”

Why can’t Johnny walk to school? (Soon, he might)

State Treasurer Nancy Kopp, Governor Marting O'Malley and Comptroller Peter Franchot.

In late October 2011, Maryland’s Board of Public Works – comprised of Governor Martin O’Malley, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasurer Nancy Kopp – approved a little-noticed package of regulatory changes for new and replacement public school construction that could help enhance smart growth in the state.

In 2002, the National Trust for Historic Preservation informed us, “Why Johnny Can’t Walk to School.”  This groundbreaking report highlighted how shortsighted school construction policies and short term cost considerations across the country undermine existing neighborhood schools