A master plan establishes a community’s long-term vision, goals, strategies, and policies for guiding future decisions, changes, and investments. It includes background information on the County’s past, along with an analysis of current issues and trends. The Plan is intended to serve as a guide for the County’s future growth, revitalization, preservation, and resilience over the next 10-20 years. While it will primarily provide guidance for area within the County’s boundary, it will also address key community issues that require collaboration with other state, county, and local agencies.
The Master Plan is the guiding document that County decision makers, agencies, residents, employers, developers, and other stakeholders use to ensure that Harford County evolves in line with the community’s collective vision for the future. As one example, the County’s Department Planning and Zoning uses the Plan to evaluate projects and developers use the Plan to guide their proposals. Having a forward thinking and up-to-date comprehensive plan is critical to the County’s long-term success.
The current plan helped to guide County decisions and policies since it was adopted. The County is required to update its comprehensive plan on a periodic basis to address changing conditions, new socio-economic circumstances, or other changes in policy. The State of Maryland also requires that municipalities update their plans at least once every ten years.
The Plan will address the following topics as mandated by the State: Goals and Objectives, Land Use, Housing, Community Facilities, Transportation, Water Resources, Sensitive Areas, Areas of Critical State Concern, and Development Regulations.
Major components of the Plan will include a community vision and implementation plan, community profile, existing conditions studies, and land use analysis. Based on the community’s input and updated data being collected and analyzed, a future land use map will be generated to help guide future growth, development, and preservation.
Anyone and everyone! The County encourages all members of Harford County community to join in and let their voice be heard. If you live, work, own property, visit, or utilize services in Harford County, we want your feedback!
Existing plans and strategies are an important part of the comprehensive planning process. These plans will inform the planning process and, in some cases, will be incorporated into the Master Plan if the goals and vision are still consistent with the community’s aspirations.
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Introduced in the 1977 Master Plan, the Development Envelope is the area in the county along the US 40 and MD 924/24 corridors where growth is focused and where infrastructure is available or planned.
No. It is a guide for land use intensities.