Maryland Governor Outmaneuver Foes To Adopt New Master Plan

"To enforce the guidelines, [Maryland Gov. Martin] O’Malley said his administration in coming years would leverage billions of dollars in annual state aid. Local governments that encourage dense development in existing towns and cities will be rewarded with continued funding while jurisdictions that do not limit development of farmland and open space may see their state aid reduced," writes Aaron C. Davis, in The Washington Post.

The move is perceived as an important win for the Governor. Numerous Democratic Governors in Maryland had been unable to win support for PlanMaryland. However, both the plan, and the way in which the plan was implemented through an executive order, drew widespread criticism.

"Senate Republican leader E.J. Pipkin (Queen Anne’s), who has called the governor’s plan tantamount to a war on rural Maryland, characterized Monday’s order as an “unprecedented taking” of rural Marylanders’ property rights and a transparent attempt for the termed-out governor to burnish his environmental credentials for a political life after Annapolis."

The official executive order can be downloaded from the Maryland Governor's website.