Maryland planning agency backs House addition to expand data sources for metro population projections

The Maryland Department of Planning told the House Environment and Transportation Committee it supports a House amendment to SB236 that would broaden the sources used for population projections covering the Baltimore and Washington metropolitan areas.

"This addition would expand the sources of information we can pull from when creating population projections for the Baltimore Metropolitan and Washington Metropolitan areas. We support this addition and respectfully request the Senate version of the bill be aligned with the House version," Rebecca Flores, Secretary, Maryland Department of Planning, told the committee.

The bill presentation was short and Flores said she and staff were available for questions rather than reading full testimony. Flores introduced Chuck Lloyd, assistant secretary for Planning Services, and Andrew Wilson, government affairs specialist, as members of her panel.

Delegate Tarasa asked what ‘‘expand it to what?’’ and Flores clarified that the House amendment adds the second metropolitan district so that both the Baltimore and Washington metropolitan areas are included in the list of sources for projection data. Flores described the change as "very simple."

Flores also spoke in favor of two other planning bills later in the hearing, indicating Department support for House additions that add ecology and resource-conservation language to another bill and for other technical alignments. She repeatedly framed the requested changes as alignment between the House and Senate versions of the legislation.

The committee recorded no formal vote in the hearing transcript. Flores said the department was present to answer questions.

The presentations and questions about SB236 occurred during the committee's bill hearings; comments were from agency representatives and committee members as recorded on the transcript.