Baltimore County planners present residential updates to comprehensive manual; board sets Nov. 20 public hearing

Jennifer Nugent, a planner with the Baltimore County Department of Planning, told the Planning Board on Nov. 6 that the department has completed a reformatting and substantive scrub of the residential sections of the Comprehensive Manual of Development Policies (CMDP). The CMDP is enabled by section 504.2 of the Baltimore County Zoning Regulations and has guided county review of land use and development standards since 1972.

Nugent said the residential section was the final portion to be updated after the department published a revised appendix and commercial section earlier. She described the new CMDP as a more user-friendly, "living document" with color graphics, photos captured by drone, and hyperlinks to relevant county code and regulations to make cross-referencing easier. "We hyperlinked a lot of the code references, so the ease of use for any particular item could be referred back to the county code or those regulations as appropriate," Nugent said.

Nugent described three new subsections for the residential chapter: residential standards (visual and explanatory presentation of zoning rules), residential guidelines, and residential compatibility (the code-required section). She flagged one terminology correction: a form called "neo-traditional" in the older manual had been changed in the zoning regulations to "traditional" and the CMDP update clarifies the intended meaning and application.

Board members asked whether the CMDP update would create new policy or propose zoning changes; Nugent responded that the document compiles and clarifies existing policies and does not itself create new rules. She said, however, that if the board identified items that should be changed in the county's zoning regulations, the planning department could advise how to pursue those changes through separate regulatory or legislative processes.

After questions, a member moved that "the Baltimore County Planning Board set a public hearing regarding the updates to the Comprehensive Manual of Development Policies for Thursday, 11/20/2025 at 5 p.m." The motion was seconded and the board recorded the vote as "aye." The motion carried; the public hearing is scheduled for Nov. 20, 2025.

What the update does and does not do: the CMDP revision is presented as an administrative and formatting update intended to improve clarity and usability, not to introduce standalone policy. Any ordinance or zoning regulation changes would need to be pursued separately, through the department and County Council.

Next steps: the board will hold the public hearing on Nov. 20 and then may refer the manual or specific recommended changes to the County Council for any required approvals.