The Valleys Planning Council

For more than four decades, the Valleys Planning Council has been at the forefront of land use planning and preservation techniques in northwestern Baltimore County. Our efforts have yielded lasting, positive impacts that will serve residents for generations to come.

On the Radar

CZMP 2012

Every four years, Baltimore County evaluates proposed zoning changes on hundreds of properties. All the issues for the 2012 cycle have been...

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Latest News from the Valleys

BGE Substation Deadline Approaching

The VPC has been working with the Hanover Road Association, the county, and BGE to find a better location for the regional substation proposed by the utility. The initial site, the former Camp Holiday property, is within the Piney Run Rural Legacy Area, a highly unsuitable location for a large, industrial facility. BGE has worked cooperatively with the community to identify and secure an alternative site. A site off of Route 30 has been identified and appears to better meet the needs of BGE and is a more satisfactory location from the community’s perspective. The utility has set January 31 as the deadline for securing properties needed for the alternative site. If they are successful, plans will move forward for a special exception and development plan on the Hanover Pike site...

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Looking Back

The Early Days of the VPC

By William C. Trimble, Jr.

The late 1950s and early 1960s witnessed the virtually untrammeled expansion of residential real estate development in Baltimore County. The best efforts of a professionally- staffed Office of Planning and Zoning were often rendered ineffective by the coordinated actions of developers, some compliant county politicians, and a handful of attorneys .

Grinnell W. Locke, a local architect who resided in the Greenspring Valley, recognized the threat posed by such development to the unique and beautiful agricultural open space, consisting of the floors of the Greenspring, Caves, and Worthington Valleys–which was then squarely in the sights of real estate developers. To protect the valleys, he conceived of a plan which would accommodate growth and limit random extension of public utilities, while preserving existing open space...

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