Baltimore County, MD: Farmland Preservation and Zoning for Large Landscape Conservation

Baltimore County, MD is adjacent to the City of Baltimore. In 1967, the COunty adopted an Urban-Rural

Demarcation Line to limit the extension of sewer and water lines into the countryside. The county then

adopted the strongest county-level agricultural zoning in the Northeast at one house per 50 acres. These two planning tools helped the county to preserve more than 50,000 acres of farmland through a number of sources:

the Baltimore County Farmland Preservation Program, the Maryland Land Preservation Foundation (state

farmland preservation program, the Maryland Environmental Trust (a State agency), the Maryland Rural Legacy Program, and private sources.