Baltimore Sun

After vowing to invigorate Maryland’s toothless Smart Growth program, Gov. Martin O’Malley plans to ask the legislature for only modest changes – far short of the overhaul that activists say is needed to curb suburban sprawl and halt the decline of the Chesapeake Bay.

The governor intends to seek legislation reversing a court ruling that freed local officials from having to heed their own master plans when making growth decisions. He also wants to add new goals to the state planning law, and to require local governments to track more information on how growth is occurring in their communities.

But with local officials unwilling to give up any of their traditional control over development, O’Malley is not proposing any new state mandates or limits on sprawl. Nor is he pushing to close loopholes in the 12-year-old Smart Growth law, under which the state still helps build schools and some roads in outlying areas – despite supposedly limiting state construction funding to existing communities.

That worries environmental advocates, who say sprawling development is one of the chief causes of the Chesapeake’s decline. Across the bay region, new asphalt and concrete claim an area the size of Baltimore every two years.