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Planning and Sustainability
This Department provides professional support through long-range special studies and recommendations on development proposals to the City Manager and the City Council. Staff also review development proposals, departures, and variances. Featured development projects can be found here.
A more recent focus of the department is the environment - preserve and protecting it through the City's Green Bowie initiatives led by the City's Sustainability Manager and Watershed Manager.
A growing focus is transportation-related efforts including trails, mass transit, complete streets, biking, and more. The Transportation Specialist is the lead on these efforts, and more information is available on the the Transportation tab below.
The Department of Planning and Sustainability liaises with three committees that are tasked with advising City Council on a number of issues facing all Bowie residents. Those committees and a link to email the staff liaison are:
The Bowie Advisory Planning Board, staff liaison Joe Meinert
The Environmental Advisory Committee, staff liaison Tiffany Wright
The Green Team Executive Committee, staff liaison Erin Oxenford
Published Policies / Guidelines
Below you can find published policies from the Planning and Community Development Department.
- Development Review Guidelines
- Forest Mitigation Procedures
- Forest Mitigation Program
- Site Design Guidelines
- Wildlife Habitat Management Guidelines
Staff and consultants occasionally produce plans to help guide the Department's work. This includes reports for both the Planning and Sustainability areas. The list below provides a link to download each of these reports.
Staff also create three annual publications. Links to download them are below. The most current report is linked on the left.
| Current Report | Prior Reports |
|---|---|
| Development Sites Outline | 2011 - present |
| Retail Opportunities and Demographics | 2004 - present |
| State of the Environment Report | 2008 - present |
Download a list of homeowner and civic associations around the city. Changes to any of the listings should be sent by email to Marianne Baird (or by phone, 301-809-3047).
Sustainability is one of the cornerstones of the Department of Planning and Sustainability. It is imperative for us to maintain development, planning, and outreach that inspires and works for all but not at the expense of our future or our resources. Sustainability can be defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs” according to the World Health Organization. It consists of three pillars: economic development, social development, and environmental protection, which it seeks to achieve in a balanced manner.
The Sustainability Manager and Sustainability Planner oversee our Green Bowie efforts including composting, food waste, home energy audits, the Green Bowie Veterans Day 5k, electric vehicle efforts, and more. Please visit the Green Bowie pages here.
If you are interested in watershed management in the City, learning about the annual stream cleanup, or ways to protect our watershed please visit our watershed management page here and contact the Watershed Manager with questions.
The Department also focuses heavily on transportation. This involves our extensive trail system and the Trails Master Plan for the City, multi-modal access and complete streets projects, alternative transportation like hiking and biking, and micro/mass transit efforts in our area.