Project Background

In 2014, the Prince George’s County Planning Department, working with the Prince George’s County Council, launched an effort to comprehensively rewrite the County’s Zoning Ordinance and Subdivision Regulations. Since that time, the project team has met with more than 400 (we’re still counting!) community organizations, business owners, residents, and other community stakeholders to develop land use regulations that modernizes the county’s zoning code into a more user-friendly document that is aligned with the county’s vision for smart growth, economic development, and improved quality of life for Prince George’s County residents. In October 2018, a new Zoning Ordinance, Subdivision Regulations, and Landscape Manual was adopted for the County.

In 2014, the Prince George’s County Council, sitting as the District Council, approved Plan Prince George’s 2035, the blueprint for where and how the county grows over the next 20 years. The highest priority in implementing the new general plan is rewriting the Zoning and Subdivision Ordinances. Updating the Zoning Ordinance and Subdivision Regulations assists in solidifying Prince George’s County as a sustainable network of communities for individuals to live, work, play, and shop.

Prior to the update of the Prince George’s County’s Zoning Ordinance; the regulations had not been comprehensively updated in over 50 years. The document, was more than 1,200 pages, identified more than 70 zones and hundreds of different potentials uses of property. The current Zoning Ordinance had proven to be overly complex, difficult to understand and administer, and unresponsive to the county’s vision for growth. Comparatively, the new Zoning Ordinance has 43 zones and approximately 250 different potential uses.

The goals of the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite are to
• Streamline the ordinance and development approval processes
• Modernize and consolidate our zones and development standards
• Incentivize revitalization and economic, transit-oriented, and mixed-use development
• Protect stable residential neighborhoods