Agency overview | |
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Formed | 1927 |
Type | Intercounty |
Jurisdiction | |
Headquarters | 6611 Kenilworth Ave, Suite 402, Riverdale Park, MD 20737 38°58′09″N76°54′58″W / 38.969136°N 76.916095°W |
Annual budget | US$456 million (2017) [1] |
Agency executives |
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Parent department | Maryland General Assembly |
Website | www |
Footnotes | |
[1] [2] |
The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) is a bi-county agency that administers parks and planning in Montgomery and Prince George's counties in Maryland. [2]
The commission was formed in 1927 by the Maryland General Assembly (Chapter 448, Acts of 1927). [3] [2] Since 1970, the commission also has operated the Prince George's County recreation program, funded by a separate countywide recreation tax. In addition, the commission provides services and educational programs relating to conservation and nature, local history, and the arts, and offers recreation classes. [2] The commission successfully defended the constitutionality of its maintaining the Blandensburg Peace Cross before the Supreme Court of the United States in American Legion v. American Humanist Association (2019). [4]
The commission is divided into seven departments, two for Montgomery county: the Department of Parks and the Department of Planning; two for Prince George's County: the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Department of Planning; and three that are cross-county: the Department of Human Resource Management, the Department of Finance, and the Office of the General Counsel. [5] While these counties and departments are all within one commission, day-to-day operations, for the most part, are separate. Interaction among general staff across counties and departments is rare.
The commission manages over 52,000 acres (210 km2) of parks in the two counties. Within the Maryland-Washington Metropolitan District, the commission is empowered to acquire, develop, maintain, and operate parks systems. In all areas except Laurel, the Commission may spend public funds to acquire park land. Subject to county government approval, it also may sell general obligation bonds to fund park acquisition and development. All other expenses, including debt service, are paid from a park tax levied within the District. [ citation needed ]
Prince George's Stadium in Bowie is built on park property. [6]
Taking into account all factors of urban, suburban, rural and regional planning, the commission prepares and administers a General Plan for the physical development of the Maryland-Washington Regional District. All of Prince George's County (except Laurel) and all of Montgomery County (except Rockville, Gaithersburg, and several small municipalities) are included in the district. For the portion of the district within their county, each planning board makes zoning recommendations to its county council. To enact zoning ordinances and change the zoning map, the planning boards have exclusive responsibility for subdivision approval, location and grades of streets, location of public buildings and utilities, and street naming and house numbering. Administration and operating expenses of the commission are financed by property taxes levied by the two counties.
The Commission supervises the Maryland-National Capital Park Police, which patrols the parks in both counties. The M-NCPPC Park Police is divided into the Montgomery County Division and the Prince George's County Division. The MNCPP in Prince George's County is also known as "Maryland Park Police" or "Maryland Park." The MNCPP in Montgomery County is known as "The Montgomery County Park Police". [7]
The Commission's ten members include five residents of Montgomery County and five of Prince George's who serve four-year terms. The five members from each county make up the county planning board. In Montgomery County, members are appointed by the County Council and confirmed by the County Executive. In Prince George's County, the County Executive appoints all five members subject to County Council confirmation. Of the members from each county, no more than three may be of the same political party. The appointing authority names the planning board chair. The Commission chair alternates each year between the two planning board chairs. The alternate becomes vice-chair.
The Commission appoints the Executive Director, General Counsel, and Secretary-Treasurer. In Prince George's County, the Parks and Recreation Director and Planning Director are appointed by the County Planning Board. In Montgomery County, the Planning Board appoints a Director of Parks and a Planning Director.
Prince George's County is located in the U.S. state of Maryland bordering the eastern portion of Washington, D.C. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 967,201, making it the second-most populous county in Maryland, behind neighboring Montgomery County. The 2020 census counted an increase of nearly 104,000 in the previous ten years. Its county seat is Upper Marlboro. It is the largest and the second most affluent African American-majority county in the United States, with five of its communities identified in a 2015 top ten list.
Beltsville is a census-designated place (CDP) in northern Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The community was named for Truman Belt, a local landowner. The 2020 census counted 20,133 residents. Beltsville includes the unincorporated community of Vansville.
Berwyn Heights is a town in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 3,345. It is bordered by College Park to the west, Greenbelt to the northeast, and Riverdale Park to the south.
Laurel is a city in Maryland, United States, located midway between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore on the banks of the Patuxent River. While the city limits are entirely in northern Prince George's County, outlying developments extend into Anne Arundel, Montgomery and Howard counties. Founded as a mill town in the early 19th century, Laurel expanded local industry and was later able to become an early commuter town for Washington and Baltimore workers following the arrival of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1835. Largely residential today, the city maintains a historic district centered on its Main Street, highlighting its industrial past.
University Park is a town in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The population was 2,548 at the 2010 census.
The government of Maryland is conducted according to the Maryland Constitution. The United States is a federation; consequently, the government of Maryland, like the other 49 state governments, has exclusive authority over matters that lie entirely within the state's borders, except as limited by the Constitution of the United States.
Muirkirk is an unincorporated community in northern Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, located between Baltimore and Washington in the central part of the state.
The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission is a bi-county political subdivision of the State of Maryland that provides safe drinking water and wastewater treatment for Montgomery and Prince George's Counties in Maryland except for a few cities in both counties that continue to operate their own water facilities.
The Rachel Carson Greenway is a planned 25-mile stretch of trails, spanning from the historic Adelphi Mill in Prince George's County north through eastern Montgomery County, Maryland to Patuxent River State Park, and incorporating existing Northwest Branch trails. The greenway was proposed as part of a 1998 Countywide Park Trails Plan. A plan for the greenway was approved by the Montgomery County Planning Board on June 15, 2005.
Tom Hucker is an American elected official and a Democrat from the U.S. state of Maryland. He served from 2007 until 2014 as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from District 20, which included neighborhoods in Takoma Park and Silver Spring. He also previously served as a member of the Montgomery County Council, representing District 5 from 2014 to 2022.
The Adelphi Mill is the only surviving historic mill in Prince George's County, Maryland. It is the oldest and largest mill in the Washington, D.C. area.
Aquasco is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in southeastern Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, surrounding the town of Eagle Harbor and bordering Charles County. As of the 2020 census, the CDP had a population of 913. Aquasco was home to the Aquasco Speedway.
Northwest Branch Anacostia River is a 21.5-mile-long (34.6 km) free-flowing stream in Montgomery County and Prince George's County, Maryland. It is a tributary of the Anacostia River, which flows to the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay.
The Anacostia Tributary Trail System (ATTS) is a unified and signed system of stream valley trails joining trails along the Anacostia tributaries of Northwest Branch, Northeast Branch, Indian Creek and Paint Branch with a trail along the Anacostia River, set aside and maintained by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C.
The Oxon Run Parkway is a corridor of federal park land in the Washington Highlands neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The Parkway once extended across the District's southern corner in a crescent from Hillcrest Heights to Oxon Hill but most of it became Oxon Run Park in 1971, and now only the portion north of 13th Street still uses the Parkway name. It was originally intended to provide recreation space, but was later enlarged to provide flood relief, space for a major piece of sewer infrastructure and the possibility of a clean drinking water source.
Dinosaur Park is a park located in the 13200 block of Mid-Atlantic Boulevard, near Laurel and Muirkirk, Maryland, and operated by the Prince George's County Department of Parks and Recreation. The park features a fenced area where visitors can join paleontologists and volunteers in searching for early Cretaceous fossils. The park also has an interpretive garden with plants and information signs. The park is in the approximate location of discoveries of Astrodon teeth and bones as early as the 19th century.
The Government of Los Angeles County is defined and authorized under the California Constitution, California law, and the Charter of the County of Los Angeles. Much of the Government of California is in practice the responsibility of county governments, such as the Government of Los Angeles County. The County government provides countywide services such as elections and voter registration, law enforcement, jails, vital records, property records, tax collection, public health, health care, and social services. In addition the County serves as the local government for all unincorporated areas.
Alonzo T. Washington is an American politician, appointed to the Maryland Senate in 2023 to represent District 22, which covers Prince George's County. He previously represented the district in the Maryland House of Delegates from 2012 to 2023 after being appointed to the seat by Governor Martin O'Malley.
Wheaton Regional Park is a public park and county-designated protected area, located in Wheaton, Maryland. It is operated and managed by Montgomery County Parks, a division of a bi-county agency, Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M–NCPPC), which serves both Montgomery and Prince George's counties in the Washington, D.C. suburbs of the state of Maryland. The park was established in 1960, incorporating several large parcels of land into one of the county's largest parks, at the size of 538.7 acres.
The Howard County Department of Planning and Zoning (DPZ) manages planning and development in Howard County, Maryland, a Central Maryland jurisdiction equidistant between Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C.