states, for the available industry. Aware of this situation, those respon-
sible for site locations are very demanding in their requirements.

The officers in our State Department tell me that one of the first
questions asked by such people regards the planning program of the
community. The day has passed when any city without adequate zon-
ing and an intelligent plan for orderly community growth can hope
to attract desirable industrial firms. Suburban slums are a relatively
new development on our American scene. They spring up inevitably,
however, unless governments in newly urbanized communities exer-
cise proper controls and restraints. Careful planning becomes a ma-
jor function of local government under such conditions as we find
in Maryland today. Without it, the suburbs to which city dwellers
move to escape urban slums become as ugly and uninhabitable as the
city slums they left.... Planning at a local level is an essential
in these conditions. But the problems of urbanization extend beyond
local communities.

The solution of these problems, therefore, calls for the cooperation
of all governmental agencies—of the counties and cities with one an-
other and of the State with all its political sub-divisions. One of the
first measures I undertook after I was inaugurated as Governor was
to reorganize our State Department of Planning, setting it up in such
a way that it would operate as a staff agency of the Executive De-
partment. I am highly pleased with the progress that has been made
by this Department under the leadership of Jim O'Donnell and Joe
Meyerhoff, and I feel certain that planning at the state level will
receive an increasing amount of emphasis as time goes on. The De-
partment has included in its programming a special section for local
and regional planning and is engaged now in offering effective assist-
ance and stimulation to local communities interested in local planning.

By an act of the General Assembly, the State Planning Department
is the agency through which urban planning assistance grants, under
the Housing Act of 1954, are tunneled to cities and counties of the
State. At the present time, local urban planning assistance projects
are under way or have been completed in seven communities^Wi-
comico and Cecil Counties and the cities of Rockville, Salisbury,
Frederick, Annapolis, and Laurel. In addition, the Baltimore Re-
gional Planning Council, comprised of representatives of the local
governments and planning agencies of Baltimore City and of Anne
Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard Counties, has just
completed its second urban planning assistance project. Two grants,
one of $100, 000 and another of $50, 000 were made to the State Plan-
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