ning Department, the director of which serves as chairman of the
Council.

Just this week, I issued a proclamation putting into effect an
amendment to our State Constitution which authorizes the General
Assembly to empower any county or municipal corporation to carry
out urban renewal projects involving the clearance, redevelopment
and rehabilitation of slum or blighted areas.

Even though a community may be authorized by public local law
to engage in urban renewal, it will find such an undertaking prohi-
bitively expensive without the aid of federal funds. Before the Fed-
eral Urban Renewal Administration will approve such grants, two
qualifications must be met. The community must have a recent mas-
ter comprehensive plan, or a plan which has sufficient revision to
bring it up to date, and it must have made a housing analysis study.
Since these are considered to be responsibilities of a planning and
zoning commission, a community which has neglected to set up such
agencies will necessarily be delayed in obtaining federal funds for
urban renewal.

At the present, 16 Maryland counties and 15 cities and towns
have planning and zoning commissions. It is hoped that that others
will join this group. One of the primary functions of our State
Department of Planning is to give assistance and encouragement to
local communities in their planning programs.... Direction and
leadership is needed to bring about this intergovernmental collabo-
ration, and we believe that it is the obligation of the State to assume
the role of leader. Our State Department of Planning is, we think,
making a real contribution in this respect....

I pledge to all the communities of the State the wholehearted sup-
port of the State government, of which our State Department of
Planning is a part, in their efforts in this field.

448