Urban Rural Demarcation Line

Baltimore County's Urban Rural Demarcation Line (URDL) has divided the county into "urban" and "rural" areas since established by the Planning Board in 1967. Developed primarily as a growth management tool, it has influenced zoning, land-use, and infrustructure decisions, and was the baseline for the Baltimore County part of Maryland's Priority Funding Area. However, this boundary (digitized at a scale of 1:24,000 where 1" represents 2,000') was became obsolete as the county's GIS data increased in resolution (to 1:2,400 where 1" represents 200'). Until recently, determining a property's status as either urban or rural was of a highly interpretative nature. A new URDL was developed to more accurately match the 1:2,400 data (parcel, street centerline, zoning, etc). This version was reviewed and modified in a series of meetings with several interested county agencies. The new URDL removes much of the old one's ambiguity while keeping its original intent. The new URDL was reviewed, modified, and subsequently approved by the Planning Board on June 19, 2003. Minor revisions were effected 9/2/04, 10/21/04, 9/4/07, 5/21/09, 10/1/09 and 11/15/12. The URDL_poly feature class is one part of the URDL feature dataset.