It is Harford County’s responsibility to regulate and approve land development in the County meeting all County, state and federal regulations and laws. There exists a designated growth area in the County called the "development envelope". The County seeks to guide land development to this designated area. One County law used to regulate land development is called Adequate Public Facility (APF). The APF law simply says the existing public facilities for water, sewer, schools and roads must be adequate to support the planned land development. The land developer is responsible for meeting all aspects of the APF law. For further details concerning the Adequate Public Facility law contact the Harford County Department of Planning and Zoning.

The subdivision review process begins with the land developer submitting a concept or preliminary site plan showing the proposed development to the Department of Planning and Zoning (P&Z) for review and approval. P&Z would then distribute the plans to the various County and state agencies for review and the return of comments. P&Z posts an advisory sign at the proposed site and schedules a public meeting to acquire comments from the Development Advisory Committee and the public. When all comments have been addressed, P&Z prepares a preliminary plan approval letter of agreement that is co-signed by the land developer. The letter specifies comments, conditions and requirements that must be met to proceed forward with the project.

When the preliminary plan approval letter of agreement is executed, the land developer is permitted to submit final construction drawings and plats to the Departments of Public Works and Planning and Zoning for review and approval. Construction drawing review time for road and storm drain plans, water and sewer plans and record plats have been established by the Department of Public Works.