Washington County, MD Building Safety: Childcare Center Rules (2026)

18 of the Washington County Zoning Ordinance does not let a nursery school or child care center stand on its own; it exists in the code only as an accessory use riding on another permitted use. Subsection (a) allows a registered nursery school or child care center as an incidental accessory use for a business located in the BL, BG, IR, IG, AP, PB, PI, "MX" or HI zoning district, but restricts it functionally: centers permitted under this subsection must serve the employees and families of that business, not the general public.

11's requirements. Subsection (b) gives churches and other places of worship a separate, narrower path: a registered nursery or child care center run by a congregation is an incidental accessory use only if the child care service is housed inside the primary worship structure itself, not in a freestanding building on the church campus. To use that path, the applicant must file an affidavit with the zoning certification application attesting to the center's location, its hours of operation, the location of any signage, and that the facility meets the site's parking requirements.

18 governs zoning classification rather than construction, physical building and fire-code compliance for the space is handled through separate permitting, but the zoning certification itself is refused without the required affidavit.