Annapolis, MD Building Setbacks & Zoning: Lot Coverage Limits (2026)

City Code § 21.54.080(D) sits in Chapter 21.54, the Critical Area Overlay, and governs land classified as Intensely Developed Area (IDA) under § 21.54.020(B). The other two classifications, Limited Development Area and Resource Conservation Area, follow separate sections. The overlay covers the waters of and lands under the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries to the head of tide, plus all land within one thousand feet beyond the landward boundaries of state or private wetlands and the heads of tides.

The table assigns one ceiling per underlying zoning district, measured as a percent of the development site and labeled "Percent of Manmade Lot Coverage (maximum)." The ladder starts at 50 percent for Residential and rises to 60 percent for P, PM, B1, B2, B3 and BCE, 75 percent for C1 and C1A, 80 percent for Maritime, 90 percent for C2, C2A, C2P and MX, and 95 percent for I1. A residential lot therefore keeps at least half of its area free of manmade coverage, while an I1 site can cover all but five percent. Because the overlay supplements the base district under § 21.54.040, the more restrictive provision applies wherever the two conflict.

The same section stacks other IDA duties on top of the percentage. Every development and redevelopment project must cut pollutant loadings at least ten percent below the pre-development level, using the Critical Area 10% Rule Guidance Manual (Fall 2003) or Chapter 17.10. Development is barred on slopes of twenty-five percent or more, including a twenty-five-foot buffer on sites of forty thousand square feet or larger and a five-foot buffer on smaller sites, unless building there is the only effective way to maintain or improve slope stability. Cluster development is encouraged to reduce impervious surfaces. Lots larger than forty thousand square feet must also protect wildlife corridors, cannot clear more than thirty percent of a forest or developed woodland without a Board of Appeals variance and replacement at three times the area cleared, and must identify stream buffers of at least one hundred feet for perennial and intermittent streams and twenty-five feet for ephemeral streams.

New public streets built as part of a subdivision to give legal access to its lots count toward the lot coverage requirements under § 21.54.060(I), though the Planning and Zoning Director and the Director of Public Works can allow redesign to reduce the land given to streets.