Gaithersburg, MD Building Setbacks & Zoning: Setback Rules (2026)

Chapter 24 fixes yard setbacks separately for every residential zone rather than citywide. 2-1 sets the R-A zone, the city's low-density district, at a 30-foot front setback, 15-foot side setback and 30-foot rear setback. 3-1 tightens those minimums for the R-90 zone to a 20-foot front setback, 5-foot side setback and 20-foot rear setback, reflecting its smaller 7,500-square-foot minimum lots. Density-driven zones shrink the numbers further: the R-6 zone requires only a 10-foot front setback, at least one 10-foot side setback and a 5-foot rear setback, while the RB residential buffer zone requires 10 feet front, 5 feet side and 20 feet rear.

Commercial and industrial districts flip the logic, tying the setback to whether the lot touches a residential zone: the I-1 industrial zone, for example, requires 60-foot side and rear setbacks against an abutting residential zone but allows 0 feet where it does not abut one, and the C-2 general commercial zone requires 30 feet front and rear against a residential neighbor but 0 feet otherwise. 4, and townhouse developments in denser zones such as R-18 and R-20 apply their side-setback minimum only to end units under an explicit table note.