Washington County, MD Building Setbacks & Zoning: Structure Height Limits (2026)

Section 9.4 of the Washington County Zoning Ordinance, "Height Regulations" for the "RU" Residential, Urban District, states that "no principal permitted structure shall exceed forty (40) feet in height and no accessory structure shall exceed twenty-five (25) feet, except as provided in Section 23.4." The neighboring "RS" Residential, Suburban District runs lower under Section 8.4: thirty-five feet for the principal structure and twenty feet for an accessory building. Section 23.4 supplies the exceptions referenced in both sections. It exempts belfries, steeples, spires, chimneys, smoke stacks, flagpoles, fire towers, cupolas, domes, monuments, roof-mounted stairway housings, and rooftop mechanical equipment such as tanks, ventilating fans, and air conditioning units from the height cap outright, though a penthouse or roof structure still cannot exceed twenty-five percent of the roof area.

Section 23.4(b) lets a residential building rise to three stories and up to forty-five feet if each side yard is widened by half a foot for every additional foot of height above the district's normal maximum, and Section 23.4(c) grants one extra story on the downhill side of a lot where the average finished slope exceeds seven percent grade, without raising the district's overall height limit. A homeowner on a steep or sloped lot in the "RU" district can therefore build higher than forty feet only by using one of these two named trade-offs, not by right.