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

Section ZS 1-205(e) sets the height rule for the R-1 Rural Residential District in unincorporated Worcester County. No flat-roofed principal structure can exceed thirty-five feet, no pitched-roofed principal structure can exceed forty-five feet, and no principal structure of either roof type can exceed four stories. Accessory structures such as garages and outbuildings are held to the lower of two stories or twenty-five feet. The paragraph opens with an exception for the buildings, structures and parts of structures listed in § ZS 1-305.

The R-2, R-3 and R-4 residential districts print the same wording in their height paragraphs, and the A-2 District carries it as well. The A-1 Agricultural District adds a safety valve in § ZS 1-201(e)(1): the Board of Zoning Appeals can grant a special exception raising the height, but not the number of stories, of a residential accessory structure to no more than thirty-five feet if the increase serves to reduce an environmental impact and creates no neighborhood adverse effects or safety hazards. Any residential accessory structure in A-1 that exceeds twenty-five feet must then meet the setbacks of the principal use or structure. Commercial districts use a different formula: C-1 allows four stories or forty-five feet for a principal structure.

Section ZS 1-305(n) lists structures that sit outside the district height limits. Farm buildings and structures other than dwelling units, fire walls, cupolas, steeples, flagpoles, silos, smokestacks, masts, water tanks and other nonhabitable roof superstructures need no Board approval. Roof structures housing elevators, stairways, tanks or ventilating fans stay exempt only if they do not occupy more than twenty-five percent of the ground area of the building. The Board of Zoning Appeals can raise height or stories for a nonresidential structure by special exception, but subsection (n)(1) offers that route for nonresidential structures only.