Business Licensing & Operations in Washington County, MD (2026)
3 rules for unincorporated Washington County, Maryland.
Verified from official government sources
Adult Entertainment
Washington County confines adult bookstores, adult mini-motion picture theaters, and other adult entertainment venues to special exceptions in the BG Business, General District, and bars every one of them from sitting within 1,000 feet of a residential district, church, school, restaurant, hotel, theater, club, lodge, or another adult-oriented business.
Adult Business Spacing in Washington County, MD
Significant RestrictionsWashington County, MD Zoning Ordinance, Article 12, Section 12.2(f)
(f) Adult bookstores provided that no such establishment is located within 1,000 feet of any residential district, within 1,000 feet of a place of worship or school, within 1,000 feet of any restaurant, eating establishment, hotel or motel, within 1,000 feet of any theater, club or lodge, or within 1,000 feet of any other adult book store or adult mini-motion picture theater.
Secondhand Dealers
Washington County, Maryland requires every junk shop and second-hand store to log each purchase of used goods in a permanent book, open to police inspection, before buying items like pipe, copper, or other second-hand merchandise from the public.
Washington County, MD Junk Shop Recordkeeping
Some RestrictionsWashington County, MD Code of Public Local Laws (2019) § 5-101
A keeper, owner, proprietor or employee of any junk shop in Washington County, or any owner, proprietor, or employee of any second-hand store in the county may not barter, purchase, exchange, buy or accept from any person, except plumbers holding licenses as such or the owner or owners of property or of buildings from which the material is taken, any pipe, faucet, boilers, spigots, coil, lead, ...
Pawnbrokers
Washington County, Maryland caps what a licensed pawnbroker can charge on a pledge loan: up to 5% for 30 days on loans of $25 or less, 3% on larger loans, with mandatory receipts and books open to the Hagerstown Chief of Police.
Washington County, MD Pawnbroker Interest Caps
Some RestrictionsWashington County, MD Code of Public Local Laws (2019) § 5-201
A regular licensed pawnbroker may charge for any loans upon goods, chattels, or other personal property to cover interest, storage, investigation of title, packing, and all other expenses incidental to the pawnbrokers' business, a sum of money not to exceed 5 percent of the amount loaned for 30 days, of any loan made not exceeding $25... For loans of more than $25, the sum may not exceed 3 perc...
All Washington County ordinances
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