Wicomico County, MD Environmental Rules: Flood Elevation Requirements (2026)

Under Wicomico County Code § 149-10, 'flood protection elevation' means the base flood elevation plus two feet of freeboard, the safety margin that compensates for uncertainty from wave action, obstructed bridge openings, debris and ice jams, climate change and watershed urbanization. That definition drives § 149-34A(1), which requires new residential structures, residential portions of mixed-use structures, and substantially improved existing residential structures to have their lowest floors elevated to or above the flood protection elevation; in Zone AO shallow-flooding areas, the lowest floor instead must sit at least as high above the highest adjacent grade as the FIRM's depth number plus two feet, or four feet if no depth number is shown (§ 149-34A(2)).

Beyond the floor itself, § 149-22 requires electrical systems, HVAC and plumbing equipment to sit at or above that same elevated lowest floor, or, as an alternative, to be designed and installed to resist flood forces and keep water out if placed lower (§ 149-22D, E). Section 149-22F adds a specific mandate that the electric panelboard be elevated at least three feet above the base flood elevation, a stricter number than the two-foot general freeboard. Critical and essential facilities such as hospitals and fire stations face an even higher bar: they must be elevated to the greater of the flood protection elevation plus one foot, the building code elevation, or the five-hundred-year flood elevation, and may not be sited in coastal high-hazard areas, Coastal A Zones or floodways at all (§ 149-27).