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

Section BR 2-305 applies in A Zones, meaning special flood hazard areas that are not coastal high-hazard V Zones or Coastal A Zones. It covers all development, new construction, substantial improvements, including repair of substantial damage, and manufactured homes. For residential structures and the residential portions of mixed use structures, § BR 2-305(d)(1) requires lowest floors, basements included, to be elevated to or above the flood protection elevation. The definitions in § BR 2-302 set the flood protection elevation as the base flood elevation, meaning the water surface elevation of the one-percent annual chance flood in relation to the datum on the Flood Insurance Rate Map. In shallow flooding where no elevation is shown, the base flood elevation is the highest adjacent natural grade plus the mapped depth number, or at least four feet if no depth number is specified.

Fill used to raise a building pad must be earthen soil or rock only, sloped no steeper than one vertical to two horizontal unless the Floodplain Administrator approves, and protected by vegetation where expected velocity is less than five feet per second. Enclosures below the lowest floor can serve only parking, building access, crawl or underfloor spaces, or limited storage, must use flood-damage-resistant materials, and need at least two flood openings on different sides with one square inch of net open area for each square foot of enclosed area.

Non-residential buildings under § BR 2-305(e) can elevate the lowest floor to or above the flood protection elevation or dry floodproof to the flood protection elevation plus one foot, although floodproofing a new non-residential building is not allowed in non-tidal waters of the state or in Coastal A Zones. In V Zones and Coastal A Zones, § BR 2-306(c)(2) measures to the bottom of the lowest horizontal structural member supporting the lowest floor, which must be at or above the flood protection elevation, and basement floors below grade on all sides are prohibited. The Floodplain Administrator reviews elevation certificates and requires incomplete or deficient certificates to be corrected.