Charles County, MD Environmental Rules: Flood Zones (2026)

Charles County's Chapter 238, Flood Damage Control, was updated in 2013 to bring the County into compliance with the National Flood Insurance Program, which it joined on June 5, 1985. Section 238-5 finds that FEMA-identified special flood hazard areas are subject to periodic inundation threatening life, property, health, safety, commerce, and the tax base, and that inadequately elevated or floodproofed structures worsen flood losses. Building on that finding, § 238-7D(1) sets the core permit trigger: it is unlawful to begin development or construction wholly or partly within, or in contact with, a flood hazard area established under § 238-5F, covering filling, grading, new construction, substantial improvement or repair of substantial damage to buildings, placement or replacement of manufactured homes, erecting temporary structures, or altering a watercourse, until a permit is obtained from Charles County, and no permit issues until the regulations' requirements are met.

Once in the permit process, § 238-8 layers on substantive standards: proposals must minimize flood damage, locate utilities to avoid flood damage, provide adequate drainage, and, for subdivisions of five lots or five acres or more without existing base flood elevation data, supply their own base flood elevation determinations. Subdivision roads, driveways, and parking areas must have their driving surface at least one foot above the base flood elevation, and additions or substantially improved structures must be elevated to at least one foot above base flood elevation.