Harford County, MD Environmental Rules: Vehicle Idling Restrictions (2026)

Section 267-60 governs the county's Commercial Industrial (CI), Light Industrial (LI) and General Industrial (GI) districts. Subsection C(14), added by Bill No. 23-026, permits warehousing, distribution and local delivery center uses in buildings up to 150,000 square feet in those districts subject to a package of site-design requirements. Among the "other requirements" in C(14)(d), item [2] requires the use to "include site features, amenities, and/or signage to ensure compliance with local and state laws concerning idling vehicles and equipment": the county does not print its own numeric idling-minutes limit, it requires the developer to build in the tools (signage, layout) to make drivers follow whatever local and state idling law already applies.

The same subsection requires truck staging areas sized by a loading-dock formula (trucks per hour times turnaround time), with at least 5% of required truck and trailer staging spaces reserved for outbound trucks that must "layover or rest due to hours of service regulations," and it bars trucks and trailers from parking or staging on public streets while waiting to access a facility. No parking or staging is allowed in a Water Source Protection District. Applicants go through Development Advisory Committee review and must submit a written narrative covering hours of operation and delivery frequency, among other topics, before the use is approved.