Charles County, MD Home Business: Customer Traffic Restrictions (2026)

Section 297-29B(18)(b) of the Charles County zoning ordinance addresses vehicle traffic tied to a home-based business directly: business activities, including but not limited to the vehicular traffic generated by customers or third-party delivery services, must not change the residential character of the dwelling nor the character of the residential subdivision. Unlike a numeric trip cap, this standard is qualitative, meaning county zoning staff assess complaints against whether traffic volume, timing, or delivery frequency has visibly altered the neighborhood's residential feel. This traffic standard operates alongside the other home occupation limits in § 297-29B(18): parking generated by the business is restricted to off-street gravel or paved parking on the permit holder's own property under § 297-29B(18)(f), and deliveries are capped to postal service, a private carrier such as UPS, or the occupant under § 297-29B(18)(h), which itself limits how much delivery traffic a home occupation can generate.

and on Sundays and federal holidays, further constrains when customer or delivery traffic can occur. For comparison, the county's separate cottage industry category, which covers larger accessory-structure businesses, sets an explicit numeric cap of ten customer and shipping trips per day under § 297-29B(22)(j), a specificity the home occupation traffic rule in § 297-29B(18)(b) does not carry.