Carroll County, MD Parking Rules: Loading Zones (2026)

051(C)(9) sets the county's off street loading standard inside its parking design chapter. In every zoning district, any use involving deliveries, shipments, or removal of goods, materials, supplies, or waste by truck must provide adequate off street loading and unloading facilities. The trigger is building size: a building with 10,000 square feet or more of floor area must provide at least one loading space, and the county adds one more space for each additional 20,000 square feet, or major fraction of it, of floor area beyond the first 10,000.

Each required space must be marked and built no smaller than 12 feet wide, 45 feet long, and 14 feet of clear height, dimensions sized for a delivery truck rather than a passenger car. The space can sit in any required yard except a front yard, so a developer can tuck loading behind or beside a building but not push it into the street-facing setback. The code adds a residential buffer: no loading space may be located closer than 30 feet to a lot used residentially unless the loading space sits inside a completely enclosed building, which removes the open-air noise and headlight concerns that drove the setback.

050, so a project cannot get site plan approval without showing the loading count, dimensions, and setback on the plan. 051(C)(10) but govern queue lanes, not loading docks, and are a separate requirement.