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

Worcester County Code § ZS 1-321 governs loading on the site itself, not curbside zones. It applies to any commercial, industrial, business or other use that needs the receipt or distribution of materials or merchandise by tractor and trailer vehicles during normal business hours, and the approving authority decides what counts as normal business hours for the use. The required count scales with gross floor area: 5,000 to 50,000 square feet needs 1 loading space with a maximum of 2 allowed; 50,001 to 100,000 square feet needs 2 spaces with a maximum of 3 allowed; and greater than 100,000 square feet needs 3 spaces with a maximum of 4 allowed.

Note that the code sets a ceiling as well as a floor, so a site cannot build extra bays beyond the listed maximum. Each space must measure not less than ten feet in width, sixty-five feet in length and fourteen feet in clear height. Location rules in subsection (c) put the space adjacent to the structure. It can occupy part of a required yard except a front yard, and it cannot intrude into required landscape areas. The layout must allow delivery and customer vehicles to enter, exit and turn on site without infringing on a public right-of-way or another lot, and it cannot interfere with access to any required parking space or vehicular travelway.

No loading area or space can sit within twenty feet of any public street, public walkway, pedestrian walkway internal to a development, or required or designated fire lane. Subsection (d), added by Bill No. 14-5 on 7-22-2014, lets the Planning Commission modify or waive the count where strict compliance would cause undue hardship on the applicant. The Code defines an off-street loading space as space designed for bulk pickups and deliveries by highway transport or delivery vehicles and accessible to such vehicles when off-street parking spaces are filled. The section prints no curbside loading-zone schedule. Ocean City, Berlin, Snow Hill and Pocomoke City apply their own codes.