Queen Anne's County, MD Sidewalk & Pedestrian Rules: Encroachment Permits (2026)

Chapter 23 of the Queen Anne's County Code requires a permit before anyone works in or occupies a County road or its right-of-way. Section 23-15A lists five triggers: making an opening for a driveway or entrance, placing a structure on a County road or within its right-of-way, digging, excavating, trenching, boring or directional drilling in or under it, planting or removing a tree there, and placing an obstruction there. The permit comes from the Department of Public Works, Roads Division. Before issuing it the Department can require a bond in an amount the Board considers sufficient to insure satisfactory completion of the work (§ 23-15B), and the Board adopts the permit fee schedule by resolution to cover administrative, construction or other expenditures of the Department (§ 23-15C).

The chapter prints no dollar figure for these fees. All work under a permit must follow the regulations and design and construction standards of the Board and proceed under the supervision of the Roads Division (§ 23-15D), and the permit holder or the person who does the work bears the expense of restoring the County road to as good a condition as before the work began (§ 23-15E). Section 23-32 backs the permit with a flat prohibition: a person may not alter, change, obstruct, or encroach on any road in the County.

Sidewalks have their own approval rule in Part 5, which applies only to the unincorporated areas of Queen Anne's County (§ 23-66.1C). Approval to construct a sidewalk in a public right-of-way must be obtained from the County before construction, whether the builder is a developer in a planned subdivision (§ 23-66.4A) or an owner in an existing neighborhood (§ 23-66.5A). A sidewalk built on public property without County approval is removed at the violator's expense (§ 23-66.6E).