Allegany County, MD Sidewalk & Pedestrian Rules: Obstruction Rules (2026)

Article III of Chapter 461, adopted by Bill No. 1-08 effective May 12, 2008, applies "only to the unincorporated areas of Allegany County" (§ 461-20(C)) and covers three kinds of sidewalks: those built with State Highway Administration or County road-reconstruction projects (§ 461-22), those built by developers in new subdivisions (§ 461-23), and those individual owners add to existing neighborhoods (§ 461-24). Each of the three parallel sections carries the identical obstruction rule: sidewalks "shall not be blocked by vehicles or other obstructions or used as a depository for materials, waste receptacles or other objects," and they may not be "defaced or removed" (§ 461-22(B), § 461-23(C), § 461-24(D)).

The rule sits alongside, but is distinct from, the surface-maintenance duty the same sections place on abutting property owners for snow, leaves and weeds. Compliance with the sidewalk article as a whole is enforced through § 461-25: the County sets a schedule of fines for violations, treats them as civil infractions, and processes citations under Article 25B, § 13C of the Annotated Code of Maryland, the same civil-citation authority used for nuisance and salvage-yard violations elsewhere in the Code. Because the obstruction language is identical across all three sidewalk categories, a car parked on a sidewalk, a trash can left on one, or building materials stored on one violates whichever of the three sections matches how that particular sidewalk was built or installed.