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

Section 276-35 of the Charles County Code flatly prohibits placing any privately owned permanent or semi-permanent structure within the road right-of-way. The list of banned items is specific: fences, basketball hoops and sports goals, skateboard ramps, wheel stops, large stones or boulders, wood landscaping ties, concrete bricks, signs, gazebos, sprinkler systems, and any other atypical hazardous item that creates an obstruction. The County carves out only narrow exceptions. Regulation USPS mailboxes and newspaper boxes are allowed if mounted on breakaway-type posts matching the Charles County Standard Detail Manual.

USPS cluster box units are allowed only on curbed local or minor collector roads posted at 30 mph or lower, sited by the County Highway Engineer consistent with the AASHTO Roadside Design Guide and kept clear of intersection sight lines and horizontal curves. Brick mailboxes without footings and architectural driveway-entrance enhancements are permitted only on local or minor collector residential roads posted at 30 mph or lower, banned outright on major collector and arterial roads, and must keep a horizontal clear zone of at least 10 feet from the edge of the traveled way.

Property owners who build within the right-of-way accept that the County has full access to it for infrastructure work and that the County is not liable for damage to the private improvement during operations or maintenance, including a mailbox or enhancement built over a drainage culvert, which the owner alone must maintain.