Allegany County Permit Guide
Allegany County does not employ its own building inspectors — inspections are carried out by private third-party agencies the applicant arranges and negotiates with before the permit is issued — and its building permit is always combined with the land use permit rather than running beside it.
Anne Arundel County Permit Guide
Anne Arundel County has more tidal shoreline than almost any jurisdiction in Maryland, so the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area — a thousand feet landward of mean high tide or tidal wetlands — reaches a large share of its parcels, changing what a deck, a shed or a patio needs long before the building code does.
Baltimore City Permit Guide
Baltimore City is an independent jurisdiction with its own compiled Building, Fire and Related Codes, permits everything through ePermits, and holds any application in a city historic district until the preservation commission issues a notice-to-proceed — a step that also catches minor work which would need no permit elsewhere in the city.
Baltimore County Permit Guide
Baltimore County — the county that surrounds Baltimore City without including it — takes every building, plumbing and electrical application online only, enacted its current building code by Bill 49-24 in September 2024, and holds a permittee responsible for grading violations on a residential lot for a year after use and occupancy approval.
Bowie Permit Guide
Bowie is a two-permit city: Prince George's County holds exclusive authority over the building code, so the county permit comes first, and the city then issues its own permit against the Bowie City Code, the covenants and a check that no other permit was issued in error.
Calvert County Permit Guide
Calvert County licenses its own builders, electricians and plumbers on top of the state's credentials, and sequences the paperwork strictly: the building permit must be approved, paid for and issued before an electrical or plumbing permit application can even be submitted.
Carroll County Permit Guide
Carroll County combines the building permit and the zoning certificate into a single application, permits for most of its towns as well as its own countryside, and splits the work across three bureaus — building and trades, plan review, and grading — each with its own number.
Cecil County Permit Guide
Cecil County hands out a permit number the moment an application is submitted — and warns in the same breath that it does not mean the permit is approved — while six of its towns must give their own approval before a county application can even be made.
Charles County Permit Guide
Charles County publishes an online permit guide that builds a customised list of steps from the project's location and details — the county's answer to a question most jurisdictions leave to a phone call — and permits Waldorf, its largest community, directly, because Waldorf is unincorporated.
City of Frederick Permit Guide
The City of Frederick is one of only two municipalities in Frederick County that issue their own building permits — a city application never goes to the county office two streets away — and the city runs an end-to-end online permitting system where the portal that took the application also takes the inspection requests.
Frederick County Permit Guide
Frederick County issues the building permit for almost every town within its borders as well as its own unincorporated land — the City of Frederick and Mount Airy are the exceptions — and inside a town the zoning certificate is obtained from that town before the county application is made.
Gaithersburg Permit Guide
Gaithersburg runs its own permitting inside the city limits rather than sending work to Montgomery County's department — and its own list reaches further than most, covering tree removal, forest conservation and any shed, deck or patio that alters drainage.
Harford County Permit Guide
Harford County treats a permit as alive only while it is being used: construction must begin within twelve months, and a project that stops for six months after starting has its permit declared invalid — the county reads diligent pursuit as an inspection obtained within six months of the last one.
Howard County Permit Guide
Howard County lets a homeowner act as their own general contractor on alterations and additions — but only on a property they own and occupy as their primary residence; a rental or a second home needs a state home improvement or home builder licence, and the county says so in terms.
Montgomery County Permit Guide
Montgomery County attaches a sediment control permit to every new residential or commercial building, whatever the acreage — and once that permit is required, the county's Tree Canopy Law is triggered with it, bringing a planting obligation or a fee into the budget before the building permit issues.
Prince George's County Permit Guide
Prince George's County runs a third-party plan review programme that can cut review time by up to half, keeps the use and occupancy permit entirely separate from the building permit, and takes no building applications by post — they arrive at Largo in person or through ePlan.
Queen Anne's Permit Guide
Queen Anne's County runs its permitting through planning and zoning at Centreville, and the geography does the rest: Kent Island and the county's long tidal shoreline put a large share of its parcels inside the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area, where clearing, lot coverage and the buffer govern before the building code is opened.
Rockville Permit Guide
Rockville permits its own work inside the city limits, and pilots something rare in Maryland: an express process that reviews and issues eligible residential permits the same business day, with applications taken on Tuesday mornings only.
St. Mary's Permit Guide
St. Mary's County sits on a peninsula between the Potomac and the Patuxent, so the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area reaches a large share of its land — and there any development activity at all, including disturbance to natural vegetation, requires authorisation with a Critical Area quality site plan attached to the application.
Washington County Permit Guide
Washington County splits the work with its towns: Boonsboro, Funkstown and Williamsport residents get zoning approval from their town first, the town forwards the application and plans to the county for building code review, and the county returns it to the town to issue.
Wicomico County Permit Guide
Wicomico County does not inspect electrical work itself — private inspection companies approved by the county's Board of Electrical Examiners do it, at the permit holder's cost — and the county will not issue a building permit at all without a valid health permit where a well or septic system is involved.
Worcester County Permit Guide
Worcester County is the only Maryland county on the Atlantic, and it carries a Critical Area programme the others do not: the Atlantic Coastal Bays Critical Area sits alongside the Chesapeake one, with the same thousand-foot reach, a hundred-foot buffer on every waterfront property, and three land use designations that decide what may be built at all.