Montgomery County's Department of Permitting Services on the seventh floor at 2425 Reedie Drive in Wheaton issues building, trade, sediment control, stormwater, well and septic permits for Maryland's largest jurisdiction, and its most consequential rule sits upstream of the building permit: an engineered sediment control permit is required if a project disturbs 5,000 square feet or more of land, moves 100 cubic yards or more of earth, or includes the construction of any new residential or commercial building — the last of those catches projects far below the acreage thresholds other jurisdictions use.
That permit is also the switch for the county's Chapter 55 Tree Canopy Law, which applies only where a sediment control permit is required and then obliges the owner to plant shade trees or pay into the Tree Canopy Conservation Account. The department collects those fees, along with roadside tree fees and stormwater waiver fees, on behalf of other county agencies during plan review, and it is unusual in one more way: the balance of an engineered sediment control permit fee is not due at issuance but one year after issuance or before the final inspection, whichever comes first.
This guide covers Montgomery County, including the unincorporated communities of Bethesda, Silver Spring, Wheaton and Potomac. The cities of Rockville and Gaithersburg and the City of Takoma Park run their own permit offices; work inside those municipal lines is theirs, not the county's.
Every new building is a sediment control project. The department requires an engineered sediment control permit where the work disturbs 5,000 square feet or more, results in 100 cubic yards or more of earth movement, or includes the construction of any new residential or commercial building. A new house on a recorded lot qualifies on the third limb alone — and because the Tree Canopy Law applies wherever a sediment control permit is required, the tree obligation arrives with it.
What requires a building permit in Montgomery County?
Maryland runs on one statewide instrument, the Maryland Building Performance Standards (COMAR 09.12.51), and enforces it locally. The state adopts each new edition of the International Building Code, the International Residential Code and the International Energy Conservation Code, with Maryland modifications, and every jurisdiction must adopt and enforce the same edition within twelve months — counties and the cities that keep their own permit offices may amend the building and residential codes to suit local conditions, but may make the energy code and the Maryland Accessibility Code only more stringent, never less. The 2021 editions, effective statewide on May 29, 2023 with local enforcement required by May 29, 2024, replaced the 2018 editions; the Maryland Building Rehabilitation Code carries the existing building code beside them. What is local in Montgomery County is the enforcing office, its amendments, its fee schedule, and the grading, stormwater, forest conservation and Critical Area approvals that run ahead of the building permit.
The codes draw the exemption line and the local amendments move it. The IRC's work-exempt-from-permit list — small accessory structures, low fences, minor repairs — applies as Montgomery County adopted it, and the jurisdiction's own ordinance may narrow it. Electrical, plumbing and gas work carry their own permits under the state licensing boards' rules, and zoning, grading and sediment control approvals are separate from all of them.
Typically permit required
- Every new residential or commercial building, which needs an engineered sediment control permit whatever the disturbed area
- Any project disturbing 5,000 square feet of land or tree canopy, or moving 100 cubic yards of earth, which needs the same permit and triggers the Tree Canopy Law
- Work in a Special Protection Area, which carries stream and best-management-practice monitoring fees on top of the permit
- New buildings, additions and any structural work on an existing building
- Interior alterations that reconfigure space, add plumbing fixtures or extend circuits, under the building or residential code and the Maryland Building Rehabilitation Code
- Decks, accessory structures above the local exemption threshold, retaining walls and swimming pools, including above-ground pools
Often exempt
- Removing or trimming one or two trees on a residential property, which the county says does not usually need a sediment control permit and so does not trigger the Tree Canopy Law
- Painting, wallpapering, interior finishes, cabinets, flooring and trim
- Like-for-like replacement of windows and doors in the same opening
- Small detached accessory structures below the jurisdiction's exemption threshold and fences below its height limit — the zoning rules still apply
- Minor repairs that do not remove or alter structural members
What is actually local, and what is not
The code editions are the state's. Montgomery County's layer is the enforcing office and its amendments to the building and residential codes, its fee schedule, its grading and stormwater ordinances under the state's delegation, and the Tree Canopy Law and roadside tree permits that ride on the sediment control permit, and the fees the department collects for other county agencies.
Who handles permitting in Montgomery County?
The Department of Permitting Services is the enforcing office, reviewing the building, residential and energy codes and issuing the trade permits alongside; it also issues sediment control, stormwater, floodplain district, right-of-way, well and septic permits. The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission handles forest conservation plans and exemptions under the Forest Conservation Act, the Department of Environmental Protection administers the Tree Canopy Law, and the county requires a pre-construction meeting on site before any clearing or grading begins.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Department | Montgomery County Department of Permitting Services |
| Office | 2425 Reedie Drive, 7th floor, Wheaton, MD 20902 |
| Phone | (240) 777-6300 |
| Hours | Monday to Friday, 7:30 am to 4:00 pm |
| Filing | Electronic application through the department's eServices; plans uploaded within five business days of acceptance |
| Forest conservation | Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission plan or exemption |
Permit types
Residential permits
A Montgomery County house project files electronically, with the zoning determination, the sediment control application and the building permit moving together; for a new house on an existing recorded lot the department accepts an Engineered Sediment Control Permit for Single Family Lots, though not for townhouses. A contractor altering or improving a house holds a Maryland Home Improvement Commission licence, and a new-home builder shows the state builder registration. The tree canopy obligation, the roadside tree protection plan and the forest conservation exemption are all settled before the permit issues.
How Maryland contractor credentials work
Maryland has no state general contractor license for commercial work, but home improvement is licensed outright: the Maryland Home Improvement Commission licenses contractors who alter, repair or improve residential property, with an examination, proof of financial solvency and a guaranty fund that pays homeowners for a licensee's defective or incomplete work. New construction is different again: a home builder registers with the Home Builder Registration Unit of the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division under the Maryland Home Builder Registration Act, and the registration number goes on the permit. Electricians, plumbers and gas fitters, and HVACR contractors are licensed statewide by their boards at the Department of Labor, and Montgomery County verifies those licenses at the permit counter. Owner-occupants may build on their own home without the home improvement license, and Montgomery County licenses no trades of its own beyond any local registration its ordinance keeps.
Commercial permits
Commercial development in Montgomery County runs the site through sediment control and stormwater management first, with waivers priced in lieu where on-site management is not provided, then through building plan review. Special Protection Areas add stream and monitoring fees, an engineered permit is valid for two years from issuance, and a bond is posted before issuance and returned when the final inspection passes.
Prior approvals, plan review and the local clock
A Maryland building permit is one application reviewed by the local office's plan reviewers for the building, residential and energy codes, with the electrical, plumbing and mechanical trades permitted alongside it. The approvals that run ahead of it are the ones that decide the schedule: zoning certification, a grading permit with a sediment and erosion control plan approved by the soil conservation district, stormwater management under the Maryland Department of the Environment's delegation, forest conservation under the Forest Conservation Act where the site disturbs enough land, and Critical Area review within a thousand feet of tidal waters. In Montgomery County the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission reviews forest conservation, the county's Special Protection Areas add monitoring obligations, and the roadside tree laws require both a county and a state permit before a street tree is touched. Unlike the states with a statutory review clock, Maryland leaves review times to each jurisdiction — Montgomery County publishes its own targets, and they are the number to plan against.
Montgomery County permit costs and fees
Fees follow the county executive's fee regulation, with a non-refundable filing fee due at application and the balance due before issuance — except on engineered sediment control permits, where the balance runs on its own clock.
| Item | Fee or rule |
|---|---|
| Filing fee | Non-refundable, paid at application; permitting fees are based on the application date |
| Balance | Due before permit issuance, except engineered sediment control |
| Engineered sediment control | Balance due one year after issuance or before the final inspection, whichever comes first |
| Extension | Fifteen percent of the total permit fee in effect when the extension is requested |
| Other agencies | Tree canopy, roadside tree and stormwater waiver fees collected by the department at plan review |
| Bond | Posted before issuance and returned when the department finalises the permit |
The fee clock is set by the application date. The department prices permits on the date the application was received, not the date the permit issues — an application filed before a new fee regulation takes effect is charged at the old schedule even if issuance falls afterwards. Filing early is worth money in Montgomery County, and an extension is charged at fifteen percent of the fee then in effect.
Trade permits and who may pull them
Trade work is permitted separately from the building permit in most Maryland jurisdictions and inspected by the office's trade inspectors, with the state boards' licenses verified at issuance.
Permit required
- Roadside trees — both a county permit and a Maryland Roadside Tree Law permit before planting, pruning or removal
- Electrical — state-licensed master electrician; separate electrical permit
- Plumbing and gas — state-licensed master plumber or gas fitter; separate plumbing and gas permits
- HVACR — state-licensed HVACR contractor; mechanical permit
- Fire protection, alarms and sprinklers — fire marshal review, state or local, with the building permit
Typically exempt
- Like-for-like fixture, receptacle and switch replacement where the licensing boards' rules allow it
- Low-voltage and communications wiring below the local permit threshold
How to apply for a Montgomery County building permit
Zoning certification, grading and sediment control, stormwater, forest conservation and Critical Area review run ahead of the building permit.
The Maryland Home Improvement Commission license, or the home builder registration number, goes on the application.
The local application with the building, residential and energy code submittals the scope requires, and trade permits alongside.
Reviewers in the local office check the building, residential and energy codes as the jurisdiction amended them; corrections are answered in writing.
Fees follow the jurisdiction's ordinance and are due before issuance.
Footing to final by permit number, then the use and occupancy certificate that closes the permit.
Review, corrections and what actually causes delay
Montgomery County reviews electronically, and plans must be uploaded within five business days of the application being accepted or the application is voided and fees may be forfeited. What delays a file here is a sediment control application filed after the building permit, a forest conservation exemption not yet obtained from the planning commission, and a pre-construction meeting held before the limits of disturbance are staked.
Inspections in Montgomery County
Inspections follow the adopted codes' required sequence — footing, foundation, framing, rough trades, insulation and final — and are requested from the local office by permit number. Work that passes final receives a use and occupancy certificate for new buildings and changes of use, or a final approval on the permit for everything else. In Montgomery County the sediment control inspector holds a pre-construction meeting on site before any demolition, clearing or grading, and initial sediment control measures are installed and inspected before construction begins; the inspector then visits at intervals until the permit closes, and the final inspection is not passed until every disturbed area is stabilised.
Montgomery County permit search and official resources
- Montgomery County engineered sediment control — the thresholds, the pre-construction meeting and the permit term
- Montgomery County tree laws — the Tree Canopy Law and its link to the sediment control permit
- Montgomery County permitting fees — the fee regulations and the application-date rule
- Maryland Building Performance Standards — the statewide code adoptions from the Department of Labor's Building Codes Administration
- Maryland Home Improvement Commission — home improvement contractor licensing and the guaranty fund
- Home Builder Registration Unit — new home builder registration with the Attorney General
Frequently asked questions
Does a new house in Montgomery County need a sediment control permit?
Yes. The permit is required for any project that includes the construction of a new residential or commercial building, regardless of the disturbed area, as well as at 5,000 square feet of disturbance or 100 cubic yards of earth movement.
What triggers the Tree Canopy Law?
The sediment control permit. The Chapter 55 law applies only where a sediment control permit is required, and then obliges the owner to plant shade trees or pay into the Tree Canopy Conservation Account.
When are the fees due?
A non-refundable filing fee at application and the balance before issuance — except on engineered sediment control permits, where the balance is due one year after issuance or before the final inspection, whichever is first.
How long is an engineered permit good for?
Two years from the date of issuance, with an extension charged at fifteen percent of the fee then in effect.
Which code edition applies?
The 2021 editions of the International Building Code, International Residential Code and International Energy Conservation Code with Maryland modifications, effective statewide on May 29, 2023 under the Maryland Building Performance Standards, with local enforcement required from May 29, 2024.
Do Rockville and Gaithersburg use the county?
No. Both cities issue their own building permits; the county's jurisdiction stops at their municipal lines.
Simplify Montgomery County permitting with Alliance Permitting
Montgomery County decides most schedules at the sediment control stage, not the building plan stage. We file the sediment control and building applications together, settle the tree canopy and forest conservation obligations before review closes, and hold the pre-construction meeting with the limits staked.
Ready to break ground in Montgomery County sooner?
Send us the scope and the parcel. We confirm the review path with the Montgomery County Department of Permitting Services, assemble the submittal, file it, and track it through issuance — corrections included.
More Maryland permitting guides
More Maryland permitting guides
This guide is provided by Alliance Permitting for general information about Montgomery County permitting. Requirements, fees, and procedures change; confirm details with the permitting authority before relying on them.