Queen Anne's County's Department of Planning and Zoning at 110 Vincit Street in Centreville permits construction across the Eastern Shore county at the foot of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Its largest community, Stevensville on Kent Island, is unincorporated — so the county, not a town hall, is the permitting authority for the county's busiest stretch of development, and the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area reaches a thousand feet inland from tidal water across a great deal of it.
That makes the Critical Area question the first one on most Queen Anne's parcels. Inside it the county administers lot coverage limits, clearing restrictions and the shoreline buffer under the state Critical Area programme, with the county's own maps determining which land use designation applies; outside it the ordinary permit route applies, with the county's health department reviewing wells and septic systems across the unsewered farmland that makes up most of the county's area.
This guide covers Queen Anne's County, including Stevensville, Chester and Grasonville on Kent Island, all unincorporated. Centreville, Queenstown, Sudlersville, Church Hill, Millington, Barclay and Templeville are incorporated towns with their own roles; confirm the town's requirements before filing inside one.
Kent Island is county land. The county's most populous place, Stevensville, is a census-designated place rather than an incorporated town — as are Chester and Grasonville. The development pressure at the bridgehead sits on unincorporated land, which means the county permits it, and the Critical Area rules along that shoreline are the county's to administer.
What requires a building permit in Queen Anne's 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 Queen Anne's 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 Queen Anne's 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
- Development activity within the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area, subject to lot coverage, clearing and buffer limits
- Construction on unsewered land, which needs the health department's well and septic approvals
- Work in the county's mapped floodplain along the bay and the Chester and Wye rivers
- 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
- Work outside the Critical Area that the adopted codes place below the permit threshold; the department confirms a specific project
- 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. Queen Anne's 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 Chesapeake Bay Critical Area along the Kent Island and Chester River shorelines that the department administers with the building permit.
Who handles permitting in Queen Anne's County?
The Department of Planning and Zoning is the enforcing office, administering zoning, the Critical Area programme and the building permits for unincorporated land from Centreville. The county health department reviews wells and on-site sewage disposal, the soil conservation district reviews sediment and erosion control, and the state Critical Area Commission approves the county's Critical Area mapping and programme.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Department | Queen Anne's County Department of Planning and Zoning |
| Office | 110 Vincit Street, Suite 104, Centreville, MD 21617 |
| Phone | (410) 758-1255 |
| Hours | Monday to Friday, 8:00 am to 4:30 pm |
| Critical Area | Chesapeake Bay Critical Area, administered by the department with the county's maps |
| Health | County health department for well and on-site sewage disposal approvals |
Permit types
Residential permits
A Queen Anne's house project checks the Critical Area position and the septic capacity before design, since one governs the lot coverage and clearing and the other governs the bedroom count. The application then goes to planning and zoning at Centreville with the health department's approvals where the lot is unsewered, and a contractor improving the house holds the state home improvement licence while a new-home builder shows the state registration.
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 Queen Anne's County verifies those licenses at the permit counter. Owner-occupants may build on their own home without the home improvement license, and Queen Anne's County licenses no trades of its own beyond any local registration its ordinance keeps.
Commercial permits
Commercial development in Queen Anne's clusters at the bridgehead and along the Route 50 corridor, on unincorporated land the county permits directly, with Critical Area designations, stormwater management and the soil conservation district's sediment control review running alongside the building plan review.
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 Queen Anne's County the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area reaches a thousand feet inland from tidal water along Kent Island and the Chester, Wye and Corsica rivers, the soil conservation district reviews sediment control, and the health department governs the county's large unsewered area. Unlike the states with a statutory review clock, Maryland leaves review times to each jurisdiction — Queen Anne's County publishes its own targets, and they are the number to plan against.
Queen Anne's County permit costs and fees
Fees follow the county's schedule, with Critical Area, health department and soil conservation charges made by their own offices alongside the building permit.
| Item | Fee or rule |
|---|---|
| Building permit | County schedule by project type and scope |
| Critical Area review | Charged on development activity within the mapped Critical Area |
| Health approvals | Well and on-site sewage disposal fees charged by the county health department |
| Sediment control | Soil conservation district review on qualifying disturbance |
| Zoning | Administered by the same department as the building permit |
| Municipal permits | Charged by the town where the work is inside an incorporated municipality |
Septic capacity caps the bedrooms. Across the county's unsewered farmland the health department's approval of the on-site sewage disposal system sets the number of bedrooms a house may have — an interior conversion that adds one beyond the approved count raises a septic question the building permit cannot answer. Confirm the system's approved capacity before drawing the plan.
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
- Unsewered lots — county health department well and septic approvals with the building permit
- 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 Queen Anne's 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
Queen Anne's reviews zoning, Critical Area and building together from one department, with health and soil conservation running beside it. What delays a file here is a Critical Area designation discovered after design, a bedroom added beyond the septic capacity, and a project inside a town filed with the county.
Inspections in Queen Anne's 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. Queen Anne's County inspects through the department, with Critical Area compliance checked alongside the building work on parcels inside the mapped area and the health department inspecting wells and septic systems on its own track.
Queen Anne's County permit search and official resources
- Maryland local codes and contacts by county — the state's directory of county enforcing offices
- Maryland Building Performance Standards — the statewide code editions the county enforces
- Maryland Critical Area Commission — the state programme the county administers locally
- 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
Who permits Stevensville and Kent Island?
The county. Stevensville, Chester and Grasonville are unincorporated, so the Department of Planning and Zoning permits and inspects there.
What is the Critical Area here?
The Chesapeake Bay Critical Area, reaching a thousand feet inland from tidal water, with lot coverage limits, clearing restrictions and a shoreline buffer administered by the department under the state programme.
Does a septic system limit my house?
Yes. The health department's approval sets the number of bedrooms the system may serve, which caps what an addition or conversion can add.
Do the towns permit their own work?
Centreville, Queenstown, Sudlersville, Church Hill, Millington, Barclay and Templeville have their own roles; confirm the town's requirements before filing inside one.
Where is the department?
At 110 Vincit Street in Centreville, open Monday to Friday from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm.
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.
Simplify Queen Anne's County permitting with Alliance Permitting
In Queen Anne's the shoreline and the septic system set the envelope before the code does. We settle the Critical Area designation and the system's approved capacity first, then file zoning, health and building so they move together rather than in sequence.
Ready to break ground in Queen Anne's County sooner?
Send us the scope and the parcel. We confirm the review path with the Queen Anne's County Department of Planning and Zoning, 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 Queen Anne's County permitting. Requirements, fees, and procedures change; confirm details with the permitting authority before relying on them.