Pole barns and barndominiums in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

The Permit Center of the Anne Arundel County Department of Inspections and Permits is in the Heritage Office Complex, 2664 Riva Road, Annapolis, MD 21401, (410) 222-7730, and since December 1, 2025, nearly all new applications go in online through the Land Use Navigator. A detached garage, carport, shed over the size limit, pool or gazebo goes on a Residential Accessory Structure permit; a garage within 3 feet of the house counts as attached. The submittal includes construction plans drawn to a recognized architectural scale, a Critical Area Worksheet, a site plan drawn to an engineer’s scale and a Standard Grading Plan application.

Sheds no more than 10 feet tall with 150 square feet of floor area or less need no building permit, except in the Critical Area, where every shed does. The permit fee is based on the estimated value of the work, and garage applicants sign a notarized affidavit that the garage won’t be an independent dwelling unit or used commercially. The site plan shows easements, property lines, rights-of-way and any grinder pump, well and septic, and the Health Department checks well separation: in a 2024 case, a pole barn short of the 30-foot distance from a well needed a variance.

The county code exempts qualifying farm buildings from the building permit: livestock shelters and barns, milking barns, poultry shelters, equipment and machinery storage, greenhouses, grain silos, riding arenas, stables and similar buildings. The farm needs a current soil conservation and water quality plan from the Anne Arundel Soil Conservation District, and the building can’t be open to the public, over 40 feet tall, within 60 feet of another building unless cleared in a fire-safety review, or house animals or equipment owned by others without a written agreement. Zoning (RA or RLD), parcel size and agricultural assessment also factor in, and the county’s guides word that test differently, so we confirm it first.

The county’s Critical Area program, first approved in 1988, covers land within 1,000 feet of mean high tide or the edge of tidal wetlands. In Limited Development and Resource Conservation Areas, impervious surfaces are limited to 15 to 31 percent of the site and a 100-foot buffer is required, and any tree removal needs a Vegetation Management Plan; the Critical Area team is at (410) 222-7960. In flood zones, enclosed areas need at least two vents sized at 1 square inch per square foot, the finished floor elevation must be certified by a Maryland registered design professional, and V zones require column or pile foundations.