Pole barns and barndominiums in Worcester County, Maryland.

In unincorporated Worcester County, the Worcester County Department of Development Review & Permitting (DRP) processes building, zoning and demolition permits at the Worcester County Government Center, 1 W. Market St., Room 1201, Snow Hill, MD 21863, phone (410) 632-1200. DRP does not accept incomplete applications and offers pre-application meetings. Its forms are PDFs, with no online portal referenced. Environmental Programs, in Room 1306 at (410) 632-1220, handles plumbing and gas permits, well and septic approvals and Critical Area review, and a licensed electrician pulls the electrical permit. None of those has to be issued before the building permit.

DRP requires a permit for all accessory structures, including fences, sheds, pole barns, lean-tos, pergolas and gazebos. Every application needs a signed form and a to-scale survey or site plan showing existing and proposed improvements, the flood zone and the well and septic locations. Under 500 square feet, an accessory structure goes through a zoning permit with a simplified floor plan. At 500 square feet or more, the building permit takes three sets of quarter-scale plans, including footings to frost depth, framing with uplift details and truss specifications. The county designs for 125 mph wind, exposure C, and exterior footings go at least 18 inches below finished grade.

We have found no Worcester County code section or affidavit form that exempts farm buildings from permits. DRP’s checklist routes “agricultural structures of any size” through a zoning permit application that needs only a simplified floor plan with dimensions, instead of the three sets of construction plans a building permit takes. Zoning rules still apply. A building used partly for agritourism is a special case: Resolution 24-01 puts Worcester under the state’s agritourism provisions, so the Maryland Building Performance Standards do not apply to an agricultural building where agritourism is an intended subordinate use, though zoning permits still do.

Worcester adopted one Critical Area law for both the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Coastal Bays in 2024 (Bill 24-05). It covers land within 1,000 feet of tidal waters, tidal wetlands and the heads of tide, with a buffer of at least 100 feet that widens for steep slopes, nontidal wetlands and certain soils, and new structures stay out of the buffer except for approved water-dependent facilities. The Natural Resources Division of Environmental Programs reviews it (410-632-1220 ext. 1161) and wants a call before any tree clearing. On the July 16, 2015 flood maps, accessory buildings are prohibited in V and Coastal A zones.