3 Maryland Waterfront Rules That Stay With the Property After Closing

You tour a waterfront home in Maryland, picture the sunsets and start planning weekend projects.

The shoreline has rules, though.

They stay with the property after closing, and they can limit what you’re allowed to build.

Here’s what Marylanders should know about the waterfront land they want to buy.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Waterfront rules are subject to change, so confirm the current details with your local planning office.

1. Critical Area Buffer

The Buffer is the land area immediately adjacent to tidal waters, tidal wetlands and tributary streams.

It sits inside the Critical Area’s 1,000-foot zone around tidal waters and tidal wetlands.

State regulations require a Buffer of at least 100 feet landward from the mean high water line of tidal waters.

According to the Department of Natural Resources, the Buffer can be wider on land with steep slopes, wetlands or sensitive soils.

Generally, you can’t clear trees, cut brush or grade in the Buffer.

You also can’t remove natural vegetation there without an approved Buffer Management Plan.

Water-dependent structures such as a boat ramp, structures that provide water access and structures tied to erosion control measures can be permitted in the Buffer.

The Buffer Management Plan regulation doesn’t apply to maintaining an existing grass lawn or garden there.

Before a final subdivision is recorded, the regulations require the applicant to post permanent signs along the Buffer’s upland boundary when development on the lot is located inside the Buffer.

Those signs are permanent, so you may find them posted along the Buffer’s edge on a lot you buy.

When the development is inside the Buffer, the applicant also has to record an easement or similar instrument for a Buffer management plan with the final plat.

Before you buy property in the Critical Area, check with the local planning office about all of the restrictions, limitations and requirements that apply.

If an applicant fails to implement a Buffer management plan, that failure is a violation of the local Critical Area program.

A local jurisdiction may not issue a permit or other approval of a development activity for a property that is the subject of a violation of that kind.

If you’re buying a lot that’s the subject of a violation of that kind, a permit request for it could be blocked.

2. Lot Coverage Limits

Lot coverage on your waterfront lot, under state law, includes a structure, accessory structure, parking area, driveway, walkway or roadway.

Ground covered with gravel, stone, shell, decking, pavers, permeable pavement or any manmade material counts too, with a few exclusions.

A walkway or stairway in the Buffer that provides direct access to a community or private pier is among the exclusions.

The lot coverage cap in the Buffer is the minimum amount necessary for water-dependent uses, regardless of your lot’s size or Critical Area classification.

A modified buffer area, a variance or a waterfront revitalization or industrial area under a local program can change that.

If you’re buying a lot that’s already built on, one definition matters.

For lot coverage purposes, Maryland law calls a property legally developed when all of its physical improvements meet one of two tests.

The improvements either existed before the Critical Area Commission approved the local program or were properly permitted under the local program when built.

A lot or parcel legally developed as of July 1, 2008 may be considered legally nonconforming for purposes of lot coverage requirements.

If you’re buying a lot with a driveway or patio on it, whether it’s legally developed depends on the improvements already there.

In the Limited Development and Resource Conservation Areas, lot coverage is generally limited to 15 percent of the parcel or lot.

Those two zones cover land that’s lightly or moderately developed, plus natural areas.

There are no lot coverage limits within Intensely Developed Areas.

Small lots get more.

A lot of one-half acre or less that existed on or before December 1, 1985 is limited to 25 percent in the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area.

The in-Buffer limit applies regardless of the size of the parcel or lot.

3. Accretion and Shoreline Stabilization

In general legal terms, accretion adds soil, sand and other earth to the part of a property that borders water, according to Cornell’s Legal Information Institute.

Maryland law entitles the owner of land bounding on navigable water to any natural accretion to that land.

That owner is you.

You can also reclaim land lost to erosion during your ownership, to the extent of provable existing boundaries.

That right applies only to land lost after January 1, 1972.

As the owner, you have the burden of proving that the loss came after that date.

You can make improvements into the water in front of your land, which may require a state license.

A person may not dredge or fill on State wetlands without a license.

Once an improvement is built, it’s the property of whoever owns the land it’s attached to.

Those improvements can serve two purposes, preserving your access to the water and protecting the shore against erosion.

But improvements to protect your property against erosion must consist of nonstructural measures that preserve the natural environment, such as marsh creation, with two exceptions.

The first exception covers areas the Maryland Department of the Environment has mapped as appropriate for structural measures.

The second exception covers areas where you can show the department that nonstructural measures aren’t feasible, including areas of excessive erosion or heavy tides.

Asking for a Variance

You can ask your local government for a variance from a Critical Area limit that blocks your waterfront plans.

State law requires the local government to presume that your project doesn’t conform with the general purpose and intent of the Critical Area law.

You carry the burden of proof and the burden of persuasion to overcome that presumption.

You have to show special features of your site, or conditions peculiar to your land or structure, that make literal enforcement an unwarranted hardship.

Unwarranted hardship means you’d be denied reasonable and significant use of the entire parcel or lot without the variance.

You also have to show that, without the variance, you’d be deprived of a use of land or a structure permitted to others under the program.

The local government has to find that you’ve satisfied each one of the variance provisions.

Fines and Stop-Work Orders

Your county or town carries out the Critical Area rules at the local level, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

Local governments have wide discretion in deciding how to deal with violations.