Howard County, MD raises shed and fence permit-exemption limits (CB24-2025)

Howard County, Maryland now allows bigger permit-free sheds and taller permit-free fences under its updated building code (CB24-2025, effective September 7, 2025). A detached accessory structure like a shed, playhouse, or gazebo can be up to 200 square feet with a roof eave no higher than 10 feet without a permit, up from the old 120 square foot limit. A fence can go up to 7 feet high without a permit, and a permit is only required if it exceeds that height or encloses a swimming pool. None of these exemptions apply to structures in the floodplain, and several other small jobs on existing single-family homes, like reroofing without structural work, small decks under 25 square feet, or short retaining walls, were also added to the permit-exempt list.

Moving from 120 to 200 square feet is bigger than it sounds

A 120 square foot shed is a 10 by 12. A 200 square foot shed is a 10 by 20, which is the size at which a shed stops being a garden store and starts being a workshop.

Howard moving that line also moved it onto the most common number in the country. Of the 107 jurisdictions we cover that publish a square-foot shed threshold, 38 use 200, which is what the model residential code exempts and the single most frequent figure in our data. The number Howard left behind, 120, is the second most common at 30. Howard has gone from one widely used answer to the more widely used one.

The fence change lands on the same pattern. Seven feet is the model code’s number, and Howard now uses it.

What Howard charges when a permit is required

Howard’s fee architecture is the opposite of a valuation-based schedule, and it is unusually simple: most accessory structures are $50 per structure, plus a 10 percent technology fee on all permits.

• Deck: $50 per structure.
• Shed over 200 and up to 400 sq ft: $50. Under 200 sq ft, no permit and no fee.
• Fence over 7 feet or enclosing a pool: $50. At or under 7 feet and not enclosing a pool, nothing.
• Solar, roof or ground mounted: $50 per structure.
• Pool: $100 above ground, $250 in ground, with fence and grading included.
• Electrical: $50 application fee plus $50 for 25 or fewer outlets and fixtures.
• Plumbing: $50 filing fee, then a $25 residential minimum including the first fixture and $5 per additional fixture.
• HVAC: $50 application plus $40 per heating or cooling zone.

The contrast with Montgomery County

Montgomery County, also in Maryland, charges $223.87 for an open deck of 500 square feet or less. Howard charges $50 for a deck. Same state, same state code, four and a half times the fee.

The two counties are not disagreeing about the law. They are answering a different question. Montgomery prices a permit against the size of the thing being built, with a schedule quoted to the cent and a separate rate for every project type. Howard prices most accessory structures at one flat figure and lets the differences wash out.

There is a second structural difference underneath it. Montgomery does not issue plumbing permits at all, having handed them to WSSC, while Howard issues its own on its own schedule. So a homeowner replacing a water heater in these two Maryland counties deals with two different institutions.

What to take from this

Howard’s changes make the county meaningfully more permissive for small backyard work, and the exemptions are real: a 199 square foot shed, a 7 foot fence and a deck under 25 square feet now need nothing.

Roofing is exempt too, with a limit worth knowing. Replacing the roof covering with no other structural repair is exempt, and that includes replacing up to 64 square feet of sheathing. Go past 64 square feet of sheathing, or do any other structural repair, and it is a building permit. Rot found once the old roof is off is exactly how a job crosses that line mid-week.

The floodplain carve-out is the part to check first, because it voids all of it. And an exemption from a building permit has never been an exemption from zoning, which sets setbacks and lot coverage regardless of whether anyone at the permit counter wants to see you.