Calvert County property owners who want to build closer to the water than the rules allow now face a steeper climb. A state law that took effect Oct. 1 tightens the standards for variances in the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area, the band of land within 1,000 feet of tidal water that covers much of Calvert’s shoreline.
The law, House Bill 247, was requested by the state Critical Area Commission. It passed the House 96-37 and the Senate 33-8 and was signed April 14 as Chapter 79 of 2026. Calvert’s Board of Appeals got its first briefing on the changes on Oct. 1, the day they took effect.
“These two criteria are, as I understand them, deliberately intended to tighten up variances in general,” a county planning official told the board.
What changes for property owners
Under the bill’s text, an owner seeking a Critical Area variance must now show:
- A substantial need that is “not based on convenience, personal preference, or financial advantage.” Saving money on construction is no longer a reason.
- That the project cannot go anywhere else. The development must be impossible to place outside a habitat protection area, such as the shoreline buffer.
The law also adds limits:
- Existing sheds and garages count against you. If a property already has an accessory structure, the law presumes the owner already has reasonable use of the land. An owner who wants a second garage will have to explain why.
- Comparisons must be apples to apples. Owners can point only to similar properties in the Critical Area that were developed legally after the local program was adopted.
- Some requests are off the table. Counties may not accept variance applications to allow a use the land classification forbids, to reduce required mitigation, or to get relief available through an administrative process.
- Appeals get harder. When someone appeals a staff decision on a variance, the Board of Appeals must decide it on the existing record and defer to the staff’s findings of fact.
What it means in Calvert
The rules apply to any variance application received on or after Oct. 1, even if the related building permit was filed earlier, board staff said. Because hearings are scheduled weeks out, the new standard likely won’t show up at a Calvert hearing until early 2027. The board’s next meeting is tentatively set for December.
The planning official gave an example of the new approach already at work: a ground-mounted solar project that never reached the board because the state found it could have been placed outside the expanded buffer, so it was not eligible for a variance at all.
Staff said they do not expect more cases, but each will take longer. Board members said they will have to write more detailed decisions, spelling out why each criterion is met instead of simply restating it. “Although we would like to say yes to everyone, sometimes the answer may have to be no,” members were told. The Critical Area Commission plans to send boards a recorded training on the changes.
The four cases the board heard the same morning were filed under the old rules, and all four were approved on voice votes with no opposition heard: a home on a steep slope above the Patuxent River in Huntingtown, a roughly 96-foot concrete retaining wall to stop erosion in Port Republic, a smaller front setback for a new house in Lusby’s Drum Point, and two sheds in the buffer setback on an Island Creek property in St. Leonard. The changes also come as Calvert itself moved in September to ease its own replanting requirements in the Critical Area, and two days after commissioners filled vacant Board of Appeals seats.
Property owners with questions about whether a project needs a Critical Area variance can contact Calvert County Planning & Zoning or review the county’s Critical Area ordinance.
