Buying Land in Anne Arundel County, Maryland

A county defined by water: more than 533 miles of shoreline

Anne Arundel occupies a broad stretch of the Chesapeake Bay's western shore, bounded by the Patapsco River to the north and reaching south past the Severn, South, and West Rivers -- a geography that gives the county more than 533 miles of shoreline by its own accounting. That's an unusually extensive tidal edge for a single Maryland county, and it's the reason the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Act (covered in full on our Maryland state page) functions here as a routine planning consideration rather than a rare exception. Anne Arundel's own Critical Area Program was first approved by the state Critical Area Commission back in 1988, among the earlier county programs certified under the 1984 law.

The practical takeaway for a land buyer: because tidal creeks and wetlands reach well inland throughout this county, a parcel that looks purely inland on a map -- not visibly waterfront -- can still fall inside the 1,000-foot Critical Area boundary, and can still be subject to the added 100-foot shoreline buffer if it borders a tidal tributary directly. Never assume Critical Area status from a listing description or general location; confirm the parcel's boundary status and its Intensely Developed, Limited Development, or Resource Conservation Area designation with the county's Office of Planning and Zoning before evaluating buildable density.

Charter government: an elected County Executive administers zoning policy

Anne Arundel is a charter county, meaning it operates under a home-rule charter with an elected County Executive and a separately elected County Council, rather than the traditional Board of County Commissioners structure used in roughly half of Maryland's counties. That distinguishes Anne Arundel's government from smaller, more rural Maryland counties, though it doesn't change the underlying research task for a land buyer: the county's Office of Planning and Zoning still administers zoning day to day, under Article 18 of the Anne Arundel County Code, and appointed boards (whose members the County Executive names) handle planning-related administrative functions.

One structural wrinkle worth knowing: Annapolis, the county seat and Maryland's state capital, is an incorporated municipality within Anne Arundel County, not merely an address inside it -- meaning it runs its own separate zoning code and planning department for land within city limits, distinct from the county's Article 18 ordinance that governs unincorporated Anne Arundel. Confirm which jurisdiction -- city or county -- actually governs a specific parcel before assuming either one's rules apply by default.

Septic and well permitting under COMAR, with Bay Restoration Fund priority

Septic and well construction in Anne Arundel follow Maryland's statewide COMAR 26.04.02 and 26.04.04 standards described on our Maryland state page, administered locally by the county Health Department as the Approving Authority. Given how much of the county's land sits inside the Critical Area, the state's Bay Restoration Fund -- which subsidizes upgrading an older conventional septic system to a nitrogen-reducing design -- is a genuinely relevant program to ask about for any parcel here with an existing, older system, since Critical Area proximity is explicitly one of the fund's stated priorities. If you're evaluating a lot with an existing septic system rather than raw, unimproved land, ask the Health Department directly whether that system has already been upgraded or is eligible for BRF assistance.

Short-term rentals: Annapolis and the county run different rules

Anyone buying with short-term-rental income in mind should know that Anne Arundel actually runs two separate rulebooks. Since October 2025, the City of Annapolis caps new short-term-rental licenses at 10% of the residential units on any single city block face (with blocks under 10 units limited to just one license), phasing existing over-cap rentals down through a lottery starting in November 2027. Outside Annapolis, unincorporated Anne Arundel County instead uses an older, more permissive registration system under Title 13A of the county code -- a two-unit-per-host cap, a 24-hour minimum stay, and a $100 two-year fee, with no block-level density ceiling at all. Which rulebook applies depends entirely on which side of the city line a parcel sits on; see our dedicated short-term-rentals page for Anne Arundel County for the full detail on both systems.