Buying Land in Garrett County, Maryland

Maryland's only county with no countywide zoning

This is the single most important fact to understand before buying rural land anywhere in Garrett County: unlike every other Maryland county, Garrett has no zoning ordinance that applies countywide. Zoning exists only within the incorporated municipal boundaries of the county's 6 towns -- Accident, Friendsville, Grantsville, Loch Lynn Heights, Mountain Lake Park, and Oakland (the county seat) -- and within the separately administered Deep Creek Watershed Zoning Ordinance, originally adopted June 1, 1975 and most recently updated effective May 25, 2010, which zones land around Deep Creek Lake into agricultural, commercial, residential, rural, and town-use categories. Outside those specific, mapped boundaries -- which together cover only a fraction of the county's 649.1 square miles -- there is simply no zoning district to look up, because none has ever been adopted for that land.

That doesn't mean rural Garrett County land outside these boundaries is unregulated, but it does mean the regulatory framework is different in kind from what a buyer would expect in nearly any other US county. Instead of a zoning ordinance controlling use, density, and setbacks, land outside the towns and the Deep Creek Watershed is governed primarily by the county's Subdivision Ordinance -- which controls how a parcel can be divided into smaller lots, road and infrastructure standards for new subdivisions, and related site requirements, but does not itself function as a use-based zoning code the way a conventional Agricultural or Rural Residential zoning district would. This distinction -- and what it concretely means for what you can and can't do on unzoned Garrett County land -- is developed in full on our dedicated zoning standalone for the county.

A genuinely rural, genuinely cold mountain county

Garrett occupies Maryland's westernmost tip, and its climate reflects that mountain geography more than its state affiliation: it is Maryland's coldest county, running 6.1 degrees below the statewide average temperature, with winters bringing 104.9 inches of average annual snowfall and January temperatures averaging just 27.8°F -- summers, by contrast, are mild, averaging only about 70.7°F in July. Secondary reporting on the region's climate describes it as more closely resembling parts of New England than the rest of Maryland. At 649.1 square miles, Garrett is Maryland's second-largest county by total land area but among its least populous, a combination that produces genuinely low land-use pressure across most of its unzoned rural acreage -- distinct from the exurban growth pressure seen in counties like Charles, Calvert, Carroll, or Frederick.

This page focuses on that inland, countywide zoning and land-use reality rather than on Deep Creek Lake's specific waterfront real estate market, which involves its own distinct set of considerations (Deep Creek Watershed zoning, shoreline management, and lake-specific development rules) better covered by resources specializing in lake-market property. For land outside the Deep Creek Watershed boundary, the absence-of-zoning fact pattern described above is the more consequential story for most buyers evaluating raw acreage in this county.

A live transmission-line project is seeking new easements from landowners

Separate from the zoning-absence issue above, Garrett County landowners are currently being approached about a proposed high-voltage transmission line, the Mid-Atlantic Resiliency Link (MARL) -- a roughly 105-mile, 500-kilovolt line that would need a new easement corridor about 200 feet wide and 35 miles long through Garrett and Allegany Counties, affecting an estimated 1,000 acres of state wildlands and private property. The project's developer, NextEra Energy Transmission, has a certificate application pending before the Maryland Public Service Commission, with a decision not expected until late 2027 or early 2028, so the final route was not yet fixed as of this research pass.

In May 2025, Garrett County's own government publicly urged landowners approached about signing a MARL-related easement to proceed with caution, get independent legal counsel before signing, and check with any USDA or conservation program they participate in first, since a new easement can affect program eligibility. See our dedicated easements page for Garrett County for the project's current status, the 2025 state legislation affecting nearby protected wildlands, and specific steps to take before signing anything.

Septic and well permitting: the real constraint on unzoned land

With no countywide zoning to define allowed uses or density across most of the county, septic and well permitting -- following the statewide COMAR 26.04.02 and 26.04.04 framework covered on our Maryland state page, administered locally by the Garrett County Health Department -- functions as one of the primary practical gates on what can actually be built on a given rural parcel. In the absence of a zoning district setting minimum lot size, a site's ability to support a code-compliant septic system (which itself has a functional minimum-area requirement based on soil conditions and setback rules) often does more to determine buildability here than any zoning designation would. Confirm perc test results and septic system feasibility early in your due diligence on any Garrett County parcel outside the 6 towns and the Deep Creek Watershed.