Maryland Riparian Rights: Ownership, Permits, and Buffers

Maryland riparian rights let you, as the owner of land bordering navigable water, reach and use that water, protect your shoreline, and build water-dependent improvements like piers into it. They do not let you treat the waterway as private property. The state owns everything below the mean high water line and holds it in trust for the public, so every use you make of the water sits inside a framework of state permits, federal permits, and Critical Area buffer rules that can override what you thought you bought.

Where Your Ownership Ends

Private waterfront ownership in Maryland stops at the mean high water line. The strip between mean high water and mean low water, along with all submerged land beneath navigable waters, belongs to the state under the public trust doctrine.¹ That land is held for the benefit of all Maryland residents, which is why your riparian rights are always subordinate to public interests in navigation, fishing, and environmental health.

The state’s rulebook splits sharply between tidal and non-tidal waters, and the distinction matters because different statutes and different permit offices apply. Tidal wetlands and waterways, meaning any land affected by the regular rise and fall of the tide, fall under Environment Article Title 16, in force since July 1, 1970. That title prohibits filling, dredging, draining, or building any structure in tidal wetlands without a license or permit from the Maryland Department of the Environment or the Board of Public Works.² It also preserves whatever rights a riparian owner held before the law took effect.¹ Non-tidal wetlands and waterways are governed separately under Environment Article Title 5, Subtitle 9, and require a permit from MDE’s Non-Tidal Wetlands Division.³

What You Can and Cannot Build

Maryland follows a reasonable use doctrine: you can use the water adjacent to your property for domestic, agricultural, or recreational purposes as long as you do not unreasonably interfere with other riparian owners or the public. Inside that broad standard, the statute gives you concrete rights. You are entitled to natural accretion. You can make improvements into the water to preserve access to navigable water or to protect your shore from erosion. Once you build a permitted improvement, it becomes your property.⁴

The hard limit is the water-dependent requirement. You cannot build structures in tidal wetlands that serve no water-dependent purpose. In People’s Counsel for Baltimore County v. Maryland Marine Manufacturing Co. (1989), Maryland’s Court of Appeals rejected a proposed restaurant on a pier over Frog Mortar Creek, holding that it fell outside permissible riparian improvements under the tidal wetlands statute. The court also held that county zoning could not authorize construction the state statute itself prohibits.⁵ State law sets a ceiling. Local rules cannot raise it.

Practically, that means piers, boat ramps, mooring structures, bulkheads, and bank stabilization are the kinds of projects that fit inside a riparian improvement right. A commercial building on a pier does not.

When Your Shoreline Moves

Waterfront boundaries change over time, and Maryland treats gradual change very differently from sudden change.

Accretion: when natural forces slowly deposit soil, sand, or sediment along your shoreline, you gain ownership of the new land and your boundary moves with the water.
Erosion and avulsion: if you lose fast land to erosion or a sudden change in the waterway, you can reclaim it to the extent of your provable prior boundaries, but only for land lost after January 1, 1972, and you carry the burden of proving the loss happened after that date.
Permitted improvements: once you build a permitted structure extending into navigable water, that improvement is yours even though the submerged land beneath it belongs to the state.

These rules come from Environment Article Section 16-201.⁴ The January 1972 cutoff catches many Chesapeake Bay owners off guard: decades of slow shoreline retreat may fall outside the reclamation right if you cannot document when it happened. Temporary or seasonal water level changes do not shift boundaries at all. The change has to be permanent.

Do Riparian Rights Come With the Deed

Riparian rights presumptively transfer with the deed when waterfront property changes hands. If you buy land bordering navigable water, you generally receive the associated rights automatically. There are two exceptions worth checking before closing: rights that were previously severed from the property, and deed language expressly reserving them to the seller. Review the deed history. Discovering that a prior owner carved out and retained the riparian rights tends to happen at the worst possible moment, which is when you apply for a pier permit and are told you are not the holder.

Permits You Need Before Building

Nearly any physical work in or near Maryland’s waterways requires a permit from MDE, and most projects also need federal authorization from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The state uses a Joint Federal/State Application so you can submit once and address both tracks together, though the reviewers apply different standards and a project can clear one and fail the other.⁶

Tidal Wetland License

Before any work involving construction, reconstruction, dredging, or filling in tidal wetlands, you need either a license from the Board of Public Works or a license or permit from MDE.² Without authorization, you cannot deposit any material on tidal wetlands, excavate or remove material, construct any structure in, on, over, or under them, destroy natural vegetation, or alter tidal flow. MDE evaluates each application on environmental impact, public access, and navigation.

Non-Tidal Wetlands Permit

Work in non-tidal wetlands or their buffers needs a separate permit under Environment Article Title 5, Subtitle 9, issued by MDE’s Non-Tidal Wetlands Division. The program authorizes only necessary and unavoidable impacts.³

Federal Section 10 and Section 404 Permits

Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 requires Army Corps authorization for any structure in or over navigable waters. That sweeps in floating docks, piers, boat ramps, bulkheads, bank stabilization, mooring structures, and subaqueous utility lines, and it extends to work outside the navigable channel if the activity affects the waterway’s course, location, or condition.⁷ Section 404 of the Clean Water Act requires a separate permit before discharging dredged or fill material into waters of the United States, including wetlands. For routine work like utility crossings, bank stabilization, and minor road crossings, the Corps uses nationwide permits that streamline low-impact projects, subject to general conditions, regional conditions from the Corps district office, and state water quality certification under Section 401.

The Critical Area and the 100-Foot Buffer

The Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Law is where most waterfront development plans need the biggest adjustment. Under Natural Resources Article Section 8-1807, the Critical Area covers all land within 1,000 feet beyond the landward boundary of tidal waters and tidal wetlands.⁸ Every parcel inside that zone is assigned one of three classifications reflecting the predominant land use when it was mapped, and each classification carries its own intensity limits and performance standards for new development and redevelopment. Projects also have to use techniques that reduce pollutant loadings from stormwater runoff.⁹

Inside the Critical Area, a mandatory 100-foot buffer runs along all tidal waters, tidal wetlands, and tributary streams. New development that disturbs land, removes natural vegetation, or involves constructing a structure is generally prohibited inside the buffer.¹⁰ That one requirement removes the first 100 feet of your shoreline from the buildable portion of the lot. Local jurisdictions cannot weaken the minimum, and some impose wider buffers through their own programs.

Federal Navigational Servitude

One federal doctrine catches waterfront owners off guard. Under the navigational servitude, the federal government can improve, modify, or clear a navigable waterway without paying compensation for private property located within the waterway below the high water mark. The U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Rands (1967) extended this by ruling that when the government condemns land next to a navigable waterway, it is not required to compensate the owner for any part of the land’s value attributable to its water frontage. Congress moderated this through Section 111 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1970, but the core rule remains. Proximity to water does not guarantee compensation when federal navigational authority is exercised over that water.

When You Disagree With a Decision

If MDE denies your permit or attaches conditions you find unreasonable, you can appeal. Some agency decisions are heard by the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings, which conducts hearings and issues decisions for state agencies designated by the legislature.¹¹ Not every MDE decision routes through OAH, so confirm the correct path with the agency before you file. Once administrative remedies are exhausted, or when the fight is between private owners rather than with the state, Maryland circuit courts take over. Courts have repeatedly confirmed that riparian rights are not unlimited and must accommodate both public welfare and the rights of other owners, with People’s Counsel the leading illustration that state statutory limits override local zoning that would authorize more.⁵

1
Maryland General Assembly. House Bill 214 – Wetlands and Waterways – Riparian Rights
2
Library of Maryland Regulations. General Requirements for a State Tidal Wetlands License or Permit
3
Maryland OneStop. Non-Tidal Wetlands and Waterways Permit
4
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Environment Title 16 Subtitle 2 Section 16-201
5
CaseMine. People’s Counsel for Baltimore County v Maryland Marine Manufacturing Co Inc
6
Maryland OneStop. Tidal Wetland License
7
US Army Corps of Engineers. Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act
8
Maryland General Assembly. 2025 Maryland Statutes Natural Resources Title 8 Subtitle 18 Section 8-1807
9
Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Development in the Critical Area
10
Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Critical Area Buffer
11
Maryland Courts. Administrative Appeals