Zoning › Maryland › Montgomery County › Bethesda

Bethesda, MD Zoning

Euclidean-zoning. 26 districts · 3 overlays · 2 applicable state preemptions.

Overview

Code type
euclidean
Naming convention
mixed
Naming convention by category
residential_detachedlot-size-encoded (R-60 = 6,000 sf min lot; R-90 = 9,000 sf; R-200 = 20,000 sf)
commercial_residentialdensity-encoded (CR-5.0 = 5.0 max FAR; CRT-2.25 = 2.25 max FAR; each zone label encodes total FAR)

Bethesda is an unincorporated CDP governed entirely by Montgomery County Code Ch.59 (M-NCPPC). No incorporated-city code exists. Downtown Bethesda core is zoned CR and CRT (high-density mixed-use) around the Bethesda Metro (Red + Purple Line). Residential neighborhoods are predominantly R-60 and R-90. All 26 zone codes verified against Montgomery County Atlas GIS layer (mcatlas.org) for the Bethesda bbox.

Worth knowing
  • Bethesda is an UNINCORPORATED CDP — there is no separate Bethesda city code. All zoning is governed by Montgomery County Code Chapter 59 (2014 Zoning Ordinance, eff. 2014-10-30, Ord. No. 17-43). The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) is the zoning authority.
  • The Bethesda Downtown Overlay Zone (BOZ, §4.9.2) was established by ZTA 16-20 and adopted as Ordinance No. 18-28 in 2017, implementing the 2017 Bethesda Downtown Sector Plan. It allows Bonus Density (up to 3,289,000 sq ft cumulative) above mapped CR/CRT zoning in exchange for MPDUs (15%), Park Impact Payments ($10/sq ft), and Design Review.
  • The CR/CRT zone coding system encodes FAR and height directly in the zone name (e.g., CR-5.0 C-4.0 R-4.75 H-145 T): first number = total FAR, C-x = max commercial FAR, R-x = max residential FAR, H-x = max height in feet, T = transit-served site. Values verified from GIS LONGZONE field.

+ 3 more in Quirks & notes

Districts

mu 11res_sf 5res_mf 4res_th 2ind 2off 1com 1
CodeNameCategory Min lotHeight CoverageFAR Du/acParking Setbacks F/S/R
R-60Residential – 60 Zoneres_sf6,000 sf[1]35 ft[2]35[3]—[4]——[5]— / — / —
R-90Residential – 90 Zoneres_sf9,000 sf[6]35 ft[7]30[8]—[9]——[10]— / — / —
R-200Residential – 200 Zoneres_sf20,000 sf[11]50 ft[12]——[13]——[14]— / — / —
RE-2Residential Estate – 2 Zoneres_sf————[15]——[16]— / — / —
RE-2CResidential Estate – 2C Zoneres_sf————[17]——[18]— / — / —
R-HResidential – High Density Zoneres_mf——————[19]— / — / —
R-10Residential Multi-Unit High Density – 10 Zoneres_mf——————[20]— / — / —
R-20Residential Multi-Unit Medium Density – 20 Zoneres_mf——————[21]— / — / —
R-30Residential Multi-Unit Low Density – 30 Zoneres_mf——————[22]— / — / —
RT-10.0Residential Townhouse – 10.0 Zoneres_th————[23]——[24]— / — / —
RT-12.5Residential Townhouse – 12.5 Zoneres_th————[25]——[26]— / — / —
CRN-0.5Commercial/Residential Neighborhood – 0.5 FAR / H-35mu—[27]35 ft[28]—0.5[29]——— / — / —
CRT-0.25Commercial/Residential Town – 0.25 FAR / C-0.25 / R-0.25 / H-35mu—[30]35 ft[31]—0.25[32]——— / — / —
CRT-0.5Commercial/Residential Town – 0.5 FAR / C-0.5 / R-0.25 / H-45mu—[33]45 ft[34]—0.5[35]——— / — / —
CRT-0.75Commercial/Residential Town – 0.75 FAR / C-0.75 / R-0.5 / H-40mu—[36]40 ft[37]—0.75[38]——— / — / —
CRT-1.5Commercial/Residential Town – 1.5 FAR / C-1.5 / R-0.5 / H-40mu—[39]40 ft[40]—1.5[41]——— / — / —
CRT-2.25Commercial/Residential Town – 2.25 FAR / C-1.5 / R-0.75 / H-45mu—[42]45 ft[43]—2.25[44]——— / — / —
CR-0.75Commercial/Residential – 0.75 FAR / C-0.75 / R-0.25 / H-55 (Transit)mu—[45]55 ft[46]—0.75[47]——— / — / —
CR-1.0Commercial/Residential – 1.0 FAR / C-1.0 / R-0.75 / H-160mu—[48]160 ft[49]—1[50]——— / — / —
CR-2.0Commercial/Residential – 2.0 FAR / C-2.0 / R-1.5 / H-90 (Transit)mu—[51]90 ft[52]—2[53]——— / — / —
CR-3.0Commercial/Residential – 3.0 FAR / C-2.0 / R-1.0 / H-100 (Transit)mu—[54]100 ft[55]—3[56]——— / — / —
CR-5.0Commercial/Residential – 5.0 FAR / C-4.0 / R-4.75 / H-145 (Transit)mu—[57]145 ft[58]—5[59]——— / — / —
EOF-1.5Employment Office – 1.5 FAR / H-45off—[60]45 ft[61]—1.5[62]——— / — / —
LSC-0.5Life Sciences Center – 0.5 FAR / H-65 (Transit)com—[63]65 ft[64]—0.5[65]——— / — / —
IM-1.5Industrial Mixed – 1.5 FAR / H-45ind—[66]45 ft[67]—1.5[68]——— / — / —
IM-2.5Industrial Mixed – 2.5 FAR / H-50ind—[69]50 ft[70]—2.5[71]——— / — / —

Confidence: confirmed partial under review not found

Overlays

BOZ
Bethesda Downtown Overlay Zone
DT
Ch.59 §4.9.2

All properties within the Bethesda Downtown Sector Plan boundary (approximately the downtown core bounded by Wisconsin Ave, Old Georgetown Rd, and the Capital Crescent Trail corridor); applies to CR and CRT-zoned parcels

density_cap_bonus_sf3289000
density_cap_noteTotal bonus density (in excess of mapped CR/CRT FAR) limited to 3,289,000 sq ft cumulative across the plan area
mpdu_requirement_pct15
mpdu_noteProjects using Bonus Density must provide minimum 15% MPDUs
park_impact_payment_per_sf10
park_impact_payment_notePark Impact Payment of $10/sq ft of approved Bonus Density FAR, paid before any building permit
design_reviewDesign Review Advisory Panel (DRAP) review required at sketch and site plan for Bonus Density projects
priority_sending_sitesFAR averaging from Open Space, Historic/Community Resource, and Affordable Housing Priority Sending Sites to CRT/CR-zoned receiving sites within plan area
high_performance_areaHeight bonuses (§4.7.3.D.6.c.i) only apply within the High Performance Area near the Bethesda Metro station
affordable_housing_sending_sitesAffordable Housing Sending Site transfers require 30% of existing affordable units retained (≤65% AMI) for 20 years
FP-MONT
FEMA Floodplain – Montgomery County NFIP
FP
Montgomery County participates in FEMA NFIP; new preliminary FIRMs issued Jan 2025 (appeal period closed Apr 17, 2025)

FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA) within Bethesda CDP; Rock Creek corridor and smaller tributaries in eastern portions of Bethesda

nfip_participationMontgomery County, Maryland participates in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)
map_statusPreliminary FIRMs issued January 17, 2025; appeal period April 17, 2025; current effective FIRMs remain in force pending adoption
local_freeboard—
TOD-HEAA
Maryland HEAA Transit-Oriented Density Bonus (State Law)
TOD
Md. Code Ann., Land Use §§7-501 to 7-508 (HEAA 2024, eff. Jan 1 2025)

Any property within 0.75 miles (3,960 ft) of a passenger rail station; Bethesda Metro (WMATA Red Line + Purple Line) qualifies; the TOD density bonus applies city-wide to qualified affordable projects near Bethesda Metro

max_density_bonus_pct30
affordable_pct_required15
affordable_ami_max_pct60
minimum_density_floor_du_ac15
min_density_near_station_du_ac30
parking_min_within_0_25mi0
noteState-law density bonus of 30% above local maximum for qualifying affordable projects within 0.75 mi of rail; 30 du/ac floor and no parking minimum within 0.25 mi of rail station; does not override BOZ or CR-zone mapped density where local is higher

State preemptions

Maryland HEAA 2024 — HB 538 / SB 484, Md. Code Ann. Land Use §§7-501 to 7-508applies
Qualifying condition
Bethesda Metro (WMATA Red Line + Purple Line) is a passenger rail station. TOD trigger: within 0.75 mi of rail station. Bethesda CDP population 68,056 (2020 Census). HEAA does not have a minimum population threshold for the TOD density bonus — rail proximity alone triggers it. State-surplus, nonprofit, and faith-based provisions also apply where applicable. HEAA effective Jan 1, 2025 per HB 538 text.
Source
U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census (population 68,056); WMATA Red Line map (Bethesda station confirmed); DHCD HEAA guidance document (dhcd.maryland.gov/TurningTheKey)
Effect
Within 0.75 mi of Bethesda Metro, qualified affordable projects (≥15% MPDUs at ≤60% AMI/40yr) receive by-right density bonus of 30%; density floor 30 du/ac within 0.25 mi; 0 parking minimum within 0.25 mi; no unreasonable bulk/height/setback limitations that amount to de facto denial
Maryland ADU Act 2025 — HB 1466 / SB 891applies
Qualifying condition
Montgomery County is a charter county in Maryland; HB 1466 applies to charter counties and Baltimore City. Bethesda CDP is an unincorporated area within Montgomery County, so the county must comply. Local conformance deadline: October 1, 2026.
Source
Maryland General Assembly, HB 1466 (2025 Regular Session); ADU FAQ for Local Governments (planning.maryland.gov/Pages/OurWork/PBP/ADUTF/ADU-FAQ-for-Local-Governments-HB-1466.aspx); Miller Miller & Canby commentary (April 2025)
Effect
ADUs must be permitted by-right on single-family lots (R-60, R-90, R-200, RE-2, RE-2C zones); ADUs excluded from density calculations; no unreasonable cost-increasing or prohibitory restrictions; Montgomery County must adopt conforming local legislation by October 1, 2026

Adopted building codes

Statewide w/ local amendments

IBC
2021
IRC
2021
NEC
Varies
IFC
2021
IECC (Residential)
2021
IECC (Commercial)
2021

Click a code label to open its state-by-state adoption atlas.

Amendment history

DateKindCitation
2014-10-30effectiveOrdinance No. 17-43; confirmed effective date in Chapter 59 preamble and codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/montgomerycounty/latest/montgomeryco_md_zone2014/
2014-03-04adoptionOrdinance No. 17-43 (Montgomery County Council, adopted March 4, 2014)

Quirks & notes

  • Bethesda is an UNINCORPORATED CDP — there is no separate Bethesda city code. All zoning is governed by Montgomery County Code Chapter 59 (2014 Zoning Ordinance, eff. 2014-10-30, Ord. No. 17-43). The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) is the zoning authority.
  • The Bethesda Downtown Overlay Zone (BOZ, §4.9.2) was established by ZTA 16-20 and adopted as Ordinance No. 18-28 in 2017, implementing the 2017 Bethesda Downtown Sector Plan. It allows Bonus Density (up to 3,289,000 sq ft cumulative) above mapped CR/CRT zoning in exchange for MPDUs (15%), Park Impact Payments ($10/sq ft), and Design Review.
  • The CR/CRT zone coding system encodes FAR and height directly in the zone name (e.g., CR-5.0 C-4.0 R-4.75 H-145 T): first number = total FAR, C-x = max commercial FAR, R-x = max residential FAR, H-x = max height in feet, T = transit-served site. Values verified from GIS LONGZONE field.
  • The R-60 and R-90 zone standards were verified from DPS published PDF fact sheets (assets.montgomerycountymd.gov, 2026-04 revision). The amlegal code portal (codelibrary.amlegal.com) returns HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) for all section-level URLs, blocking direct dimensional table extraction for R-10 through R-H, RT, IM, EOF, and LSC zones.
  • HEAA 2024 (eff. Jan 1 2025) creates a state-level 30% density bonus for qualifying affordable projects within 0.75 mi of Bethesda Metro — this effectively stacks with (or provides an alternative to) the BOZ pathway for residential development. Montgomery County's existing BOZ often offers more density than the HEAA minimum.
  • A Minor Master Plan Amendment to the 2017 Bethesda Downtown Plan was in planning as of 2024-2025, including proposals to remove the 32.4M sq ft development cap in the BOZ area.

Massing explorer

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Sources & references

Primary source
https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/montgomerycounty/latest/montgomeryco_md_zone2014/0-0-0-1
retrieved 2026-06-02
Citations
  1. [1] §Ch.59 §4.4.9 Table 4.4.9B (DPS guidance PDF 11/20/17)
  2. [2] §Ch.59 §4.4.9 Table 4.4.9B — 35 ft to roof peak; 30 ft to mean height gable/hip roof
  3. [3] §Ch.59 §4.4.9 Table 4.4.9B — 35% including accessory buildings
  4. [4] n
  5. [5] n
  6. [6] §Ch.59 §4.4.8 Table 4.4.8B (DPS guidance PDF R-90)
  7. [7] §Ch.59 §4.4.8 Table 4.4.8B — 35 ft to roof peak; 30 ft to mean height gable/hip
  8. [8] §Ch.59 §4.4.8 Table 4.4.8B — 30% including accessory buildings
  9. [9] n
  10. [10] n
  11. [11] §Ch.59 §4.4.7 — intent: 'minimum lot size 20,000 sq ft'; R-200 zoning fact sheet (montgomeryplanning.org R200ZoningFactSheet.pdf)
  12. [12] §Ch.59 §4.4.7 — 'max building height 50 ft' per R-200 development standards search result
  13. [13] n
  14. [14] n
  15. [15] n
  16. [16] n
  17. [17] n
  18. [18] n
  19. [19] n
  20. [20] n
  21. [21] n
  22. [22] n
  23. [23] n
  24. [24] n
  25. [25] n
  26. [26] n
  27. [27] n
  28. [28] §Ch.59 §4.5.2 — H-35 from zone map designation
  29. [29] §Ch.59 §4.5.2 — zone map designation CRN-0.5 C-0.5 R-0.25 H-35 per GIS LONGZONE field
  30. [30] n
  31. [31] §Ch.59 §4.5.2 — H-35 from zone map designation
  32. [32] §Ch.59 §4.5.2 — CRT zone map designation LONGZONE field
  33. [33] n
  34. [34] §Ch.59 §4.5.2 — H-45
  35. [35] §Ch.59 §4.5.2 — LONGZONE: CRT-0.5 C-0.5 R-0.25 H-45
  36. [36] n
  37. [37] §Ch.59 §4.5.2 — H-40
  38. [38] §Ch.59 §4.5.2 — LONGZONE: CRT-0.75 C-0.75 R-0.5 H-40
  39. [39] n
  40. [40] §Ch.59 §4.5.2 — H-40
  41. [41] §Ch.59 §4.5.2 — LONGZONE: CRT-1.5 C-1.5 R-0.5 H-40
  42. [42] n
  43. [43] §Ch.59 §4.5.2 — H-45
  44. [44] §Ch.59 §4.5.2 — LONGZONE: CRT-2.25 C-1.5 R-0.75 H-45
  45. [45] n
  46. [46] §Ch.59 §4.5.2 — H-55
  47. [47] §Ch.59 §4.5.2 — LONGZONE: CR-0.75 C-0.75 R-0.25 H-55 T
  48. [48] n
  49. [49] §Ch.59 §4.5.2 — H-160
  50. [50] §Ch.59 §4.5.2 — LONGZONE: CR-1.0 C-1.0 R-0.75 H-160
  51. [51] n
  52. [52] §Ch.59 §4.5.2 — H-90
  53. [53] §Ch.59 §4.5.2 — LONGZONE: CR-2.0 C-2.0 R-1.5 H-90 T
  54. [54] n
  55. [55] §Ch.59 §4.5.2 — H-100
  56. [56] §Ch.59 §4.5.2 — LONGZONE: CR-3.0 C-2.0 R-1.0 H-100 T
  57. [57] n
  58. [58] §Ch.59 §4.5.2 — H-145
  59. [59] §Ch.59 §4.5.2 — LONGZONE: CR-5.0 C-4.0 R-4.75 H-145 T
  60. [60] n
  61. [61] §Ch.59 §4.6 — H-45 per GIS LONGZONE
  62. [62] §Ch.59 §4.6 — LONGZONE: EOF-1.5 H-45 per GIS LONGZONE; Employment zone series format per §4.5.2 analogy
  63. [63] n
  64. [64] §Ch.59 §4.6 — H-65 per GIS LONGZONE
  65. [65] §Ch.59 §4.6 — LONGZONE: LSC-0.5 H-65 T per GIS
  66. [66] n
  67. [67] §Ch.59 §4.7 — H-45 per GIS LONGZONE
  68. [68] §Ch.59 §4.7 — LONGZONE: IM-1.5 H-45 per GIS
  69. [69] n
  70. [70] §Ch.59 §4.7 — H-50 per GIS LONGZONE
  71. [71] §Ch.59 §4.7 — LONGZONE: IM-2.5 H-50 per GIS

Research status

Publication gates

primary url presentpassedsource.primary_url = https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/montgomerycounty/latest/montgomeryco_md_zone2014/0-0-0-1 (amlegal host; not an aggregator)
no aggregator citedpassedscan clean — no zoneomics/steadily/siteplanguide/propwire/zonara/unzoned references
confidence tags full formpassedall confirmed fields carry §Ch.59 citations (e.g., c§Ch.59 §4.4.9 Table 4.4.9B, c§Ch.59 §4.5.2, c§Ch.59 §4.9.2); partial fields carry paired reason fields
overlays have parameters trigger confidencepassed3 overlays: BOZ (trigger=Downtown Sector Plan boundary, params=3.28M sf cap/15% MPDU/$10 PIP, confidence=c§Ch.59 §4.9.2), FP-MONT (trigger=SFHA/Rock Creek, params=NFIP+2025 prelim FIRM), TOD-HEAA (trigger=0.75mi Bethesda Metro, params=30% bonus/15%MPDU/0 parking); all have non-empty params + trigger + status + citation
preempt section city specificpassedMD is not in the active-preemption Gate 5 list (CA/TX/FL/OR/WA/CO/MN/MT/UT/AZ/NJ/CT); 2 preemption entries documented with city-specific qualifying_condition_checked (HEAA: Bethesda Metro proximity confirmed; ADU Act: Montgomery County charter county confirmed)

Data quality

62%completeness28 confirmed38 partial28 not found
Documented gaps
  • R-H, R-10, R-20, R-30, RT-10.0, RT-12.5, RE-2, RE-2C dimensional tables not captured (amlegal section-level 403)
  • Lot coverage for all CR/CRT/CRN/EOF/LSC/IM zones not captured
  • Parking minimums for all zones not captured
  • Historic preservation overlays in Bethesda not documented (search not completed)
  • Corridor overlays (if any) not documented

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