Montgomery County, MD · Montgomery County Zoning Ordinance (Chapter 59)
Retained from pre-2014 ordinance under Article 59-8. Rural hamlet residential zone for small historic settlements.
Development standards in R-H
Maximum lot coverage
12%
Chapter 59 Div 8.2
Maximum height
Set by the building type you propose -- the R-H Standard Method Development Standards table sets this per building type (detached house, duplex, townhouse, apartment), so no single figure is true for the whole zone — see Chapter 59 Div 8.2
Minimum lot size
Set by the building type you propose -- the R-H Standard Method Development Standards table sets this per building type (detached house, duplex, townhouse, apartment), so no single figure is true for the whole zone — see Chapter 59 Div 8.2
Maximum height and Minimum lot size are banded in the ordinance — it depends on what you build or on the lot itself, so no single figure is true for the whole zone. The cited table is the authority; read the tier that matches your intended structure.
Read from Montgomery County Zoning Ordinance (Chapter 59), effective through 2026-02-03. Amendments adopted after that date (most recent 2026-04-13) are not yet reflected.
How complete is this market? Across 304,119 parcels we answer 60.0% of the 6 questions this site is built to answer, each with a source you can check. The rest are shown as “not recorded” rather than filled in — we would rather be short than wrong.
Permitted uses in R-H
AllowedSingle-Family Detached House Permitted uses for this zone are established by the Use Table for the RT and R-H Zones (Sec 8.2.3), within Chapter 59 Div 8.2.
AllowedHome Occupation Low Impact; Sec 3.3.3.H
"Conditional" means the use generally requires a public hearing or special-exception approval — a very different timeline and risk profile from a by-right permit.
This is the zone. What about the parcel?
Zone rules are the starting point — the answer for a specific property also depends on lot
size, overlays, existing improvements and site conditions. Run a free address lookup to see
what applies to one property.
Standards as recorded by Zonescore: Chapter 59 Art 59-8
Coverage note: our ordinance review for this jurisdiction is still in progress. Treat the values above as a starting point and confirm against the ordinance before relying on them.