What "Grandfathered" Really Protects in St. Michaels' Historic Neighborhoods, and What Can Quietly End It

In St. Michaels, an apartment house or other property whose use predates today's zoning keeps its special standing only while the use keeps going. Under the town code, if a nonconforming use is stopped or abandoned for 12 continuous months, it cannot be resumed. If the town questions whether the use really continued, the property owner has to prove it did. That one clause changes how these buildings get bought, renovated and owned. A buyer who pays for a building because of what it is allowed to do is also taking on a clock.

The building on Mulberry Street

The clearest current example sits a short walk from Talbot Street. At its October 1 meeting, the St. Michaels Planning Commission spent much of the evening on a request to rezone 100 Mulberry Street, a three-unit apartment property, from the R-2 residential district to Central Commercial, according to the Talbot Spy. The building has held apartments for decades. It is now a legal nonconforming use, which limits how much it can be altered or expanded under current zoning.

The applicant's attorney, Brendan Mullaney, told the commission the request was meant to create "an avenue to be able to justify investment and improvement in this property." Planning Commission Chairman J. Douglas Rollow pointed out that the three apartments rent for $1,600, $1,800 and $2,000 a month and count as workforce housing under the town's Comprehensive Plan. He warned that under commercial zoning the property could eventually become something other than housing.

"If it's not housing, it's not workforce housing." — J. Douglas Rollow, as reported by the Talbot Spy

Rollow described the building's position as "simply a victim of progress." "I'm not sure I characterize it as a mistake," he said, describing a building the zoning rules changed around over time. The commission took no final action. It plans to send a written report to the Town Commissioners, who will make the decision. As of October 12, 2026, we found no Commissioners vote on the request, and the town's next listed meeting is an October 14 working session.

Grandfathering lets those apartments keep operating in a residential district, and it also limits how far the building can change, which is why its owner sought a different zone.

The limits a grandfathered use lives under

The governing text is Article X of the town zoning chapter, Nonconforming Lots, Uses of Land, Structures, and Premises. The chapter dates to Ordinance 512, adopted in 2020. Read with a buyer's eye, it sets out two ways a protected use ends outright and several limits on what can be done with it:

1. Vacancy that runs too long. A nonconforming use of a building or a lot that is discontinued or abandoned for 12 continuous months may not resume. After that, any use has to meet current zoning, and in a dispute the owner bears the burden of proof.
2. Switching to a permitted use. Once a permitted use replaces a nonconforming one in a building, the nonconforming use can never return.
3. Physical change to the building. A building devoted to a use the district no longer allows may not be enlarged, extended, reconstructed, moved or structurally altered unless it changes to a permitted use. Ordinary repairs and replacement are allowed, as long as the building's cubic content does not grow.
4. Spreading or moving on the lot. A nonconforming land use cannot take up more land than it did when it became nonconforming, and it cannot move to another part of the parcel. Inside a building, the use can extend only into areas clearly designed for it, and never onto land outside the building.
5. A fire or storm, and a rebuild on deadline. Reconstruction on the existing footprint is allowed after serious damage, but only at the same size or smaller, with construction started within one year and finished within 18 months.

The first two don't require a dramatic event. Under the code's text, a long gap between owners or a tenant change that turns a building into a permitted use could end a right the town is no longer handing out. The others set the boundaries for any renovation or rebuild plan. Because the owner carries the burden of proof, records that show the use continued are what protect the status.

The building and the use follow different rules

Article X treats buildings more gently than uses, and the difference matters for anyone planning work on an older home.

A residential structure that legally existed when the zoning took effect is deemed conforming even if it doesn't meet today's setback or lot coverage limits. Alterations, renovations and expansions are allowed only if they increase conformity. Interior remodels and changes that don't make the nonconformity worse are also allowed. Extending along the house's existing setback line counts as not increasing the nonconformity, but only if no additional dwelling unit is created. In practice, a historic house tight to its lot line can often grow along that line. Adding a unit along the way is what the rule excludes.

The damage thresholds also differ. For residential structures, the code sets 75% of assessed or appraised value. For nonresidential structures, it is 60%. Both carry the same rules on footprint, size and use, and the same one-year start and 18-month completion deadlines. A nonconforming nonresidential structure can be enlarged by no more than 25% of its gross floor area, and only within its original lot and the district's height and setback rules. For anyone who has managed a post-fire rebuild through insurance, design, permitting and contractor scheduling, 18 months is not much time.

The cottages show that the right stays with the property

St. Michaels has a second, more recent kind of grandfathering. In January 2025, the Town Commissioners voted unanimously to stop new short-term rental permits for historic cottages in the R-2 district, an area the Star Democrat described as including Water Street and St. Mary's Square. Cottages lawfully operating as of January 8, 2025 may continue. Town Administrator Rob Straebel put that number at about 11. The town's table of permitted uses, amended by Ordinance 566, now marks short-term rentals as not permitted in R-2.

When a commissioner asked whether those permits survive a sale, Straebel said new owners can keep operating as long as they file the proper permit paperwork. He described the approvals as running with the land when ownership changes, as long as the location stays the same, according to the Star Democrat. That is the clearest public statement we found on transfer. The cottages operate under their own ordinance and permits, so the Article X limits above shouldn't be assumed to apply to them in the same way. The general Article X sections also don't directly address what happens to nonconforming status at an ordinary sale.

The town's 2026 Comprehensive Plan, adopted April 22, 2026, explains why the number is meant to stay small. It says only a few specific older and historic homes, plus second floors above commercial spaces, can be used as short-term rentals. The goal is to keep that use from spreading and to keep long-term homes for permanent residents. The plan also credits the policy for restoring several former watermen's cottages that had fallen into disrepair, saving them from blight and demolition.

Why rezoning is the long road

The obvious way out of a frozen use is to change the zoning, and that is the path 100 Mulberry tried. Maryland law makes it narrow. Under Land Use Article §4-204, a piecemeal map amendment has to rest on a finding of either a substantial change in the character of the neighborhood or a mistake in the existing zoning. The Talbot Spy reported that commissioners questioned whether either had been shown. Members generally saw the blocks around Mulberry as a residential neighborhood next to the commercial district, not part of it.

The town's stated priorities point the same way. The 2026 plan estimates 2025 rents at over $2,000 a month and commits to promoting workforce and low-income housing projects. The commissioners did leave one door open. They suggested looking at the town's nonconforming-use rules themselves, which could allow more flexibility without opening a property to the full range of Central Commercial uses. If that review happens, it could change the renovation limits described above, so any work planned on a grandfathered building should be checked against the code as it reads at that time.

Questions that come up before signing

When a St. Michaels listing depends on a use the district no longer allows, these questions tend to come up early:

• What records show the use has run without a 12-month gap, and who holds them, since the burden of proof sits with the owner?
• For a historic cottage rental, what permit paperwork does the town need from a new owner, and when is it due?
• Does the planned renovation stay within ordinary repair and the existing cubic content, or would it count as a structural alteration under Section 340-113A?
• If the building were badly damaged, could a rebuild realistically start within one year and finish within 18 months?
• Will the Commissioners' pending decision on 100 Mulberry, or any review of the nonconforming-use rules, affect the property?

This post is general information about how the St. Michaels code works, not legal, tax or financial advice. Please confirm your own property's status with a land use attorney and the town's zoning office.

If you're weighing a grandfathered apartment house, a licensed cottage, or an older home that sits awkwardly on its lot, I'm glad to walk the property with you, look at what the building has been doing, and talk through what its history means for your plans. Tracy Higgs Wagner works with buyers and sellers of historic and character properties across St. Michaels. Let's Connect.