Portland driveway and curb cut rules for Maine homeowners

Published 24 September 2026

Adding or widening a driveway in Portland starts at the curb, not in the yard, because the City has to approve the curb cut before anyone touches it. The Portland driveway and curb cut rules sit mainly in City Code chapter 25 and the City's Technical Manual.

We do concrete work around Portland on private property; the curb, sidewalk and street are public places under City Code, with their own permits, and we are not the City's contractor. Whichever concrete contractor you hire, the rules below come first.

The City's traffic engineer and public works authority approve the design and location of every curb cut, and Sec. 25-101 bars any new or altered cut without their prior consent. Curb and sidewalk may be removed only by the City or under a public works permit.

Some streets carry extra limits. On the Eastern Promenade, between Atlantic Street and North Street, Sec. 25-110 bars cutting any curb for more than 13 feet for driveway access. On a state or state-aid highway, 23 M.R.S. §704 requires a written entrance permit, issued by municipal officials inside an urban compact area; Portland is on MaineDOT's urban compact list, though MaineDOT says to ask local officials whether a lot is inside the compact limits.

Ask the City's Permitting and Inspections office whether the driveway itself needs a building permit: the model residential code lists driveways as exempt, but Portland's ordinance decides, and the fee doubles if a permit is taken out after work starts (Sec. 6-92(d)).

For a home with nine or fewer parking spaces, the Technical Manual (Sec. 1.7.1) sets a driveway width of 10 to 20 feet at the property line and allows no more than one driveway, at least 20 feet from any neighboring driveway. A driveway over 20 feet at the line, or a second one, runs against those limits, so settle it with the City before anything is formed. Where the driveway crosses the sidewalk, the manual adds:

• New concrete aprons and sidewalks that meet an existing concrete sidewalk must be doweled into it before the pour (Sec. 1.8.2).
• Sidewalks must be at least 5 feet wide, including the walking route across the apron, with a 2% cross slope (Sec. 1.8.3).
• The apron needs a permanent, erosion-resistant surface such as hot-mix asphalt, concrete or brick (Sec. 1.8.1).
• All curb must be granite, and existing curb is reused where possible (Appendix A).

Inside the pedestrian zone, the apron must match the sidewalk material the City has assigned to the street, and in historic districts that is brick. The sidewalk materials policy, adopted in 2016 as Appendix A of the Technical Manual, assigns each street brick, concrete or asphalt, allows only brick in historic districts, and makes narrow exceptions such as slopes over 10%.

Appendix A also waives replacing an existing apron that the homeowner paid for, if it is in good condition. And in a historic district such as Munjoy Hill, the City's Historic Resources Design Manual, adopted March 4, 2026, puts all exterior alterations visible from public ways under review, which can reach a new driveway.

We pour concrete, not asphalt or brick, so where the apron has to be one of those, the written quote shows where our work stops.

Only outside winter: from November 15 to April 15 the City grants no street opening permits and allows no opening of paved areas, except in emergencies or special conditions, and a surcharge is added to any non-emergency permit issued then (Sec. 25-133). Plan a curb cut for the months in between.

The rest of the year, digging in a public place, which City Code defines to include streets and sidewalks, needs a City permit (Sec. 25-151), and whoever digs must hold the City's excavator's license and a street opening permit (Sec. 25-119). Apply at least two business days ahead; the permit expires 30 days after issue, and work must start within 30 days (Secs. 25-152 and 25-156). Restored paving must meet City standards (Sec. 25-125), and the City may refuse permits to dig into a street for five years after it is built, rebuilt or rehabilitated (Sec. 25-138).

Dig Safe covers machine digging at the street or in the yard. Maine law (23 M.R.S. §3360-A) requires notice at least 3 business days and no more than 30 calendar days ahead, with the dig area marked in white paint, flags or stakes. Utilities mark their lines within 2 full business days at no cost, and no machine may dig within 18 inches of a marked line until it is exposed. Whoever contracts for a dig counts as an excavator too, so call 811 or confirm your contractor has.

It can. Portland bills a stormwater service charge by units of 1,200 square feet of impervious surface, rounded to the nearest 1,200 square feet (City Code Sec. 24-84), and the ordinance counts driveways, patios, walkways, sidewalks, rooftops and compacted gravel as impervious (Sec. 24-81).

Two points follow from that wording. Compacted gravel already counts, so paving an existing compacted gravel driveway in concrete may not change the measured area, while a driveway cut from lawn adds to it. And because the total is rounded, a small addition changes the bill only if it pushes the property's rounded total up a unit. Land with 400 square feet or less of impervious surface is exempt (Secs. 24-81 and 24-83).

A credit of up to 100% of the charge may be approved for stormwater facilities built to the City's credits manual (Sec. 24-85). Once the approvals are lined up, see our page on pouring a new concrete driveway, then ask for a written quote that spells out the curb, apron and permit steps.