Cape St. Claire is a covenanted community founded in 1949. The convenants are administered on behalf of the community by the Cape St. Claire Improvement Association.
Originally designed to be a community of summer cottages, Cape St. Claire is now home to approximately 7,878 year-round residents living in more than 2,200 single-family homes. Homes come in all shapes and sizes (from ranchers to split levels, colonials and contemporaries, all types of homes are found in the Cape), and the diversity of houses has long been a goal for the community.

Cape St. Claire is bound on three sides by water: the Little Magothy River, the Chesapeake Bay, the Magothy River, and Deep Creek. With all that water around, you'd expect a community with many ways to take advantage of it, and Cape St. Claire doesn't disappoint. There are three marinas (with a combined total of over 200 boat slips), a boat ramp, several beaches, and a couple of water parks with playground equipment for the kids.

Cape St. Claire is very much like a small town. The community has a shopping center, a volunteer fire department, ball fields, and a swimming pool. The Cape also boasts of many community organizations including a garden club, yacht club, Boy and Girl Scout troops, and a recreation council. Cape St. Claire is also served by its own monthly newsletter, The Caper. The Cape St. Claire Elementary School and Broadneck High School are also located within Cape St. Claire.

In the late 1980s, the community was granted permission to form a Special Community Benefit District and began collecting an annual fee to pay for administrative costs, special security, and the maintenance of beaches, parks, playgrounds, and other community property.

Areas of concern that are frequently discussed at quarterly meetings of the Improvement Association include: zoning enforcement, adequate facilities regulations, and improvements to the aging infrastructure (e.g., the condition of roads, lack of sidewalks, and the absence of public water).

From its humble beginnings as a summer community, Cape St. Claire has grown to become a thriving community and the largest on the Broadneck Peninsula.