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Scottsville · ADU cost

What it costs to build an ADU in Scottsville, NY

800 sq ft ≈ $200k–260k $249–327/sq ft 5 districts RG&E

An 800 sq ft accessory dwelling unit in Scottsville runs roughly $200k–260k, or about $249–327/sq ft, and that per-square-foot figure sits deliberately above the $204–268/sq ft a full house costs here. An ADU still needs one whole kitchen, one whole bath, its own service panel and its own heating plant no matter how small you draw it, and those costs do not shrink with the floor plan, so they land on half the square footage and push the rate up. Whether the village will let you build one is a separate question from what it costs, and it gets answered parcel by parcel rather than townwide, since the Village of Scottsville maps 5 districts that treat accessory units differently from one another, so read the table below as a starting point rather than a verdict.

ADU cost by size in Scottsville

Standard finish, slab on grade, on a flat and clear part of the lot, general-contractor margin included. These are structure costs at Monroe County pricing, before the service and septic work a second dwelling can trigger.

SizeType$ / sq ftEstimated total
400 sq ft Studio $331–$433 $130k–175k
600 sq ft One bedroom $276–$362 $165k–215k
800 sq ft One bedroom, larger $249–$327 $200k–260k
1,000 sq ft Two bedroom $233–$305 $235k–305k

400 sq ft — One room plus a bath. Garage conversions and small backyard cottages land here.

600 sq ft — The most common detached build - a real bedroom, full kitchen, one bath.

800 sq ft — Room for a proper living area. Still a single bath and one kitchen.

1,000 sq ft — About as large as most codes allow an accessory unit to go.

Why the rate is higher than a house

The systems below are priced for an 800 sq ft unit. The middle column is what each system would cost if it simply shrank with the floor plan; the left column is what it actually costs once you account for the equipment a dwelling needs one of regardless of size. The gap between the two columns is the whole reason small builds price the way they do.

System$ / sq ft in an ADUIf it scaled with floor areaFixed per unit
Site work $7–$11 $7
Foundation $16–$23 $16
Framing $25–$32 $25
Envelope - roof, siding, windows $32–$41 $32
Plumbing $28–$34 $16 55%
Electrical $18–$24 $13 35%
HVAC $23–$28 $15 45%
Insulation $7–$9 $7
Interior finishes $32–$43 $27 15%
Millwork & cabinetry $18–$28 $11 55%

The fixed-per-unit share is a modeling assumption, not a figure from the code: it is our estimate of how much of each system's budget buys equipment a dwelling needs exactly one of - a kitchen rough-in, a bath group, a service panel, a heating plant - and therefore does not shrink when the unit does. Site work, foundation, framing, envelope and insulation are treated as scaling straight with floor area, which understates the premium slightly, because a small building carries more envelope per square foot of floor than a large one.

What the Scottsville code says about accessory units

Whether you can build one, and how large, is decided by the district your parcel sits in rather than by the town as a whole. The table shows how each mapped district treats ADUs alongside the lot and setback standards a second unit still has to fit inside. District boundaries and conditions vary, so treat it as a starting point and confirm the district that applies to your parcel.

District Min lot Setbacks F / S / R Max height ADU
One-Family Residential 16 (R1-16) — 16,000 sf (0.37 acres) for a one-family detached dwelling with 100 ft of lot width, front yard 50 ft, side yard 12 ft, rear yard 35 ft, maximum height 35 ft and maximum lot coverage 25%. The village's largest-lot and lowest-coverage district. THE MINIMUM LOT AREA MORE THAN DOUBLES WITHOUT PUBLIC SEWER: table note 3 sets 40,000 SQUARE FEET for lots without access to public sewers, against the 16,000 sf recorded here. Scottsville is an incorporated village on public sewer so the serviced figure is the right default, but the 40,000 sf case is a real alternative on any unserviced edge parcel and note 1 adds a general performance backstop — where public sewerage is not available, no lot may be built upon that has insufficient space for a private sanitary waste disposal system as determined by the Monroe County Department of Health, which can defeat the stated minimum on poor soils regardless of acreage. EVERY DIMENSION IN THIS DISTRICT IS CONTEXTUAL — see the entry's `source` — because table notes 2, 4 and 5 and the bulk table's notes 1 and 2 each add 'or the most common lot area / lot width / yard / building height / lot coverage on the block in which the lot is located'. The recorded figures are the stated defaults; on a built-up Scottsville street the block may govern instead. NONRESIDENTIAL USES TAKE THE SAME 16,000 SF AND 100 FT here, unusually, with a 15 ft side yard against the residential 12. Accessory structures take 5 ft side and 10 ft rear yards and a 20 ft height cap. MINIMUM RESIDENTIAL FLOOR AREA IS THE LARGEST IN THE VILLAGE AND IS A REAL COST FLOOR: 1,300 sf of ground floor for a one-storey dwelling, 800 sf of ground floor for a two-storey, and 1,600 sf in total for anything over one storey. A GARAGE SETBACK OF 10 FT measured from the front building line applies to all dwelling units in this district and in R1-12 only. 0.3673 ac 50 / 12 / 35 ft 35 ft Special permit
One-Family Residential 12 (R1-12) — 12,000 sf (0.28 acres) for a one-family detached dwelling with 80 ft of lot width, front yard 50 ft, side yard 10 ft, rear yard 30 ft, maximum height 35 ft and maximum lot coverage 30%. The front yard is unchanged from R1-16's 50 ft — Scottsville holds a 50 ft front across every residential district except R1-6 — so the step down from R1-16 buys a narrower, shallower lot rather than a shallower setback. Every dimension carries the 'or the most common on the block' alternative described in the entry's `source`; the recorded figures are the stated defaults. Nonresidential uses take the same 12,000 sf and 80 ft with a 15 ft side yard and a 35 ft rear. Accessory structures take 5 ft side and 10 ft rear yards and a 20 ft height cap. MINIMUM RESIDENTIAL FLOOR AREA drops sharply from R1-16's: 800 sf of ground floor for a one-storey dwelling (against 1,300), 650 sf of ground floor for a two-storey, and 1,000 sf in total for anything over one storey (against 1,600). THAT 500 SF DIFFERENCE IN THE TOTAL FLOOR MINIMUM IS THE SHARPEST DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE TWO LARGEST DISTRICTS and matters more to build cost than the 4,000 sf of extra land does. R1-12 shares with R1-16 the 10 ft GARAGE SETBACK measured from the front building line, which the smaller districts do not carry. Note that R1-12 permits only a one-family detached dwelling — the attached, two-family and multifamily rows are all N/A or blank for this district. 0.2755 ac 50 / 10 / 30 ft 35 ft Special permit
One-Family Residential 6 (R1-6) — 6,000 sf (0.14 acres) for a one-family detached dwelling with 60 ft of lot width, front yard 30 ft, side yard 10 ft, rear yard 30 ft, maximum height 35 ft and maximum lot coverage 35%. This is the village's traditional small-lot fabric district and the ONLY residential district whose front yard is not 50 ft — at 30 ft it produces a much tighter streetwall than R1-16 or R1-12. R1-6 IS THE ONLY DISTRICT IN SCOTTSVILLE PERMITTING A TWO-FAMILY DWELLING, AND IT PERMITS IT ON THE SAME 6,000 SF AS A ONE-FAMILY — so the second unit costs no additional land whatever, which is the most permissive two-family treatment found in any Monroe village. The one-family attached and multifamily rows are not available here. NONRESIDENTIAL USES TAKE DOUBLE THE LOT: 12,000 sf against the residential 6,000, with a 50 ft front yard against the residential 30 — the only district where the residential and nonresidential front yards differ. Accessory structures take 5 ft side and 10 ft rear yards and a 20 ft height cap; there is no garage setback requirement here, unlike R1-16 and R1-12. Minimum residential floor area is 800 sf of ground floor for a one-storey dwelling, 650 sf of ground floor for a two-storey and 1,000 sf in total for anything over one storey. Every dimension carries the 'or the most common on the block' alternative — see the entry's `source` — which matters more in this district than any other, since R1-6 covers the oldest and most irregular part of the village where the block average is likeliest to differ from the schedule. 0.1377 ac 30 / 10 / 30 ft 35 ft Special permit
Residential Attached 1-4 (RA1-4) — 4,000 sf (0.09 acres) with just 26 FEET OF LOT WIDTH AND A ZERO SIDE YARD, maximum lot coverage 35% and maximum height 35 ft. THIS IS A FEE-SIMPLE ROWHOUSE DISTRICT AND IT IS ONE OF ONLY TWO IN MONROE COUNTY, alongside Fairport's RTN — a 4,000 sf lot at 26 ft of width with no side yard is an attached-dwelling parcel and nothing else. The dimensional table confirms it directly: RA1-4 is the ONLY district in the village where the 'one-family, ATTACHED' row carries a figure (4,000 sf), and its one-family DETACHED row carries the same 4,000 sf, so a detached house on a 26 ft lot is nominally permitted but geometrically implausible. THE ZERO SIDE YARD IS THE POINT — party walls are contemplated, and it is the only zero side yard recorded in this county's residential districts. A SEPARATE CHAPTER-WIDE RULE CONFIRMS THE DISTRICT'S SPECIAL STATUS AND IS EASY TO MISS: § 170-17 sets a minimum lot frontage at the street line of 40 ft in ALL districts EXCEPT RA1-4, where it drops to 22 FEET. So RA1-4 gets its own frontage rule as well as its own width, and 22 ft is the narrowest street frontage permitted anywhere in the village. THE FRONT AND REAR YARDS DO NOT RELAX TO MATCH: the front yard stays at 50 ft, the same as R1-16 and R1-12 and well above R1-6's 30 ft, and the rear yard is 30 ft — so a 26 ft wide lot must still hold 80 ft of combined front and rear yard, which is what makes the district's lots deep and narrow. Nonresidential uses take 12,000 sf and a 15 ft side yard. Accessory structures take 5 ft side and 10 ft rear yards and a 20 ft height cap. Minimum residential floor area is 800 sf of ground floor for a one-storey, 650 sf for a two-storey and 1,000 sf in total above one storey. 0.0918 ac 50 / 0 / 30 ft 35 ft No
Residential Multifamily (RM) — 12,000 sf (0.28 acres) for a one-family detached dwelling but 16,000 SF FOR A MULTIFAMILY DWELLING, with 100 ft of lot width, front yard 50 ft, rear yard 30 ft, maximum height 35 ft and maximum lot coverage 25%. The recorded minLotSize is the one-family figure, consistent with every other district in this entry; A MULTIFAMILY SCHEME NEEDS THE LARGER 16,000 SF FLOOR, and note that the table states a flat minimum rather than a per-unit density, so unlike Churchville, Honeoye Falls and Rush there is no square-feet-per-dwelling-unit figure to work from — the unit count in RM is presumably controlled by coverage, height and the supplemental regulations rather than by a density ratio, and that should be confirmed before sizing a scheme. RM IS THE ONLY DISTRICT IN SCOTTSVILLE PERMITTING MULTIFAMILY, and its 25% coverage cap is the joint-lowest in the village alongside R1-16 — so the district that permits the most units also permits the least building footprint, which is a real constraint on a multi-unit scheme and pushes it toward height, except that height is capped at the same 35 ft as everywhere else. THE SIDE YARD IS 30 FEET, BY FAR THE LARGEST IN THE VILLAGE — two and a half times R1-16's 12 ft — and applies to residential and nonresidential uses alike, which is the code's way of buffering multifamily form from its neighbours. Accessory structures take a 15 ft side yard here against 5 ft in every other district, and a 10 ft rear yard and 20 ft height cap. Minimum residential floor area is 800 sf of ground floor for a one-storey, 650 sf for a two-storey and 1,000 sf in total above one storey. Every dimension carries the 'or the most common on the block' alternative described in the entry's `source`. 0.2755 ac 50 / 30 / 30 ft 35 ft No
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Size limits on record in Scottsville

Where the code states a size cap, it decides which row of the cost table above actually applies to you. These are the caps recorded for Scottsville:

Costs an ADU adds that a house does not

Sizing up a specific parcel in Scottsville?

Aldo pulls the exact zoning district, setbacks, and build feasibility for any parcel — before you buy. Enter your email to open Aldo and run your free report.

Building a full house instead?

A standard-finish house in Scottsville runs $204–268/sq ft, about $370k–480k at 1,800 sq ft . See what it costs to build a house in Scottsville.

ADU cost in nearby towns

ADU cost in Scottsville: common questions

How much does it cost to build an ADU in Scottsville, NY?

An 800 sq ft accessory dwelling unit in Village of Scottsville runs roughly $200k–260k at a standard finish, general-contractor margin included. A 400 sq ft studio runs about $130k–175k. Those are structure costs on an easy site and do not include the septic, water or electrical service work a second unit often triggers.

Why does an ADU cost more per square foot than a house in Scottsville?

Because a lot of a dwelling's cost is per dwelling, not per square foot. One kitchen, one bath group, one service panel and one heating plant cost about the same in an 800 sq ft cottage as in a 1,800 sq ft house, so on the smaller unit they get spread over less than half the floor area. That is why an ADU here prices at $249–327/sq ft against $204–268/sq ft for a full house, even though it is the same trades doing the same work.

Are ADUs allowed in Scottsville?

Village of Scottsville has 5 districts. 3 districts allow ADUs with a special-use permit, 2 do not. Check the specific address with the free ADU checker or confirm with the building department at (585) 889-6050 before you spend money on design.

Can I rent an ADU in Scottsville short term?

No local short-term-rental law on record - which is not the same as permission for Village of Scottsville. ADU rules and short-term-rental rules are set separately, so a unit you are allowed to build is not automatically one you are allowed to rent nightly. Confirm both before you underwrite the build on short-term-rental income.

ADU costs are modeled estimates in current 2026 dollars at the Monroe County regional index, general-contractor margin included, derived from Offsite's cost engine with a stated adjustment for the equipment a dwelling needs one of regardless of size. They are planning numbers for decision-support only - not a bid, quote, or guarantee, and not legal, architectural or engineering advice. They cover the structure and exclude septic expansion, utility service runs, site work beyond a flat and clear pad, and permit fees. ADU eligibility, size, owner-occupancy and permit conditions in the Village of Scottsville vary by district and often carry exceptions this page does not show; zoning last reviewed 2026-08-13; verify with the building department at (585) 889-6050 before relying on any answer. Sources: Offsite / Aldo cost engine (costEngine.js + constants.js); zoning dataset (municipalData.js).

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