Delaware County

Town of Roxbury, NY: zoning for new construction

Town of Roxbury has no zoning ordinance at all. There are no districts, no minimum lot sizes and no setbacks to look up here — but that is not the same as no rules, and it does not mean a project is unconstrained.

What we know

The Town of Roxbury has no zoning. The Town says so on its own site twice: its Planning Board page reads "Although there is no zoning within the Town of Roxbury, there are subdivision regulations and recommendations for historic preservation projects," and its Building Inspector page repeats the same sentence. Its Final Adopted Comprehensive Plan of December 2025 confirms it from the other direction — the Plan recommends that the Town adopt a zoning law, and recommends forming a Zoning Commission as the first step, citing the NYS Department of State document "Adopting Zoning for the First Time". A town being advised to adopt zoning for the first time does not currently have any.

How building actually works here

What governs instead is the Town's Subdivision Regulations and its Site Plan Review Law, both administered by a Planning Board that also handles boundary line adjustments, plus the State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code and the Delaware County health department's well and septic requirements — on unserviced rural land those separations are usually what sizes a parcel. Roxbury also has a Historic Preservation Commission whose recommendations apply to work in the historic hamlets, which is the nearest thing the town has to design control. The Town notes that it does NOT review deed restrictions when issuing a building permit, so private covenants on a parcel are the buyer's problem to find. The December 2025 comprehensive plan makes adopting a zoning law a high-priority strategy and ties it to stream buffers, scenic protection, hamlet-scale design standards and a short-term-rental law, so Roxbury is actively on the path to being zoned and this advisory should be re-checked rather than assumed stable. Anyone underwriting land here on the strength of "no zoning" is underwriting a rule that the town has published its intention to change.

Who to call

(607) 326-7641 — confirm the current position before relying on the absence of zoning. Ask specifically what does apply: subdivision, site plan review and the state building code usually still do.

Whatever you are told, do not assume a neighbouring municipality's standards apply here. Adjoining jurisdictions in Delaware County routinely differ by several acres of minimum lot, and a nearby town's schedule is not evidence of anything on this side of the line.

Zoning in nearby Delaware County municipalities

These do publish their codes, and we hold the full district tables for them:

See every municipality in Delaware County →