ADU · Delaware County
Can you build an ADU in Walton, NY?
Village of Walton has 6 districts. All districts prohibit ADUs. Check your address to confirm the district that applies to your parcel:
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What the Walton code indicates by district
The table below shows how each district treats ADUs, alongside the lot and setback standards that govern a second unit. District boundaries and conditions vary, so treat this as a starting point and confirm the district that applies to your parcel.
| District | Min lot | Setbacks F / S / R | Max height | ADU |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R-R Residential Recreational District — the Village's largest-lot, most restrictive district, and the only one in Walton that states a maximum lot coverage. § 260-10 permits SINGLE-FAMILY DWELLINGS ONLY: the district use lists contain no two-family, no multifamily, no townhouse and no transient-lodging use of any kind, which makes R-R the one district in the Village where a second dwelling unit cannot be obtained by any route. LOT COVERAGE 75%, stated in § 260-10F as 'Lot coverage cannot exceed 75% of the total lot size'. THAT FIGURE IS UNUSUALLY HIGH FOR A LARGE-LOT RECREATIONAL DISTRICT AND THE SUBSECTION IMMEDIATELY QUALIFIES IT WITH A SENTENCE THAT DOES NOT PARSE CLEANLY — 'The floor area ratio (FAR) is used to determine lot coverage requirements' — without stating any FAR anywhere in the district or, so far as this pass found, anywhere in the chapter. The 75% is recorded because it is what the code says in terms, but it should be confirmed with the Village before being relied on for anything near that limit, since a FAR that is referenced but never published cannot be applied. YARDS, from the § 260-10H table: front 30 feet, side 20 feet, MINIMUM SIDE YARD AGGREGATE 50 FEET, rear 40 feet. sideSetback records the 20-foot per-side minimum, but a conforming house needs its two side yards to total at least 50 feet, so the real pairing is 20 and 30, or 25 and 25 — not 20 and 20. On a 100-foot-wide lot that leaves a maximum building width of 50 feet. Do not size a footprint off the 20-foot figure alone. HEIGHT: 2 STORIES, BUT NOT TO EXCEED 25 FEET (§ 260-10I) — the lowest height limit in the Village and a genuine two-storey cap; a two-and-a-half-storey house that fits under 25 feet still fails the storey count. THE FRONT YARD HAS A CENTER-LINE ALTERNATIVE THAT BINDS HARDER ON NARROW STREETS: the recorded 30 feet applies where the street is 50 feet or greater in width, but where the street is narrower the front yard must be at least 55 FEET MEASURED FROM THE CENTER LINE. On a 33-foot right-of-way that is about 38.5 feet from the front lot line, materially more than 30. Check the actual street width before siting. LOT SIZE: minimum lot WIDTH 100 feet and minimum lot DEPTH 125 feet, measured at the building line, with a MINIMUM STREET FRONTAGE OF 40 FEET — which is far less than the 100-foot width and expressly permits a flag or panhandle lot that narrows to 40 feet at the road. The § 260-10G table has exactly three columns — Type, Minimum Lot Width and Minimum Lot Depth — and no area column; the single-family row reads 100 and 125 only. The '1' that appears glued to the row in the flattened text is a FOOTNOTE MARKER on the words 'Single-family dwelling', not a value; reading it as an area or an acreage is the extraction error this row invites. THE FOOTNOTE ITSELF IS THE ONLY PLACE AN AREA FIGURE APPEARS AND IT IMPLIES A BASELINE THE TABLE NEVER STATES: 'In subdivision of five or more dwellings, the minimum area of each lot may be reduced to as little as 16,000 square feet, so long as common or public space is provided in an amount sufficient to maintain an average of at least 25,000 square feet per dwelling, and further provided that the Planning Board has indicated in writing that it is satisfied that adequate provision for the permanent maintenance and upkeep of the open space has been made.' The word REDUCED presupposes a minimum of 25,000 square feet (0.574 acres) per lot, and 25,000 square feet is also the average that must be maintained across a cluster subdivision, with a hard floor of 16,000 square feet (0.367 acres) on any individual lot. That 25,000 figure is NOT recorded in minLotSize because the code never states it as a requirement — it appears only inside a footnote about relaxing it — and inventing a firm minimum from an inference is how yield figures go wrong. Treat 25,000 square feet per dwelling as the working density for an R-R subdivision, treat 16,000 as the smallest permissible individual lot in a five-or-more cluster, and confirm the baseline with the Village. Note also that 100 by 125 feet is only 12,500 square feet, half the implied 25,000 — so the width and depth minimums alone will not produce a conforming lot, another sign the area standard is doing real work that the table omits. Other listed uses carry their own lot dimensions: a church, temple or synagogue 200 by 200 feet; a large-animal hospital 300 by 300; a small-animal hospital with open pens or kennels 300 by 300; extraction of sand, gravel or stone 300 by 300. Agricultural keeping is limited to no more than one horse, pony or head of livestock per acre. A cemetery requires a minimum of 10 acres. NO ADU — see aduNotes. | — | 30 / 20 / 40 ft | 25 ft | No |
| R-S Single-Family Residential District — the Village's main residential district despite its name, since it also permits two-family dwellings and, by special permit, townhouses and garden apartments. § 260-11 states minimum lot width and depth for a single- or two-family dwelling in three bands: WITH PUBLIC WATER AND PUBLIC SEWERAGE 70 feet wide by 100 feet deep (the recorded figures); WITH PUBLIC WATER BUT INDIVIDUAL SEWERAGE 90 by 100; WITH A PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL WATER SYSTEM AND INDIVIDUAL SEWERAGE 100 by 100. A parcel off the public sewer therefore needs about 29% more frontage than the recorded 70 feet, and one off both public services needs 43% more. minLotWidthFt records 70 because the village core is served and that is the ordinary case, but ESTABLISH WHICH SERVICE TIER A PARCEL FALLS INTO BEFORE USING IT — this is the same class of standard that raises the effective minimum lot in the Village of Delhi, and getting the tier wrong understates the land needed. Lot width is measured at the building line, and the MINIMUM STREET FRONTAGE IS 40 FEET regardless of tier, so flag and panhandle lots are expressly contemplated. minLotSize IS null BECAUSE NO MINIMUM LOT AREA IS STATED — the § 260-11 table has only Lot Width and Lot Depth columns and no area column, and unlike R-R there is not even a footnote implying an area baseline. The served-tier dimensions imply 7,000 square feet (0.161 acres) at 70 by 100, but the code does not require that as an area and a lot could be 70 feet wide and far deeper. AVERAGING IS ALLOWED BUT NARROWLY: 'Averaging lot area for single- or two-family dwellings is permitted only in subdivision of two or more lots.' YARDS, from the § 260-11 table for a street 50 feet or greater in width: front 25 feet, side 10 feet, SIDE YARD AGGREGATE 20 FEET, rear 25 feet. Here the aggregate IS exactly twice the per-side minimum, so unlike R-R the 10-foot figure can be used on both sides without violating the aggregate. Where the street is less than 50 feet wide the front yard must be at least 50 FEET MEASURED FROM THE CENTER LINE, which on a 33-foot right-of-way is about 33.5 feet from the lot line rather than 25. HEIGHT: 2 1/2 STORIES, BUT NOT TO EXCEED 35 FEET. NO MAXIMUM LOT COVERAGE IS STATED ANYWHERE IN § 260-11, so maxLotCoverage is null by design and not by omission — R-R is the ONLY district in the Village of Walton that caps coverage. THE MULTIFAMILY ROUTE IN R-S IS A SPECIAL PERMIT USE WITH ITS OWN DENSITY STANDARD, AND IT IS THE MOST PRODUCTIVE THING THIS DISTRICT CAN DO: § 260-11 subsection (16) permits TOWNHOUSE AND/OR GARDEN APARTMENTS provided that all units meet the current NYS Uniform Building Code minimum property standards for multifamily housing for structures containing more than two units (amended 11-5-2007 by L.L. No. 7-2007); that off-street parking under this chapter is observed; THAT DENSITY SHALL NOT EXCEED 14 UNITS PER ACRE; THAT LOT SIZE SHALL BE A MINIMUM OF ONE ACRE; that Article XIV Site Plan Review is complied with; and that all other Village regulations are met. So a townhouse or garden-apartment scheme in R-S is sized off 14 units per acre on a one-acre minimum site — roughly 3,111 square feet of land per unit — which is an entirely different calculation from the 70-by-100 single-family lot and should never be derived from it. NO ADU: the two-family and the townhouse are principal uses — see aduNotes. | — | 25 / 10 / 25 ft | 35 ft | No |
| R-M Multiple-Family Residential District — the Village's densest residential district and the one the 2025 resort amendment reaches. LIKE R-S, ITS LOT STANDARDS ARE SERVICE-DEPENDENT AND ALSO VARY BY UNIT COUNT, and the recorded figures are the single- or two-family, fully-served case. § 260-12 gives minimum lot width by lot depth as follows. SINGLE-FAMILY OR TWO-FAMILY DWELLING: with public water and public sewerage 60 by 100 (the recorded figures — the narrowest lot permitted anywhere in the Village); with public water but individual sewerage 100 by 125; with an individual water system and individual sewerage 100 by 125. Note that the penalty for being off public sewer is far steeper here than in R-S — the width jumps from 60 to 100 feet and the depth from 100 to 125, so an unserved R-M lot needs roughly 2.1 times the land of a served one. THREE-FAMILY DWELLING, WHICH MUST HAVE PUBLIC WATER AND PUBLIC SEWERAGE: 70 by 100. FOUR-FAMILY DWELLING OR MORE, WHICH MUST HAVE PUBLIC WATER AND PUBLIC SEWERAGE: 80 by 100 PER DWELLING UNIT. 80 by 100 feet is 8,000 square feet of land PER DWELLING UNIT, so a six-unit building needs about 48,000 square feet — 1.1 acres — not an 8,000 square foot lot. Reading it as a lot minimum would overstate capacity by a factor equal to the unit count. TOWNHOUSES, WHICH MUST HAVE PUBLIC WATER AND PUBLIC SEWERAGE: 18 by 80 — an 18-foot-wide lot, which is the party-wall townhouse dimension and by far the most land-efficient residential form the Village permits, at roughly 1,440 square feet per unit. A church, temple or synagogue takes 100 by 100. Lot width is measured at the building line and the minimum street frontage is 40 feet. minLotSize IS null BECAUSE NO MINIMUM LOT AREA IS STATED — the table has only width and depth columns, as elsewhere in this chapter. THE ONE PLACE AN AREA MINIMUM APPEARS IN THIS DISTRICT IS THE RESORT USE DESCRIBED BELOW, AT FIVE ACRES. YARDS, from the § 260-12 table: front 25 feet, SIDE YARD 10 FEET FOR A 1-, 2- OR 2 1/2-STORY BUILDING AND 15 FEET FOR A 3-STORY BUILDING, side yard aggregate 20 feet, rear 40 feet. sideSetback records 10 as the base case; a three-storey building takes 15, and note that the 20-foot aggregate then no longer binds since two 15-foot yards exceed it. HEIGHT: 3 STORIES, BUT NOT TO EXCEED 40 FEET — the tallest residential limit in the Village. NO MAXIMUM LOT COVERAGE IS STATED, so maxLotCoverage is null by design. The PDF was pulled from /WA0231/laws and read in full on 2026-08-20. It amends § 260-7 to define a Resort as a facility or group of facilities designed and operated primarily to provide temporary lodging, recreational amenities and related services for transient guests, which may include sleeping accommodations such as cabins, lodges or guest rooms, dining facilities, meeting or event spaces, spas or wellness facilities, and indoor or outdoor recreation such as swimming pools, trails or sports courts, and which are expressly NOT intended for permanent residential occupancy, with accessory uses required to be clearly incidental to the primary resort use. THE SIX CONDITIONS ARE: (a) THE MINIMUM LOT AREA SHALL BE FIVE ACRES — the only stated minimum lot AREA anywhere in the Village of Walton zoning code; (b) all buildings and active recreational facilities shall be set back at least 100 FEET from any lot line abutting a residential use, which is four times the district's ordinary 25-foot front yard and will dominate the layout of any site with residential neighbours; (c) adequate off-street parking under § 260-18 including guest and employee spaces; (d) NO RESORT SHALL PERMIT ANY PERMANENT RESIDENCY OF GUESTS FOR MORE THAN 30 DAYS IN ANY 90-DAY PERIOD; (e) landscaping and buffering to ensure compatibility with adjacent residential uses; and (f) the Village Board may impose such additional conditions as are necessary to ensure compatibility with the character of the district and avoid undue adverse impacts. The law takes effect immediately on filing with the Secretary of State. IT CHANGES NO DIMENSIONAL STANDARD OF THE DISTRICT ITSELF — every figure recorded on this row remains the codified one — but a five-acre R-M parcel has a lodging option that the live code text does not disclose. NO ADU — see aduNotes. | — | 25 / 10 / 40 ft | 40 ft | No |
| B-G General Business District — the Village's commercial district, and one where the dimensional standards are almost entirely absent by design. § 260-13 STATES NO MINIMUM LOT WIDTH, NO MINIMUM LOT DEPTH AND NO MINIMUM LOT AREA — there is no lot-size table for this district at all, which is why minLotSize and minLotWidthFt are both null; the omission is the district's actual rule, not unread data. NO MAXIMUM LOT COVERAGE IS STATED EITHER, so maxLotCoverage is null: R-R remains the only district in the Village that caps coverage. YARDS, for a street 50 feet or greater in width: front 50 feet, side 25 feet, side yard aggregate expressly '—' (none), rear 50 feet. A B-G lot surrounded by other commercial property therefore has NO side or rear yard requirement whatsoever and can build to its side and rear lines; the recorded 25 and 50 apply only where the lot abuts a residential district or an existing dwelling. The recorded figures are the conservative case, and a user should check the abutting uses before assuming they bind. The 50-foot FRONT yard is unconditional and is large for a business district — it is twice the residential front yard in R-S and R-M, which will push a storefront well back from the street. Where the street is less than 50 feet in width the front yard must be at least 75 FEET MEASURED FROM THE CENTER LINE, materially more than 50 from the lot line on a narrow right-of-way. HEIGHT: 3 STORIES, BUT NOT TO EXCEED 40 FEET, applied to 'single-family dwellings and all other structures not specifically exempted in Article V, § 260-16B'. B-G IS A GENUINE HOUSING SITE, WHICH IS EASY TO MISS IN A DISTRICT NAMED GENERAL BUSINESS: its use lists include two-family and multiple-family dwellings alongside hotels, motels, motor lodges and tourist homes. HOW A RESIDENTIAL BUILDING IN B-G IS DIMENSIONED IS GENUINELY UNRESOLVED AND IS THE ONE THING TO CONFIRM WITH THE VILLAGE BEFORE UNDERWRITING HOUSING HERE. § 260-16A(2) provides that where MORE than 25% of the total floor area of a building in a commercial district is used for dwelling purposes, 'the minimum height, area and bulk requirements for residential development applicable in the district in which such building is located shall apply', and where 25% or less is dwelling the nonresidential requirements apply. That rule works cleanly in a district that has separate residential standards — but B-G HAS NO SEPARATE RESIDENTIAL DIMENSIONAL STANDARDS AT ALL, so for a predominantly residential building the cross-reference points at nothing and the district is left without an applicable lot standard. The recorded figures are B-G's own; whether a residential building in B-G instead borrows R-M's or R-S's lot dimensions is not answerable from the text. NO ADU — see aduNotes. | — | 50 / 25 / 50 ft | 40 ft | No |
| M-U Mixed Use District — dimensionally identical to B-G in every recorded column, and the identity is real rather than a transcription artefact: § 260-14 gives the same yard table (front 50 feet, side 25 feet, side yard aggregate '—', rear 50 feet, for a street 50 feet or greater in width), the same conditional-yard note ('Side and rear yards required only if adjacent to a residential district or to an existing residence'), the same narrow-street rule (front yard at least 75 feet measured from the center line where the street is under 50 feet wide), and the same height limit of 3 STORIES NOT TO EXCEED 40 FEET. As in B-G there is NO lot-size table, so minLotSize and minLotWidthFt are null because the district states no minimum lot area, width or depth, and NO maximum lot coverage is stated, so maxLotCoverage is null. WHAT DISTINGUISHES M-U FROM B-G IS USE, NOT BULK. Its height table is headed 'Dwellings, business buildings and all other structures not specifically exempted in Article V, § 260-16B' — expressly naming dwellings first, which B-G's does not. M-U IS THE ONLY DISTRICT IN THE VILLAGE THAT PERMITS BED-AND-BREAKFASTS, and it also permits hotels, motels, motor lodges and tourist homes, so it carries the widest range of lodging uses in Walton. It permits multiple-family dwellings but, unlike B-G and R-M, its use lists do not include a two-family dwelling — so the residential ladder in M-U runs from multifamily rather than from a duplex, which is an unusual gap worth confirming. THE SAME UNRESOLVED CROSS-REFERENCE THAT AFFECTS B-G AFFECTS M-U AND MATTERS MORE HERE, SINCE THIS IS THE DISTRICT MOST LIKELY TO SEE MIXED COMMERCIAL-RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS: § 260-16A(2) sends a building that is more than 25% dwelling by floor area to 'the minimum height, area and bulk requirements for residential development applicable in the district', and M-U publishes no residential dimensional standards of its own for that reference to land on. § 260-16A(2) also mentions a side yard modification for mixed uses 'contained elsewhere in this article', which matters for any mixed-use scheme. Confirm with the Village how a residential or mixed building in M-U is dimensioned before relying on the figures on this row. NO ADU — see aduNotes. | — | 50 / 25 / 50 ft | 40 ft | No |
| I-G General Industry District — the Village's industrial district, and dimensionally the same near-empty pattern as B-G and M-U with a taller and softer height limit. § 260-15 states NO minimum lot area, width or depth and NO maximum lot coverage — the district imposes no such standard. YARDS, from the § 260-15 table under the row 'All uses' for a street 50 feet or greater in width: front 50 feet, side 25 feet, side yard aggregate '—', rear 50 feet — with the same conditional note that side and rear yards are required only if adjacent to a residential district or to an existing residence, so an industrial lot surrounded by industrial neighbours has no side or rear yard obligation at all. Where the street is less than 50 feet in width the front yard must be at least 75 FEET MEASURED FROM THE CENTER LINE. 45 feet is the tallest limit in the Village, and the Board of Appeals can go above it, so I-G is the only district in Walton with no hard ceiling on building height. The three-storey limb is stated alongside the 45 feet and appears to bind independently, so a low four-storey structure under 45 feet would still need relief. maxHeight records 45 as the as-of-right figure. I-G's use lists contain no dwelling, no two-family, no multifamily, no hotel and no bed-and-breakfast — it is the one district in the Village with no residential or lodging use of any kind, so it is recorded here for completeness of the § 260-8 roster rather than as a housing site. NO ADU: no residential use exists in this district at all — see aduNotes. | — | 50 / 25 / 50 ft | 45 ft | No |
ADUs vs. short-term rentals in Walton
No local short-term-rental law on record - which is not the same as permission for Village of Walton. NO short-term-rental regime exists in the Village of Walton, and this is a different answer from the TOWN of Walton that surrounds it — the Town has a full standalone Chapter 192 Transient Rental Regulations permit regime for rentals of 30 days or less, and THE VILLAGE HAS NOTHING EQUIVALENT. Do not let the shared name carry the Town's answer onto a village parcel. The Village Code chapter list was enumerated in full on 2026-08-20 and contains no transient-rental or short-term-rental chapter. ABSENCE IS NOT PERMISSION, so this is recorded unknown. THE CLOSED-LIST CLAUSE CUTS AGAINST A PERMISSIVE READING: § 260-4 provides that 'unless the contrary is clear from the context of the lists or other regulations of this Zoning chapter, uses not specifically listed are prohibited', and no district lists a short-term or vacation rental. WHAT THE CODE DOES LIST IS CONVENTIONAL TRANSIENT LODGING, AND ONLY IN THE NON-RESIDENTIAL DISTRICTS: hotels, motels, motor lodges and tourist homes appear in B-G General Business and M-U Mixed Use, and bed-and-breakfasts appear in M-U only. NONE of R-R, R-S or R-M lists any transient-lodging use at all, so the three residential districts are where an STR claim is weakest. It defines a Resort as a facility or group of facilities designed and operated primarily to provide temporary lodging, recreational amenities and related services for TRANSIENT GUESTS, expressly not intended for permanent residential occupancy, and makes it a CONDITIONAL USE in the R-M district only. Its § D(14)(d) caps guest stays at no more than 30 days in any 90-day period — a transient-occupancy standard in all but name, and the closest thing to an STR rule the Village has. See the R-M label for the full conditions. WHAT WILL APPLY TO ANY RENTAL REGARDLESS: CHAPTER 185 RENTAL PROPERTY (§ 185-1 through § 185-7), Article I 'Registration of Rental Property', adopted 3-3-2014 by L.L. No. 1-2014 (Ch. 40B of the 1973 Code). It is a registration regime with definitions (§ 185-1), provisions on transfer of ownership interest (§ 185-5), failure to comply (§ 185-6) and penalties for offenses (§ 185-7). It is NOT an STR law and confers no zoning permission, but a buyer underwriting rental income of any term will need to register. Confirm current STR status with the Village before relying on this. These are separate questions from whether you can build an ADU — a unit you're allowed to add isn't automatically one you're allowed to rent nightly, so check both.
Good to know
- Last reviewed2026-08-20
ADU FAQ — Walton, NY
Are ADUs allowed in Walton, NY?
Village of Walton has 6 districts. All districts prohibit ADUs. Check your address with the free ADU checker, or confirm with the building department.
Do I need a special permit for an ADU in Walton?
No. No district in Village of Walton permits an ADU, so there is no permit to apply for. Codes change, so verify with the building department before ruling it out.
Can I use an ADU as a short-term rental in Walton?
No local short-term-rental law on record - which is not the same as permission for Village of Walton. ADU occupancy and short-term-rental rules are separate: an ADU you can build isn't automatically one you can rent nightly. Confirm both before you count on STR income.
What an ADU costs to build in Walton
Permission is one question and budget is another. An 800 sq ft accessory unit here runs roughly $185k–245k at a standard finish, and the per-square-foot rate comes in above a full house because the kitchen, bath, panel and heating plant cost the same either way. See the full cost to build an ADU in Walton, priced by size.
More on Walton: Full zoning for new construction · ADU build cost · House build cost · All Delaware County towns
ADU information for Village of Walton is compiled from the municipal code (last reviewed 2026-08-20) and provided for decision-support only — not legal or architectural advice. ADU eligibility, size, owner-occupancy and permit conditions vary by district and often carry exceptions; verify with the municipality before relying on any answer. Source: Offsite / Aldo zoning dataset, municipalData.js.