Erie County

Town of Cheektowaga, NY: zoning for new construction

13 districts Min residential lot 0.115–0.275 ac National Grid

Residential lots in the Town of Cheektowaga run from a 0.115-acre minimum in RMH Residential Mobile Home District up to 0.275 acres in RA Apartment District, across 13 zoning districts in all. Short-term rentals allowed with local rules. Power here is National Grid territory. The district table below has the setbacks, height limits and coverage - confirm the specifics with the building department at (716) 686-3470 before you rely on a figure.

Looking specifically at an accessory dwelling unit? See ADU rules for Cheektowaga →

Zoning districts

District	Min lot	Setbacks F / S / R	Max height	ADU
R Residence District	0.165 ac	25 / - / 25 ft	30 ft	Occupancy restricted
RS Single Residential District	0.248 ac	35 / 10 / - ft	35 ft	Occupancy restricted
RA Apartment District	0.275 ac	25 / 15 / - ft	35 ft	No
RSC Senior Citizen Housing District	—	50 / - / - ft	50 ft	No
RMH Residential Mobile Home District	0.115 ac	15 / - / - ft	—	No
NS Neighborhood Services District (§ 260-30) — a TRANSITIONAL district, not a retail one. § 260-30 states the intent plainly: uses less intensive and less obtrusive than retail business, more compatible with adjacent residential, and STRICTLY LIMITED TO USES CONDUCTED IN AN ENCLOSED BUILDING. § 260-30F makes that a hard rule: all principal and accessory uses except signs, landscaping and off-street parking, loading and stacking must be inside completely enclosed structures — so outdoor display, outdoor storage and drive-through service are out by construction. Permitted principal uses start with telephone exchange and real-estate/professional offices. Minimum lot width 50 ft; NO MINIMUM LOT AREA IS STATED, so minLotSize is null by design. Front yard 50 ft. Side and rear yards are CONDITIONAL: 5 ft abutting a nonresidential district (recorded) and 10 ft abutting a residential district. Parking, loading and stacking areas must sit 10 ft from any lot line, and driveways 5 ft — those apply to the pavement, not the building, and on a shallow lot they bind before the building setback does. Maximum height 30 ft, the lowest of any Cheektowaga business district. There is no percentage anywhere — coverage is whatever is left after the yards, parking and landscaping are satisfied. Recording a number here would invent a standard the town does not impose. Site plan review by the Planning Board is required for all development, for additions over 350 sq ft, and for any change of use (§ 260-29).	—	50 / 5 / 5 ft	30 ft	No
C Retail Business District (§ 260-31) — the town's general retail district. Minimum lot width 50 ft. On a retail use with a large parking demand that formulation can bind much harder than any stated acreage would, because the parking count drives the lot size; size the parking first, then the lot. Front yard 50 ft. Side yards, TWO REQUIRED, minimum 10 ft each (recorded) — but where a side yard abuts a residential district boundary it must be AT LEAST 20 FT OR A DISTANCE EQUAL TO THE HEIGHT OF THE PRINCIPAL BUILDING, WHICHEVER IS GREATER, so a 30 ft building against a residential line needs a 30 ft side yard, not 20. Rear yard minimum 10 ft, and along a residential district boundary the same 20-ft-or-building-height rule applies. TWO FURTHER SIDE-YARD RULES ARE DRIVEWAY-DRIVEN AND ARE EASY TO MISS: a side yard used for ONE-WAY vehicular access must be at least 18 ft wide with a 12 ft driveway, and one used for TWO-WAY access at least 30 ft wide with a driveway no wider than 24 ft. So a lot that needs two-way side access needs 30 ft on that side regardless of the 10 ft minimum. Maximum structure height 30 ft. No maximum lot coverage is stated, so maxLotCoverage is null by design. Site plan review required per § 260-29.	—	50 / 10 / 10 ft	30 ft	No
CM General Commercial District (§ 260-32) — the more intensive of the two general business districts, and the one that allows the tallest building among them at 40 ft (against 30 ft in both NS and C). NO LOT SIZE STANDARD OF ANY KIND IS STATED — neither a minimum width nor a minimum area appears in § 260-32, so both minLotSize and minLotWidthFt are null by design rather than unread. What sizes a CM lot is the yard schedule plus the Article V parking requirement. Front yard 50 ft. Side yards 10 ft abutting a nonresidential district (recorded), and abutting a RESIDENTIAL district 20 ft or a distance equal to the height of the principal building, whichever is greater — at the 40 ft height ceiling that is a 40 ft side yard, four times the interior figure. Rear yard follows the identical pattern: 10 ft abutting nonresidential, 20 ft or building height abutting residential. THE HEIGHT AND THE SETBACK ARE THEREFORE COUPLED IN THIS DISTRICT — every extra foot of building height on a parcel adjoining residential costs a foot of side and rear yard, so on a shallow lot the 40 ft allowance is not actually reachable. No maximum lot coverage is stated; maxLotCoverage is null by design. Site plan review required per § 260-29.	—	50 / 10 / 10 ft	40 ft	No
MS Motor Service District (§ 260-33) — the auto-oriented district, and the one with the harshest residential buffers in the business group. Minimum lot width 100 ft, double the NS and C figure. minLotSize is recorded as null because the district itself imposes none; the 0.5 acre applies only to a vehicle or trailer sales/rental use, and is stated in the label rather than the field so it is not read as a blanket minimum. Front yard 50 ft. Side yard 10 ft abutting a nonresidential district (recorded) and 50 FT abutting a residential district — a fivefold jump, the steepest in the chapter. Rear yard 25 ft abutting nonresidential and 50 ft abutting residential. Maximum height 40 ft. Interior minimum building separation 30 ft where more than one building sits on the lot. Parking, loading and stacking areas must be 10 ft from any lot line except along a street line, per § 260-43B(2). FUEL PUMPS AND PUMP ISLANDS HAVE THEIR OWN RULE AND IT IS MORE PERMISSIVE THAN THE BUILDING SETBACK: they may sit in ANY yard abutting a street right-of-way, and in any other yard not abutting a residential district, provided they are at least 20 ft from any lot line and 10 ft from any building — so a canopy can occupy the 50 ft front yard that a building cannot. No maximum lot coverage is stated; null by design. § 260-33E carries additional provisions for legal nonconforming Motor Service uses in other districts.	—	50 / 10 / 25 ft	40 ft	No
CF Community Facilities District (§ 260-34) — institutional rather than commercial: cemeteries and mausoleums, colleges, universities, technical and theological schools with their offices, classrooms, laboratories, chapels, auditoriums, libraries, athletic facilities and DORMITORIES. It is recorded here because it carries a full dimensional schedule and because dormitory and institutional housing make it residentially relevant, not because it is a business district. Both minLotSize and minLotWidthFt are therefore null by design. Front yard 50 ft. Side yards 15 ft abutting a nonresidential district (recorded) and 25 ft abutting a residential district. Rear yard 15 ft abutting nonresidential and 50 FT abutting residential — note the rear jumps to 50 while the side only reaches 25, which is unusual and means a CF parcel backing onto houses is far more constrained than one merely beside them. Maximum structure height 65 ft, the tallest allowed anywhere in the town alongside M2. Parking and loading setbacks are separate and smaller: 15 ft from a dedicated street right-of-way, 5 ft from side and rear yards abutting nonresidential, 10 ft abutting residential. TWO USE-SPECIFIC AREA RULES SIT INSIDE THE PERMITTED-USE LIST RATHER THAN THE DIMENSIONAL SCHEDULE: a mausoleum must be at least 200 ft from any adjoining residence district, and ANY NEW CEMETERY MUST CONTAIN A SINGLE CONTIGUOUS AREA OF 20 ACRES OR MORE. No maximum lot coverage is stated; null by design.	—	50 / 15 / 15 ft	65 ft	No
M1 Light Manufacturing District (§ 260-36) — the lighter of the two manufacturing districts. Article IV's stated intent (§ 260-35) is to provide for manufacturing, processing, warehousing and uses generally involving truck traffic, noise and extensive outdoor storage, sited away from residential areas and separated from them by large expanses of retail and office use. NO LOT SIZE STANDARD IS STATED — neither width nor area — so both fields are null by design; contrast M2, which requires 100 ft and one acre. Front yard 50 ft. Side yards: 10 ft abutting a nonresidential district (recorded), 50 ft abutting a residential DISTRICT, and 20 ft abutting an existing residential USE — so a house standing on land zoned nonresidential still earns a 20 ft buffer, while the zoning line itself earns 50 ft. Rear yards: 10 ft abutting nonresidential, 60 FT abutting a residential district (the single largest yard figure in the chapter), and 20 ft abutting an existing residential use. Maximum height 50 ft. No maximum lot coverage is stated; null by design. Site plan submission is required under § 260-35.	—	50 / 10 / 10 ft	50 ft	No
M2 General Manufacturing District (§ 260-37) — the heavy district, and the only manufacturing district with a stated lot minimum: minimum lot width 100 ft and MINIMUM LOT AREA ONE ACRE (recorded as 1). Front yard 50 ft. Side yards 15 ft abutting a nonresidential district (recorded) and 50 ft abutting a residential district; rear yard 15 ft abutting nonresidential and 50 ft abutting residential. Maximum height 65 ft, tied with CF for the tallest in the town. Interior minimum building separation 30 ft. side and rear abutting a nonresidential district 10 ft, side and rear ABUTTING A RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT 50 FT — the same as the building — and 25 ft from the right-of-way of a dedicated street, which is half the 50 ft building front yard. So the yard between the building and the street can hold parking from 25 ft out. MAXIMUM LOT COVERAGE IS NULL BY DESIGN AND AGAIN IT IS THE CODE'S OWN FORMULATION: § 260-37C(6) states coverage is "as uses and requirements of yard, off-street parking, loading/stacking areas, and landscaping" permit — a residual, not a percentage. § 260-37C(7) adds an access requirement for buildings and land.	1 ac	50 / 15 / 15 ft	65 ft	No
AG Special Aggregates District (§ 260-38) — extraction, not manufacturing, and it is recorded because it is a mapped district with a real standard rather than because it is buildable. That figure is recorded identically as frontSetback, sideSetback and rearSetback because the code makes no distinction between them — it is one perimeter, not three yards, and it binds an excavation exactly as it binds a building. A 200 ft perimeter consumes about 4.6 acres of a 10-acre square parcel, so the effective yield of an AG site is far below its gross area. No lot size, no width, no height and no coverage standard is stated anywhere in the section, so all four are null by design rather than unread. Site plan submission is required under § 260-35.	—	200 / 200 / 200 ft	—	No

Short-term rentals

Short-term rentals allowed with local rules. Short-term rentals require a Town permit or license under Chapter 201, Short-Term Rentals, adopted 11-25-2025 by L.L. No. 5-2025. § 201-3 requires the permit/license, § 201-5 requires compliance with Town, county and state law and § 201-7 sets the operating standards. § 201-6 lists prohibited practices. New York State's 2025 short-term rental registry (Ch. 99 of the Laws of 2025) separately requires every host statewide to register the unit regardless of local law. Confirm with Town of Cheektowaga at (716) 686-3470 before listing.

Good to know

UtilityNational Grid territory.
Building dept(716) 686-3470
Last reviewed2026-08-21

Working out a budget? A standard-finish build here runs $204–$268/sq ft , and a conforming lot adds about $11,244 on top - see the full cost to build a house in Cheektowaga, or what an ADU costs here.

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