ADU · Monroe County
Can you build an ADU in Ogden, NY?
Town of Ogden has 10 districts. 9 districts prohibit ADUs, 1 allows them with occupancy restrictions. Check your address to confirm the district that applies to your parcel:
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What the Ogden 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rural Agricultural (RA) — 1 ACRE MINIMUM AND, UNUSUALLY, A 3 ACRE MAXIMUM: the code caps lot size as well as setting a floor, expressly to stop farmland being consumed by large residential lots, and the maximum may rise above three acres only where the Monroe County Health Department requires more room for an on-lot sewage system, in quarter-acre increments. 150 ft of lot width, 250 ft of lot depth, 20% maximum building coverage, front 60 ft, side 25 ft for all buildings, rear 50 ft for residential and 30 ft for agricultural, principal height 35 ft (2 1/2 storeys), accessory 15 ft (one storey). THE BINDING CONSTRAINT IS NOT THE LOT MINIMUM — IT IS A SLIDING-SCALE SUBDIVISION CAP KEYED TO THE PARENT TRACT. § 300-25 limits the maximum number of lots that may be created from a parcel by the acres of contiguous land held in single and separate ownership (the 'parent tract') AS IT STOOD ON 16 MARCH 1981, or the date the land was first zoned RA if later: at least 2 but under 6 acres yields 1 lot, 6 to 30 yields 2, 30 to 80 yields 3, 80 to 130 yields 4, 130 to 180 yields 5, 180 to 230 yields 6, and 230 to 280 yields 7. A 200-acre RA farm therefore yields SIX lots, not the roughly 200 that dividing by the one-acre minimum would suggest — an error of more than 30x. The scale attaches to the 1981 parent tract, so lots already split off since then count against the allowance and the current deed acreage is NOT the input; establishing the 1981 configuration is the first step in underwriting any RA parcel. Minimum habitable floor area is 1,200 sf for a one-storey dwelling (§ 300-58). Farm buildings have no minimum interior distance requirement. No in-law apartment is available in RA. | 1 ac | 60 / 25 / 50 ft | 35 ft | No |
| Rural Residential (RR) — WATER AVAILABILITY MOVES THE MINIMUM LOT BY 2.5x: 87,120 sf (2 acres) with 200 ft of width at the building line WHERE PUBLIC WATER IS AVAILABLE, rising to FIVE ACRES with 300 ft of width where it is not. The recorded figures are the public-water case. Front setback is 100 ft from a public road; principal height 35 ft (2 1/2 storeys), accessory 15 ft. sideSetback and rearSetback are therefore null by design; what actually separates buildings here is a SPACING RULE — the minimum distance between principal structures on adjacent lots is the height of the taller building plus 30 feet, which on a 35 ft house means 65 ft between structures. CLUSTER DENSITY IS NOT THE LOT MINIMUM: under Town Law § 278 with public water the minimum lot drops to ONE acre and the width to 160 ft, but the overall development is computed at THREE ACRES PER LOT, rising to FIVE ACRES PER LOT for land regulated as floodplain, wetland, steep slope or otherwise environmentally limited. So clustering buys smaller lots, not more of them, and constrained land cuts yield by a further 40%. In cluster developments the minimum front setback remains 100 ft. RR sets no lot coverage. Minimum habitable floor area is 1,600 sf for a one-storey dwelling — the largest house-size floor in the town alongside RT. No in-law apartment is available in RR. | 2 ac | 100 / - / - ft | 35 ft | No |
| Residential Transition (RT) — the district for land where, in the code's own words, lack of public utilities and environmental conditions require larger lots. DENSITY AND MINIMUM LOT SIZE ARE DIFFERENT NUMBERS HERE AND BOTH MATTER. Density is one lot per 1/2 ACRE with both public sewer and water, one lot per ONE acre with water or sewer only, and one lot per THREE acres with neither. The dimensional chart separately sets the MINIMUM LOT at 1 acre / 1 acre / 3 acres across the same three service levels. The half-acre density with full utilities is therefore only reachable by clustering under Town Law § 278 — the code states plainly that public sewer and water are required to reduce lot size below one acre — so on a fully serviced RT parcel a conventional subdivision yields half the units a density calculation would suggest, and the § 278 cluster is what closes the gap. Recorded figures are the serviced case: 1 acre, 150 ft of width at the setback line (and at the street line, and for corner lots), front 60 ft, side 15 ft, rear 30 ft, principal height 35 ft (2 1/2 storeys), accessory 15 ft. Without either service the lot goes to 3 acres and the width to 200 ft while the setbacks stay identical. RT sets NO lot coverage, so maxLotCoverage is null by design. Minimum habitable floor area is 1,600 sf for a one-storey dwelling. No in-law apartment is available in RT. | 1 ac | 60 / 15 / 30 ft | 35 ft | No |
| Single-Family Residential (R-1) — 30,000 sf, or 40,000 sf WITHOUT public water and sewer; 150 ft of lot width, or 200 ft without those services; 200 ft of lot depth; front 60 ft; side 15 ft for principal buildings, 15 ft for accessory structures and 5 ft for sheds; rear 30 ft for principal buildings, 15 ft for accessory structures and 5 ft for sheds; principal height 35 ft (2 1/2 storeys), accessory structures 24 ft, sheds 15 ft. The recorded figures are the serviced case. MAXIMUM COVERAGE IS 20% BY ALL BUILDINGS, WITH A SEPARATE AND MUCH TIGHTER ACCESSORY CAP: accessory structures may cover no more than 1% of the lot AND may not exceed 5,000 sf of total floor area per parcel REGARDLESS OF LOT SIZE. On the 30,000 sf minimum lot that 1% is just 300 sf, so a detached garage or barn is constrained by the accessory percentage long before the 20% overall figure binds — this is the constraint to quote on any R-1 outbuilding question. NON-RESIDENTIAL USES IN R-1 TAKE AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT AND MUCH LARGER ENVELOPE, which is easy to misread as the residential one: 400 ft of lot depth, 250 ft of lot width, 125 ft front setback and 50 ft side and rear setbacks. R-1 IS THE ONLY DISTRICT IN OGDEN WITH AN IN-LAW APARTMENT, available as a conditional use from the Zoning Board of Appeals and restricted to the owners of record and their blood relatives — see `aduNotes`, because that occupancy restriction means it produces no market rent. Minimum habitable floor area is 1,500 sf for a one-storey dwelling. | 0.6887 ac | 60 / 15 / 30 ft | 35 ft | Occupancy restricted |
| Two-Family Residential (R-2) — 40,000 sf, or 62,500 sf WITHOUT public water and sewer; 200 ft of lot width, or 250 ft without; 200 ft of lot depth, or 250 ft without; front 60 ft; side and rear 30 ft for principal buildings and 5 ft for accessory structures; principal height 35 ft (2 1/2 storeys), accessory 15 ft (one storey). Recorded figures are the serviced case, and note the unserviced penalty here is the steepest in the town at 56% more land. Maximum building coverage is 30%, ten points more than R-1, with accessory structures capped at 1% PER LIVING UNIT and no accessory structure exceeding 400 sf of floor area except on farms — a much tighter accessory cap than R-1's 5,000 sf. R-2 IS THE REAL ROUTE TO A SECOND INCOME UNIT IN OGDEN: it permits a genuine two-family dwelling as a PRINCIPAL use, whereas the only accessory unit in the town is R-1's in-law apartment, whose occupancy is restricted to blood relatives and which therefore cannot be rented. Minimum habitable floor area is 1,000 sf PER LIVING UNIT for a one-storey dwelling, so a two-family on the district minimum must deliver 2,000 sf of habitable area. | 0.9183 ac | 60 / 30 / 30 ft | 35 ft | No |
| Multiple-Family Residential (MFR) — THERE IS NO MINIMUM LOT AREA IN THIS DISTRICT, AND THAT NULL IS THE CODE, NOT A GAP: § 300-30 regulates apartment houses by DENSITY instead, requiring a minimum of 3,500 SQUARE FEET OF LOT AREA IN THE PROJECT AREA FOR EACH LIVING UNIT. Yield is therefore project area divided by 3,500 sf, which is roughly 12.4 units per acre, and any figure derived from a district lot minimum would be meaningless. What the code does fix is the SHAPE of the parcel: no apartment house may sit on a lot with a depth of less than 250 ft or a WIDTH OF LESS THAN 280 FT — the widest lot-width requirement in Ogden, wider than Light Industrial's 250 ft — so a narrow parcel is disqualified from MFR development no matter how much total area it has. Setbacks are correspondingly deep: front 100 ft, side 65 ft, rear 65 ft, with a minimum 30 ft between buildings. TOWNHOUSES ARE REGULATED SEPARATELY IN THE SAME DISTRICT (§ 300-30D): maximum 2 1/2 storeys or 35 ft, accessory structures 15 ft or one storey, minimum 960 sf of habitable area per townhouse, minimum 18 ft width per townhouse, NO MORE THAN EIGHT TOWNHOUSES PER BUILDING OR DWELLING GROUP, and no exterior wall may continue on the same plane for more than 75 ft without an offset of at least 4 ft. No room with more than four feet of its vertical height below grade may be used for living purposes, which rules out a conventional walk-out basement bedroom. MFR sets no lot coverage figure. No in-law apartment is available. | — | 100 / 65 / 65 ft | 35 ft | No |
| Restricted Business (RB) — ROAD CLASS DOUBLES THE MINIMUM LOT IN THIS DISTRICT, which is the trap to watch: 40,000 sf on internal or local access roads but 80,000 sf on ARTERIAL OR COLLECTOR STREETS, with lot width likewise 200 ft rising to 300 ft. Recorded figures are the internal/local case, the county convention. Lot depth 200 ft. Front setback is 85 ft on internal or local roads and 160 ft on arterial or collector streets, and on a collector or arterial the town may increase it further to accommodate future widening or a frontage road — so an RB parcel fronting a main highway can lose more than twice the depth to the front yard, and the setback is not even fixed. On parcels of five acres or less the minimum setback FOR PARKING LOTS ONLY drops to 25 ft. Side setback 25 ft, rising to 50 ft where adjacent to a residential district or parcel; rear setback 30 ft, likewise rising to 50 ft adjacent to residential. TWO COVERAGE CAPS APPLY AND maxLotCoverage RECORDS THE BUILDING ONE: 35% maximum by buildings and accessory uses, and a separate 70% maximum by buildings, structures, parking areas and all other paved surfaces. On top of that, not less than 30% OF THE LOT must be set aside for seeding, planting, retention of tree cover or other landscaping and used for no other purpose — a hard green-space floor that, with the 70% impervious cap, is what really sizes an RB site plan. Maximum height 35 ft and not more than 2 1/2 storeys; accessory structures 15 ft or one storey. | 0.9183 ac | 85 / 25 / 30 ft | 35 ft | No |
| Neighborhood Commercial (NC) — 40,000 sf with 200 ft of lot width and 200 ft of lot depth, and unlike RB the lot area does NOT double on an arterial road, though the front setback still does: 85 ft on internal or local access roads and 160 ft on arterial or collector streets, with the same power to increase it for future widening or a frontage road, and the same reduction to 25 ft for parking lots only on parcels of five acres or less. Side setback 25 ft, rising to 50 ft where adjacent to a residential district or parcel; rear setback 30 ft, likewise 50 ft adjacent to residential. Coverage is the same two-cap structure as RB — 35% by buildings and accessory uses (recorded), 70% by buildings, structures, parking and all other paved surfaces — plus the same requirement that at least 30% of the lot be devoted to seeding, planting and retention of tree cover and used for no other purpose. Maximum building height is 2 1/2 STOREYS OR 35 FEET, WHICHEVER IS THE LESSER, so a tall two-and-a-half-storey design can be cut off before it reaches 35 ft; accessory structures 15 ft or one storey. | 0.9183 ac | 85 / 25 / 30 ft | 35 ft | No |
| General Commercial (GC) — ONE ACRE minimum with 200 ft of lot width on internal, local, arterial and collector roads alike, and 200 ft of lot depth. Front setback 60 ft on internal or local access roads and 100 ft on arterial or collector streets, reduced to 25 ft for parking lots only on parcels of five acres or less. SIDE SETBACK: NONE REQUIRED, except where the Planning Board prescribes one, and sideSetback is recorded as 0 rather than null because zero is the stated standard — a GC building may sit on its side line. Rear setback 30 ft, rising to 60 ft where adjacent to ANY residential district, in addition to any buffer area required by § 300-52. Coverage runs the same two caps as RB and NC: 35% by buildings and structures (recorded) and 70% by buildings, structures, parking areas and all other impervious areas. Maximum height 2 1/2 storeys or 35 ft, whichever is the lesser. GC IS THE ONLY DISTRICT IN OGDEN WHERE A SMOKE SHOP MAY OPERATE — L.L. No. 5-2024 added a new Chapter 245 restricting smoke shops to GC under § 300-33, subject to separation distances measured property line to property line. That law adds a chapter and changes no dimension in Ch. 300. | 1 ac | 60 / 0 / 30 ft | 35 ft | No |
| Light Industrial (LI) — 62,500 sf with 250 ft of lot width and 250 ft of lot depth. Front setback 60 ft on internal or subdivision streets and 100 ft on existing arterial or collector highways, reduced to 25 ft for parking lots only on parcels of five acres or less; side 30 ft; rear 50 ft. Coverage is 35% by buildings and structures (recorded) and 70% by buildings, structures and parking areas. LI IS THE ONLY DISTRICT IN OGDEN THAT EXCEEDS 35 FEET AND THE ONLY ONE WHOSE HEIGHT WAS RECENTLY RAISED: maximum building height is 45 FEET, amended 11-28-2018 by L.L. No. 1-2018 and again 4-26-2023 by L.L. No. 4-2023. Every other district in the town — residential, business and commercial — is held to 35 ft, so LI is the only place in Ogden that can accommodate a modern high-bay warehouse, distribution or light-manufacturing form without a variance, and that 45 ft cap is the single most decision-relevant industrial fact in the town. Off-street parking follows the Schedule in § 300-80, and the Planning Board may increase or decrease those standards for specific uses during site plan review. | 1.4348 ac | 60 / 30 / 50 ft | 45 ft | No |
ADUs vs. short-term rentals in Ogden
No local short-term-rental law on record - which is not the same as permission for Town of Ogden. No short-term rental provision exists anywhere in Ogden's Ch. 300 Zoning, and no separate rental-licensing chapter was found in the Town Code — the only 'transient' hit in the whole 150,942-character zoning chapter is in the noise regulations, exempting transient noise from moving sources such as automobiles, trucks and railroads. Ogden regulates lodging only through the conventional use list; there is no tourist home, no bed-and-breakfast standard and no STR permit. ABSENCE IS NOT PERMISSION: Ch. 300 defines permitted uses as a closed list per district, so a short-term rental in an Ogden house may be unpermitted as an unlisted use even though no section names it. Note the contrast with the Town of Gates in the same county, which regulates STRs through a separate Ch. 148 Rental Properties law with a permit and a three-month threshold — a search of a Monroe town's ZONING chapter alone is not sufficient to conclude there is no STR regime, and the Ogden Town Code's other chapters should be swept once more before this is treated as settled. New York State's 2025 statewide short-term rental registry (Ch. 99 of the Laws of 2025) obliges every host to register regardless of local law. Confirm with the Building Department at (585) 617-6195. 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
- Residential lot minimum0.6887–2 ac — an ADU still has to fit the district's lot and setback envelope.
- UtilityRG&E territory.
- Building dept(585) 617-6195
- Last reviewed2026-08-12
ADU FAQ — Ogden, NY
Are ADUs allowed in Ogden, NY?
Town of Ogden has 10 districts. 9 districts prohibit ADUs, 1 allows them with occupancy restrictions. Check your address with the free ADU checker, or confirm with the building department at (585) 617-6195.
Do I need a special permit for an ADU in Ogden?
No district in Town of Ogden requires a special-use permit for an ADU - 9 districts prohibit ADUs, 1 allows them with occupancy restrictions. Site-plan review or a building permit may still apply.
Can I use an ADU as a short-term rental in Ogden?
No local short-term-rental law on record - which is not the same as permission for Town of Ogden. 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 Ogden
Permission is one question and budget is another. An 800 sq ft accessory unit here runs roughly $200k–260k 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 Ogden, priced by size.
More on Ogden: Full zoning for new construction · ADU build cost · House build cost · All Monroe County towns
ADU information for Town of Ogden is compiled from the municipal code (last reviewed 2026-08-12) 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 building department at (585) 617-6195 before relying on any answer. Source: Offsite / Aldo zoning dataset, municipalData.js.