ADU · Monroe County
Can you build an ADU in Wheatland, NY?
Town of Wheatland has 5 districts. All districts prohibit ADUs. Check your address to confirm the district that applies to your parcel:
What the Wheatland 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agricultural Residential 2 (AR-2) — the town's principal rural district and the only one whose standards do not collapse under a septic requirement. 2 ACRES with 200 ft of lot width WITHOUT PUBLIC WATER, dropping to 50,000 sf (1.15 acres) with 175 ft of width WITH PUBLIC WATER. The recorded 2 acres and 200 ft are the unserviced case, which matches the district's own name and is the conservative reading; the serviced figures are a genuine alternative and roughly 57% of Wheatland's residential parcels do have public water, so the 50,000 sf tier is available on much of the town and should be checked parcel by parcel rather than assumed away. AR-2 IS THE ONLY DISTRICT IN WHEATLAND WHOSE MAXIMUM LOT COVERAGE MOVES WITH SERVICING, AND THE SWING IS 2x: 10% without public water and 20% with. The recorded 10 is the unserviced figure, consistent with the recorded 2-acre lot; a parcel on public water gets both a smaller minimum lot and double the coverage allowance, so the two figures must be read as a matched pair and never mixed. On the 2-acre minimum a 10% cap is about 8,712 sf of building, which is generous; on a 50,000 sf serviced lot a 20% cap is about 10,000 sf. Front yard 75 ft, side yard 25 ft minimum for one side, maximum height 2 1/2 stories or 35 feet. AR-2's front and side yards are the deepest of any residence district here — R-24 and R-16 take 50 ft fronts and R-12 just 35 ft — so the step down from AR-2 is a change of character rather than only of lot size. Note that Wheatland states its coverage as 'percent of total area occupied by MAIN AND ACCESSORY BUILDINGS', so a detached garage or barn consumes the allowance; it is a building-coverage figure and not an impervious-surface cap, unlike Hamlin's. | 2 ac | 75 / 25 / 40 ft | 35 ft | No |
| Residence 24 (R-24) — nominally a 24,000 sf district, and the recorded 40,000 sf (0.92 acres) is NOT an error: § 130-11 gives 24,000 sf only 'with public sewer AND public water', 40,000 sf 'with public water and Health Department approval of a septic system', and marks the district NOT ALLOWED where there is neither public sewer nor public water. THE SEPTIC FIGURE IS THE ONE THAT GOVERNS MOST OF THE TOWN AND THIS IS EVIDENCED: a 901-parcel residential sample from the Monroe County parcel layer (SWIS 265689) returned 795 on PRIVATE SEPTIC against 89 on public sewer, with 513 on public water against 375 private. So the common Wheatland parcel is water-plus-septic, which lands in the 40,000 sf row — the district's own name understates the land required by 67% on the typical lot. Anyone quoting '24,000 square feet' for R-24 without first establishing that the parcel has public sewer will be wrong on the great majority of sites. THE SEPTIC REQUIREMENT ALSO COLLAPSES TWO DISTRICTS INTO ONE: R-16's septic figure is likewise 40,000 sf, so on septic R-24 and R-16 are dimensionally identical in lot area and differ only in width (120 vs 100 ft) and side yard (15 vs 12 ft). The nominal 24,000/16,000 distinction exists only where public sewer is available. Lot width 120 ft, front yard 50 ft, side yard 15 ft minimum for one, maximum lot coverage 25% counting MAIN AND ACCESSORY BUILDINGS, height 2 1/2 stories or 35 feet. Note that R-24 being 'not allowed' without public water at all is a genuine prohibition rather than a large-lot alternative — an unserviced parcel cannot be developed in this district on any lot size. | 0.9182 ac | 50 / 15 / 35 ft | 35 ft | No |
| Residence 16 (R-16) — nominally a 16,000 sf district, and the recorded 40,000 sf (0.92 acres) is deliberate: § 130-11 gives 16,000 sf only 'with public sewer AND public water' and 40,000 sf 'with public water and Health Department approval of a septic system'. THE GAP HERE IS THE LARGEST IN THE TOWN — 2.5x — AND IT IS THE SINGLE MOST MISLEADING NUMBER IN WHEATLAND'S CODE. Because roughly 88% of the town's residential parcels are on private septic (795 of 901 sampled from the county parcel layer at SWIS 265689), the 40,000 sf figure is the normal case and the district name describes a minority condition confined to the sewered area near the Village of Scottsville. ON SEPTIC, R-16 AND R-24 REQUIRE EXACTLY THE SAME 40,000 SF, so the nominal step between the two districts disappears entirely and what remains is a 100 ft versus 120 ft width and a 12 ft versus 15 ft side yard. Underwriting an R-16 parcel from its name would overstate yield by two and a half times. Lot width 100 ft, front yard 50 ft, side yard 12 ft minimum for one, maximum lot coverage 25% counting main AND accessory buildings, height 2 1/2 stories or 35 feet. Like R-24, R-16 is NOT ALLOWED where there is neither public sewer nor public water, so public water is a precondition for the district in any configuration. | 0.9182 ac | 50 / 12 / 35 ft | 35 ft | No |
| Residence 12 (R-12) — Wheatland's densest single-family district. Nominally 12,000 sf, and the recorded 20,000 sf (0.46 acres) is the 'with public water and Health Department approval of a septic system' figure, which the parcel evidence makes the common case: 795 of 901 sampled residential parcels in the town are on private septic. With public sewer AND public water the minimum drops to 12,000 sf; without public water the district is not allowed at all. The septic penalty here is 67%, the same proportion as R-24 but from a smaller base. Lot width 80 ft — the narrowest in the town — front yard 35 ft, side yard 10 ft minimum for one, height 2 1/2 stories or 35 feet. R-12 CARRIES THE HIGHEST LOT COVERAGE IN WHEATLAND AT 30%, against 25% in R-24, R-16 and RA and 10% in unserviced AR-2, and that figure counts MAIN AND ACCESSORY BUILDINGS TOGETHER — so on a 20,000 sf septic lot the total building footprint including any detached garage is capped at about 6,000 sf. Note the shallow 35 ft front yard: combined with an 80 ft width this is the one district in Wheatland whose envelope resembles a conventional suburban subdivision rather than a rural one, but the septic requirement means most R-12 lots are nonetheless nearly half an acre. | 0.4591 ac | 35 / 10 / 30 ft | 35 ft | No |
| Residence A (RA) — Wheatland's only multi-family district and the only route to more than one dwelling on a lot anywhere in the town. minLotSize IS NULL BY DESIGN because RA is governed by a per-unit density: § 130-11 sets a MINIMUM LOT AREA PER DWELLING UNIT OF 3,500 SQUARE FEET, the smallest per-unit land requirement recorded anywhere in Monroe County, alongside a 12,000 sf minimum for the lot itself. Once the 12,000 sf lot minimum is met, yield runs at roughly 12 units per acre. Recording the 12,000 sf as a lot minimum would imply one dwelling on that land and understate the district's capacity several-fold, which is the error that reached a live public page for Greece's RM and RS districts. RA IS ONLY AVAILABLE WITH FULL PUBLIC SERVICES AND THAT IS THE BINDING CONSTRAINT, NOT THE DENSITY. The district states a lot area in the 'with public sewer and public water' row only and is BLANK in the 'with public water and Health Department approval of a septic system' row — on the structure of § 130-11 that means an RA lot cannot be created on septic at all. Since 795 of 901 sampled residential parcels in the town are on private septic and only 89 on public sewer, RA is confined to the small sewered area around the Village of Scottsville and is not an option across most of Wheatland's land. Lot width 100 ft, front yard 50 ft, SIDE YARD 30 FT MINIMUM FOR ONE — the deepest side yard of any residence district here, deeper even than AR-2's 25 ft, which is the code's way of buffering multi-family form against its neighbours. Maximum lot coverage 25% counting main AND accessory buildings; height 2 1/2 stories or 35 feet, the same cap as every other district, so the density must be found in footprint and unit size rather than in storeys. | — | 50 / 30 / 30 ft | 35 ft | No |
ADUs vs. short-term rentals in Wheatland
No local short-term-rental law on record - which is not the same as permission for Town of Wheatland. NO SHORT-TERM RENTAL PROVISION EXISTS IN WHEATLAND AND THE FULL SWEEP WAS RUN. Article II Zoning Map; District Regulations (132,853 characters, covering every district and both use tables) returns nothing for 'short-term rental', 'tourist home' or 'bed-and-breakfast' in either hyphenation, and all 33 chapters of the Wheatland Town Code were enumerated from the eCode360 table of contents and swept for a rental, lodging, licensing, registration or occupancy chapter — none exists. That whole-code step is mandatory in this county rather than thorough: Mendon hides a complete STR operating-permit regime in Ch. 208 and Gates in Ch. 148, and a zoning-only search in either returns a confident false negative. Wheatland's negative is therefore a tested one, not an assumed one. WHEATLAND HAS NO COMMERCIAL LODGING USE IN ITS RESIDENCE DISTRICTS AT ALL — no tourist home, no bed-and-breakfast, no hotel — which puts it with Riga at the restrictive end of the county and apart from Mendon (tourist homes and B&Bs by special permit in two districts) and Rush (boutique hotels and B&Bs, but on a commercial list). ABSENCE IS NOT PERMISSION: the Floodplain and Residence Districts are governed by a Table of Use Regulations at § 130-10, which is a closed enumeration, so an unlisted whole-house short-term rental is not authorised by silence. strStatus is 'unknown' rather than 'prohibited' because that reading has not been confirmed with the Town. 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 Code Enforcement at (585) 889-1553. 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 minimum0.4591–2 ac — an ADU still has to fit the district's lot and setback envelope.
- UtilityRG&E territory.
- Building dept(585) 889-1553
- Last reviewed2026-08-13
ADU FAQ — Wheatland, NY
Are ADUs allowed in Wheatland, NY?
Town of Wheatland has 5 districts. All districts prohibit ADUs. Check your address with the free ADU checker, or confirm with the building department at (585) 889-1553.
Do I need a special permit for an ADU in Wheatland?
No. No district in Town of Wheatland permits an ADU, so there is no permit to apply for. Codes change, so verify with the building department at (585) 889-1553 before ruling it out.
Can I use an ADU as a short-term rental in Wheatland?
No local short-term-rental law on record - which is not the same as permission for Town of Wheatland. 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 Wheatland
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 Wheatland, priced by size.
More on Wheatland: Full zoning for new construction · ADU build cost · House build cost · All Monroe County towns
ADU information for Town of Wheatland is compiled from the municipal code (last reviewed 2026-08-13) 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) 889-1553 before relying on any answer. Source: Offsite / Aldo zoning dataset, municipalData.js.