ADU · Saratoga County
Can you build an ADU in Victory, NY?
Village of Victory has 3 districts. All districts allow ADUs with a special-use permit. Check your address to confirm the district that applies to your parcel:
What the Victory 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single-Family Residential District 1 (the Village's low-density district, for areas that are largely undeveloped, have environmental constraints or exhibit rural character: A FULL ACRE — 43,560 SQ FT — with 150 FT of lot width, only 30% maximum coverage, 50 FT front and rear yards and a 30 FT SIDE YARD, at 35 ft of height. Permitted by right: single-family dwelling (EXPRESSLY NOT INCLUDING MANUFACTURED HOMES), accessory structures, private swimming pool, home garden, public parks and playgrounds, and a government service building. By special use permit: ACCESSORY APARTMENT, home occupation and bed-and-breakfast. By site plan review: churches, schools, museums and libraries. APPENDIX A NOTE 5 AND ARTICLE 5-B CAP ACCESSORY BUILDINGS HARD: any non-residential or residential accessory structure, building or garage — attached OR detached — is LIMITED TO 900 SQUARE FEET with a HEIGHT NOT EXCEEDING 15 FEET, and may sit no closer than 10 FT to any side or rear property line. Article 5-B adds that ONLY ONE GARAGE, attached or detached, is permitted per residential lot. APPENDIX A NOTE 4 OFFERS INFILL RELIEF BUT ONLY THROUGH A VARIANCE: in all residential districts, where existing dwellings within 50 ft on either side and on the same block are set back LESS than the required front yard, the minimum front yard may be reduced to the average of those dwellings' setbacks — but only UPON APPROVAL OF AN AREA VARIANCE BY THE ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS. That is the reverse of the more common administrative averaging rule: in Victory the neighbours' shallower setback is a ground for a variance, not an automatic entitlement, so budget the ZBA time. Maximum building height is 35 ft in ALL districts — Appendix A note 3 states it once for the whole Village rather than per district.) | 1 ac | 50 / 30 / 50 ft | 35 ft | Special permit |
| Single-Family Residential District 2 (the Village's medium-density residential district, intended to maintain and protect existing neighbourhood qualities while accommodating new single-family development: a 12,000 SQ FT lot — a little over a quarter acre — with 100 ft of lot width, 35% coverage, 30 ft front and rear yards, a 20 ft side yard and 35 ft of height. Permitted by right: single-family dwelling (NOT including manufactured homes), accessory structures, private swimming pool, home garden, public parks and playgrounds, government service building. Special use permit: ACCESSORY APARTMENT, home occupation, bed-and-breakfast. Site plan review: churches, schools, museums, libraries. ON A 12,000 SQ FT LOT AT 35% COVERAGE THE FOOTPRINT ALLOWANCE IS 4,200 SQ FT, so coverage is not the binding constraint here — the 100 ft frontage and the 20 ft side yards are. APPENDIX A NOTE 5 AND ARTICLE 5-B CAP ACCESSORY BUILDINGS HARD: any non-residential or residential accessory structure, building or garage — attached OR detached — is LIMITED TO 900 SQUARE FEET with a HEIGHT NOT EXCEEDING 15 FEET, and may sit no closer than 10 FT to any side or rear property line. Article 5-B adds that ONLY ONE GARAGE, attached or detached, is permitted per residential lot. APPENDIX A NOTE 4 OFFERS INFILL RELIEF BUT ONLY THROUGH A VARIANCE: in all residential districts, where existing dwellings within 50 ft on either side and on the same block are set back LESS than the required front yard, the minimum front yard may be reduced to the average of those dwellings' setbacks — but only UPON APPROVAL OF AN AREA VARIANCE BY THE ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS. That is the reverse of the more common administrative averaging rule: in Victory the neighbours' shallower setback is a ground for a variance, not an automatic entitlement, so budget the ZBA time.) | 0.28 ac | 30 / 20 / 30 ft | 35 ft | Special permit |
| Mixed Use Village Center (the Village's centre and its only district that admits anything beyond a single-family house: a 9,000 SQ FT lot — the smallest in Victory — with 75 ft of lot width, 40% coverage (the highest in the Village), a 25 ft front yard and 15 FT side and rear yards, at 35 ft of height. BUT NOTE THAT APPENDIX A GIVES MUVC A SINGLE 9,000 SQ FT LOT FIGURE WITH NO PER-UNIT COMPONENT AND NO SEPARATE MULTI-FAMILY ROW. Unlike Schuylerville, which rations multi-family by half an acre plus 2,000 sq ft per unit, Victory's schedule states one lot size for the district and stops — so on its face a townhouse or multi-family building sits on the same 9,000 sq ft as a house, with unit count controlled through site plan review rather than through land. Confirm that reading with the Code Enforcement Officer at (518) 695-3808 before underwriting unit count; it is the single most valuable open question on any Victory parcel. Site-plan uses also include churches, schools, museums, libraries, banks, bars, BED-AND-BREAKFAST, car washes, private clubs, day care centres, service repair garages and adult entertainment establishments. On a 9,000 sq ft lot the 1,000 sq ft minimum dwelling and 30 ft minimum horizontal dimension still apply to EVERY dwelling unit, which is a real constraint on townhouse widths. APPENDIX A NOTE 5 AND ARTICLE 5-B CAP ACCESSORY BUILDINGS HARD: any non-residential or residential accessory structure, building or garage — attached OR detached — is LIMITED TO 900 SQUARE FEET with a HEIGHT NOT EXCEEDING 15 FEET, and may sit no closer than 10 FT to any side or rear property line. Article 5-B adds that ONLY ONE GARAGE, attached or detached, is permitted per residential lot.) | 0.21 ac | 25 / 15 / 15 ft | 35 ft | Special permit |
ADUs vs. short-term rentals in Victory
No local short-term-rental law on record - which is not the same as permission for Village of Victory. NO SHORT-TERM-RENTAL PROVISION EXISTS IN THE VILLAGE OF VICTORY ZONING LAW. The district use lists in Article 4 name no short-term rental, vacation rental or transient-occupancy use; Article 5's supplemental regulations run accessory apartments, accessory structures, adult businesses, home occupations, manufactured housing, gasoline stations, fences, parking, landscaping and signs, with no short-term rental heading; and the Village's list of local laws and ordinances shows no rental-related enactment. THE ONE TRANSIENT USE IN THE CODE IS THE BED-AND-BREAKFAST, which is a SPECIAL USE PERMIT use in BOTH single-family districts and a SITE PLAN REVIEW use in the Mixed Use Village Center — so lodging in a dwelling is contemplated, but only in the owner-present bed-and-breakfast form the 2005 code knew about, and the definition sits in Article 2-B which should be read before relying on it. Recorded 'unknown' rather than 'prohibited': whole-house rental of a permitted single-family dwelling is arguably the residential use itself, and absence of a found provision is NOT permission. NOTE THE INTERACTION WITH THE ACCESSORY APARTMENT RULE, WHICH IS THE REAL CONSTRAINT ON ANY ROOM-RENTAL MODEL HERE: Article 5-A caps an accessory apartment at TWO OCCUPANTS and requires it to SHARE A COMMON ENTRANCE with the principal dwelling, so the physical form a short-stay operator would want is already regulated out of existence in the one place the code addresses a second unit. Get a written answer from the Code Enforcement Officer at (518) 695-3808 before underwriting short-term rental income. Separately, New York State has required every short-term-rental host to register the unit with the State through the county registry since 2025 regardless of what the municipality allows, and Saratoga County HAS adopted a county-level short-term-rental programme: a 3% occupancy tax and a MANDATORY county registry, covering any room or space in a dwelling let for under 30 consecutive days. Registration runs two years, an unregistered host faces fines of up to $500, and the booking platform is separately liable for processing an unregistered listing — so Airbnb and Vrbo will delist. The City of Saratoga Springs runs its own registry alongside it. 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
- UtilityNational Grid territory.
- Building dept(518) 695-3808
- Last reviewed2026-08-02
ADU FAQ — Victory, NY
Are ADUs allowed in Victory, NY?
Village of Victory has 3 districts. All districts allow ADUs with a special-use permit. Check your address with the free ADU checker, or confirm with the building department at (518) 695-3808.
Do I need a special permit for an ADU in Victory?
Yes. Every district in Village of Victory requires a special-use permit for an ADU rather than allowing one as of right. Check the conditions attached to it before you design.
Can I use an ADU as a short-term rental in Victory?
No local short-term-rental law on record - which is not the same as permission for Village of Victory. 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 Victory
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 Victory, priced by size.
More on Victory: Full zoning for new construction · ADU build cost · House build cost · All Saratoga County towns
ADU information for Village of Victory is compiled from the municipal code (last reviewed 2026-08-02) 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 (518) 695-3808 before relying on any answer. Source: Offsite / Aldo zoning dataset, municipalData.js.