ADU · Saratoga County
Can you build an ADU in Waterford, NY?
Town of Waterford has 8 districts. All districts prohibit ADUs. Check your address to confirm the district that applies to your parcel:
What the Waterford 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-75 Residence (the Town's denser residential district: a one-family dwelling on 11,250 sf with 75 ft of frontage, 30% maximum building coverage, a 900 SF PER UNIT MINIMUM FLOOR AREA, 50 ft height, 40 ft front yard, 10 ft one side / 25 ft both sides, 30 ft rear. NOTE THE FRONTAGE COLUMN IS 'Minimum Frontage Width (feet PER UNIT)' — frontage scales with dwelling-unit count, not just lot size, so a multi-unit building needs proportionally more street frontage. THE SIDE YARD IS STATED AS A PAIR and both figures bind — 10 ft on any one side AND 25 ft for the two combined — so a lot cannot take two 10 ft side yards; the second must be at least 15 ft. This one-side/both-sides convention runs through the whole table and is easy to read as a single number. THE MULTI-UNIT STANDARDS ARE PER DWELLING UNIT AND MUCH LARGER: a two-family dwelling needs 10,000 SF PER DWELLING UNIT at 150 ft frontage (so 20,000 sf in total, nearly double the one-family lot), and multifamily needs 10,000 sf PLUS 10,000 sf per dwelling unit — an eight-unit building therefore needs 90,000 sf, not 80,000. Both are special-permit uses, and multifamily takes a 50 ft rear yard and 20 ft side. A 50 FT HEIGHT LIMIT IN A RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT IS UNUSUALLY GENEROUS for this county, where 35 ft is the norm. Non-residential special-permit uses carry their own rows: convalescent or nursing homes at 2,000 SF PER BED, funeral homes and agricultural processing at 40,000 sf with 270 ft frontage, farms at 5 acres, churches and schools at 40,000 sf.) | 0.26 ac | 40 / 10 / 30 ft | 50 ft | No |
| R-100 Residence (the larger-lot residential district: a one-family dwelling on 15,000 sf with 100 ft frontage, 25% maximum building coverage, a 1,000 SF PER UNIT minimum floor area, 50 ft height, 40 ft front, 10 ft one side / 25 ft both sides, 30 ft rear. Against R-75 the lot grows by a third, frontage by a third, the minimum house by 100 sf and the coverage allowance TIGHTENS from 30% to 25% — so R-100 is not simply R-75 scaled up; the buildable footprint falls as a share of the lot. NOTE THE FRONTAGE COLUMN IS 'Minimum Frontage Width (feet PER UNIT)' — frontage scales with dwelling-unit count, not just lot size, so a multi-unit building needs proportionally more street frontage. Two-family dwellings need 10,000 sf plus 10,000 sf per dwelling unit at 200 ft frontage with a 35 ft both-sides yard and 50 ft rear; multifamily is the same lot formula at 100 ft frontage with a 25 ft one-side yard. Both are special-permit uses, and R-75 and R-100 ARE THE ONLY TWO DISTRICTS IN WATERFORD WHERE MULTIFAMILY IS AVAILABLE AT ALL. Convalescent or nursing homes sit at 15,000 sf here rather than R-75's per-bed formula.) | 0.34 ac | 40 / 10 / 30 ft | 50 ft | No |
| R-Rural Residential (2 ACRES for a one-family dwelling AND, unusually, for 'all other permitted uses and all other special permitted uses' — the Bulk Table collapses every non-farm use in the district into a single row at 2 acres with 200 ft frontage, 50 ft height, 40 ft front, 25 ft one side / 50 ft both sides and 30 ft rear. MAXIMUM BUILDING COVERAGE IS 'None' AND IS RECORDED NULL: the district sets no coverage percentage for dwellings at all, so the two-acre lot and the yards are the only envelope controls. Minimum floor area is likewise 'None', making R-Rural the one residential district in Waterford with NO minimum house size — the 900 and 1,000 sf floors in R-75 and R-100 do not apply here. FARMS ARE THE EXCEPTION AND RUN THE OTHER WAY: 10 ACRES with only 100 ft of frontage but a 50% MAXIMUM COVERAGE, the highest figure anywhere in the Bulk Table, with farm accessory buildings held to much deeper yards (50 ft front, 50 ft one side, 100 ft both sides, 50 ft rear). So the district asks five times the land for a farm than for a house, then permits half the site to be built on. Multifamily is NOT permitted in R-Rural — it is confined to R-75 and R-100.) | 2 ac | 40 / 25 / 30 ft | 50 ft | No |
| C-1 Commercial (FOR COMMERCIAL USES THIS DISTRICT SETS NO MINIMUM LOT SIZE, NO MINIMUM FRONTAGE AND NO MAXIMUM COVERAGE — the Bulk Table prints 'None' in all three columns, and those nulls are the correct record rather than missing data. What remains is a 50 ft height limit and a 30 ft front yard; everything else is contextual. THE SIDE AND REAR YARDS IN THIS DISTRICT ARE NOT FIXED — THEY DEPEND ENTIRELY ON WHAT IS NEXT DOOR. Bulk Table notes (1) and (2): where the lot is NOT contiguous with a residence district there is NO side yard requirement and NO rear yard requirement at all; where it IS contiguous, 20 ft applies on the side and 30 ft on the rear, but only along the edge that abuts the residence district. The recorded 0 ft is the genuine unconstrained case. Establish what adjoins a parcel before assuming any side or rear setback exists here. C-1 CARRIES ONE FURTHER RELAXATION FOUND NOWHERE ELSE: Bulk Table note * lets the PLANNING BOARD ALLOW ZERO SIDE YARD SETBACKS where appropriate for commercial uses in C-1, which is the Town's only explicit party-wall provision. RESIDENTIAL USES IN C-1 ARE HELD TO R-75 STANDARDS, NOT COMMERCIAL ONES: the table states one-family, two-family and multifamily dwellings as 'Same as in R-75' for lot area, frontage, coverage and yards, with a 900 sf per unit minimum floor area — so a house on a C-1 parcel needs 11,250 sf and the full R-75 envelope even though the shop beside it needs none. One-family dwellings are permitted by right in C-1; two-family requires a special permit; multifamily is prohibited.) | — | 30 / 0 / 0 ft | 50 ft | No |
| C-2 Commercial (dimensionally identical to C-1 for ordinary commercial uses — no minimum lot size, no minimum frontage, no maximum coverage, 50 ft height, 30 ft front yard — but WITHOUT C-1's zero-side-yard provision, which the Bulk Table grants to C-1 only. THE SIDE AND REAR YARDS IN THIS DISTRICT ARE NOT FIXED — THEY DEPEND ENTIRELY ON WHAT IS NEXT DOOR. Bulk Table notes (1) and (2): where the lot is NOT contiguous with a residence district there is NO side yard requirement and NO rear yard requirement at all; where it IS contiguous, 20 ft applies on the side and 30 ft on the rear, but only along the edge that abuts the residence district. The recorded 0 ft is the genuine unconstrained case. Establish what adjoins a parcel before assuming any side or rear setback exists here. THE DISTINGUISHING ROW IS MOBILE HOME PARKS, which C-2 alone permits and which carry the largest minimum lot in the entire Bulk Table: 250,000 SQUARE FEET, about 5.74 acres, with a 30 ft front, 10 ft one side / 25 ft both sides and 30 ft rear. Every other C-2 commercial use is dimensionless by comparison, so the mobile home park row is the only place the district states a lot standard at all. Residential uses follow R-75 standards as in C-1. The Bulk Table's C-2 commercial row is written as 'all commercial permitted uses and special permitted uses EXCEPT mobile home parks', which is what carves the 250,000 sf figure out of the general 'None'.) | — | 30 / 0 / 0 ft | 50 ft | No |
| C-3 Commercial (the same dimensionless commercial envelope as C-1 and C-2 — no minimum lot size, no minimum frontage, no maximum coverage, 30 ft front yard, side and rear governed by the contiguity notes — with ONE DECISIVE DIFFERENCE: THE HEIGHT LIMIT IS 30 FT AGAINST 50 FT IN C-1 AND C-2. That 20-foot gap is the only dimensional distinction between the three commercial districts and it is what makes C-3 the low-rise commercial zone; a two-storey commercial building is comfortable here but a third storey generally is not. THE SIDE AND REAR YARDS IN THIS DISTRICT ARE NOT FIXED — THEY DEPEND ENTIRELY ON WHAT IS NEXT DOOR. Bulk Table notes (1) and (2): where the lot is NOT contiguous with a residence district there is NO side yard requirement and NO rear yard requirement at all; where it IS contiguous, 20 ft applies on the side and 30 ft on the rear, but only along the edge that abuts the residence district. The recorded 0 ft is the genuine unconstrained case. Establish what adjoins a parcel before assuming any side or rear setback exists here. No zero-side-yard provision applies (that is C-1 only) and no mobile home parks (C-2 only). Residential uses follow R-75 standards as in the other commercial districts, with one-family dwellings permitted by right and two-family by special permit.) | — | 30 / 0 / 0 ft | 30 ft | No |
| M-1 Manufacturing (no minimum lot size, no minimum frontage and no maximum coverage for either permitted or special-permit uses — all three columns read 'None' — with a 50 ft height limit and a 40 ft FRONT YARD, ten feet deeper than the 30 ft required in the commercial districts. THE SIDE AND REAR YARDS IN THIS DISTRICT ARE NOT FIXED — THEY DEPEND ENTIRELY ON WHAT IS NEXT DOOR. Bulk Table notes (1) and (2): where the lot is NOT contiguous with a residence district there is NO side yard requirement and NO rear yard requirement at all; where it IS contiguous, 20 ft applies on the side and 30 ft on the rear, but only along the edge that abuts the residence district. The recorded 0 ft is the genuine unconstrained case. Establish what adjoins a parcel before assuming any side or rear setback exists here. M-1 IS NOTABLE FOR PERMITTING RESIDENTIAL USES: the Bulk Table's row is headed 'M-1 permitted uses, INCLUDING RESIDENTIAL USES', and the Use Table confirms one-family dwellings are permitted by right in M-1, which is unusual for a manufacturing district and means housing and industry can sit on adjoining M-1 parcels. M-2 by contrast prohibits one-family dwellings outright. Cider plants, cold storage and agricultural processing are the one M-district use with real dimensions — 40,000 sf with 270 ft frontage and 20% coverage — and that row applies in M-1 and M-2 alike.) | — | 40 / 0 / 0 ft | 50 ft | No |
| M-2 Industrial (the Town's heaviest district and dimensionally the most permissive: no minimum lot size, no minimum frontage, no maximum coverage, 50 ft height and a 40 ft front yard, with side and rear yards governed entirely by the contiguity notes. THE SIDE AND REAR YARDS IN THIS DISTRICT ARE NOT FIXED — THEY DEPEND ENTIRELY ON WHAT IS NEXT DOOR. Bulk Table notes (1) and (2): where the lot is NOT contiguous with a residence district there is NO side yard requirement and NO rear yard requirement at all; where it IS contiguous, 20 ft applies on the side and 30 ft on the rear, but only along the edge that abuts the residence district. The recorded 0 ft is the genuine unconstrained case. Establish what adjoins a parcel before assuming any side or rear setback exists here. THE DIFFERENCE FROM M-1 IS THE USE LIST RATHER THAN THE ENVELOPE — M-2 PROHIBITS ONE-FAMILY DWELLINGS, where M-1 permits them by right, so M-2 is the only district in Waterford besides L-C with no residential entitlement of any kind. Two-family and multifamily are likewise prohibited, as are convalescent homes and bed-and-breakfasts. Cider plants, cold storage and agricultural processing carry the one real dimensional row available here, at 40,000 sf with 270 ft frontage and 20% coverage, shared with M-1. Treat M-2 land as industrial-only; there is no housing route on it.) | — | 40 / 0 / 0 ft | 50 ft | No |
ADUs vs. short-term rentals in Waterford
No local short-term-rental law on record - which is not the same as permission for Town of Waterford. No short-term-rental provision exists in the Town of Waterford Zoning Law. Chapter 161 — a modern code adopted 9-7-2021 by L.L. No. 4-2021 — defines no short-term rental, vacation rental or transient-occupancy use, and Table 1 Use Table by District lists none. There is no registration or licensing requirement in the chapter. The only enumerated transient-lodging use is the BED-AND-BREAKFAST, which is a SPECIAL USE PERMIT in R-75, R-100, R-Rural, C-1, C-2 and C-3 and is PROHIBITED in M-1, M-2 and the L-C Land Conservation District. Table 1 uses an explicit four-value key — P (permitted by right with no Planning Board review), SPR (site plan review required), SUP (special use permit required) and X (not permitted) — so a use marked X is affirmatively prohibited rather than merely unaddressed, and a use absent from the table has no route at all. Recorded 'unknown' rather than 'prohibited' because the Town has not legislated on short-term rental specifically and whole-house rental of a permitted one-family dwelling is arguably the residential use itself. ONE RELATED LAW IS WORTH KNOWING AND IS NOT IN THE ZONING CHAPTER: L.L. No. 1-2025, adopted 6-3-2025, is titled simply 'Camping' and is not yet codified — anyone underwriting short-stay or campground income in Waterford should read it. Absence of a found STR provision is NOT permission; get a written answer from the Building Department before relying on it. 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
- Residential lot minimum0.26–2 ac — an ADU still has to fit the district's lot and setback envelope.
- UtilityNational Grid territory.
- Last reviewed2026-07-31
ADU FAQ — Waterford, NY
Are ADUs allowed in Waterford, NY?
Town of Waterford has 8 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 Waterford?
No. No district in Town of Waterford 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 Waterford?
No local short-term-rental law on record - which is not the same as permission for Town of Waterford. 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 Waterford
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 Waterford, priced by size.
More on Waterford: Full zoning for new construction · ADU build cost · House build cost · All Saratoga County towns
ADU information for Town of Waterford is compiled from the municipal code (last reviewed 2026-07-31) 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.