Compare ADU rules across Illinois

The question does not arise in Aurora: there is no ADU for an owner-occupancy condition to attach to, and Chapter 49 states no owner-occupancy covenant, affidavit or recorded-restriction regime for any residential use. The two accessory living arrangements the ordinance does contemplate are tied to the household rather than to ownership. Garage quarters are limited to 'a full-time employee hired to perform routine household duties (and his or her family) for occupants of the principal dwelling, while receiving compensation for their work', and a Guesthouse serves 'contemporary guests of the occupants of the premises'. Both presuppose that the main house is occupied, but neither requires that occupant to be the owner. Recorded as unknown rather than yes or no because there is no ADU rule to characterize, not because the text is ambiguous.

Ordinance read August 2026

There is no ADU permit path to classify. Accessory dwellings are absent from Table One: Use Categories entirely, so no by-right zoning permit, no conditional use and no administrative review exists for one. A homeowner who wanted a lawful second unit would have to change the zoning rather than apply for a permit: either a map amendment to R-4 or R-4A, where use 1120 Two Family Dwelling is permitted by right, or a conditional use planned development whose plan description sets the site's own use list, both under the Chapter 34 procedures that Sec. 49-103.2 incorporates. The City's own FAQ puts rezonings, conditional uses and annexation agreements at 60 to 90 days from formal submittal, and Aurora's Legistar record shows conditional use planned developments approved by City Council ordinance several times a year. Recorded as unknown rather than conditional-use because those are rezoning and planned development routes, not an ADU approval process.

Ordinance read August 2026

A detached backyard ADU is allowed anywhere a single-family detached house is the principal use, but only as a special use, so there is no district where one can be built over the counter. Section 44-908C(7) lists 'Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), by special use, subject to the provisions of § 44-908E' among the accessory uses permitted in addition to a district's own use list. Section 44-908E then adds gates that bite: the primary building must be a single-family detached dwelling and the owner's primary residence, the ADU must sit to the rear of the primary structure, and it must be reached from an alley or, where no alley exists, from a single driveway shared with the main house. A detached ADU is also an accessory building, so the bulk rules of § 44-908D apply, and Ord. No. 2026-060 (passed 8-24-2026, approved and published 8-27-2026) tightened them: nothing in a required front or side yard, nothing in front of the front face of the house, at least 10 feet from the principal building wall, 5 feet (raised from 3) from rear and side lot lines, 10 feet from an alley right-of-way where the vehicle entrance faces the alley, and nothing in a drainage or access easement. Any accessory structure over 120 square feet now also needs a permit from the Development Services Department before it goes in, and the online code will not show these changes until the next supplement.

Ordinance read September 2026

An internal or attached ADU runs on exactly the same special use track and gets no easier treatment. Section 44-1605 defines 'Dwelling Unit, Accessory' as a residential dwelling unit on the same lot as a single-family dwelling unit, 'either within the same building as the single-family dwelling unit or in a detached building', so a basement, attic or addition unit is an ADU and § 44-908C(7)'s special use requirement reaches it. Section 44-908E is written for both forms: it is headed 'Accessory dwelling unit conversion and new construction', its height rule is limited to 'Detached accessory dwelling units', and E(4) requires that only one entrance face the front facade of the primary building, with ADU entrances on the side or rear facade. Ord. No. 2026-060 also sharpened the line between the two forms: an accessory building attached to, or now within 2 feet of, a principal building counts as part of the principal building and must meet the principal building's location rules, so a detached unit tucked against the house is regulated as an addition. Mobile and manufactured homes are excluded from the ADU definition outright.

Ordinance read September 2026

Every ADU needs a special use permit; Bloomington offers no administrative or by-right route. Section 44-908C(7) allows ADUs 'by special use', and § 44-1707 sets the process: a petition and scaled site plan to the Development Services Department, a written staff report, at least one public hearing before the Zoning Board of Appeals, newspaper notice published 15 to 30 days before the hearing under § 44-1705A(1), findings of fact against the six standards in § 44-1707H, and then approval by City Council ordinance with whatever conditions the Council attaches under § 44-1707I. Practice matches the code: case SP-05-25, a special use permit for an accessory dwelling unit in the R-2 (Mixed Residence) District, was heard by the Zoning Board of Appeals on 10-15-2025, which adopted findings of fact, and was approved by City Council ordinance on 11-10-2025. Building permits under Chapter 10 are separate and additional, and under Ord. No. 2026-060 an accessory structure over 120 square feet also needs its own Development Services permit.

Ordinance read September 2026

Coach houses (detached backyard units, one dwelling unit each) are legal citywide as accessory buildings in RT and RM multi-unit districts and in B and C business/commercial districts (where they must occupy the rear 30 feet of the lot), under ordinance SO2024-0008918 (passed 2025-09-25, effective 2026-04-01), which replaced the 2021 five-pilot-area program; from 1957 to 2021 new ADUs were effectively banned citywide. On single-family RS1, RS2 and RS3 lots, a coach house permit can only be issued inside an ADU-Allowed RS Area designated in Section 17-7-0574; ten mapped areas exist in the current codification and City Council keeps adding areas by ordinance (amendments of 2025-12-10 and 2026-02-18). Form standards: 22-foot height cap, 15-foot separation from the principal building (reducible to 10 feet on lots under 125 feet deep by administrative adjustment), 3 feet of side clearance, and construction only after the principal building exists. DOH pre-certification comes first, and coach house builders must use contractors enrolled in US DOL Registered Apprenticeship Programs (2-44-106(g)(4)). The DOH requirements page reads the code as allowing one coach house per property.

Ordinance read August 2026

Conversion units (attic, basement or other interior conversions and additions within the principal residential building) are allowed in all R districts and in B, C1 and C2 districts, but only in principal residential buildings that have lawfully existed for 20 or more years; newer buildings are ineligible. A single-unit house may add one conversion unit; larger buildings may add 33% of the dwelling units that have existed 20-plus years (fractions of 0.5 and up round up), so 5 to 7 existing units yield two conversion units and 8 to 10 yield three. On RS1 to RS3 lots the same ADU-Allowed RS Area gate as coach houses applies (17-9-0131(1)). In B and C districts other than B2, a conversion unit below the second floor is by right only if at least 40% of the ground floor fronting the public way stays commercial; otherwise it needs special use approval; units above the ground floor are by right.

Ordinance read August 2026

No citywide owner-occupancy rule: in RT, RM, B and C districts an ADU can be added to a rental or investor-owned building. In seven of the ten ADU-Allowed RS Areas (areas 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 10 in the 17-7-0574 table), limitation (2) applies: if the principal building is a detached house, it must be owner-occupied at the time of DOH pre-certification, proven with a government photo ID plus a document such as a property tax bill, utility bill, recorded deed, mortgage statement or homeowner's insurance declaration. The text frames this as an at-application test, not a recorded ongoing condition. Areas 1, 6 and 7 currently impose no owner-occupancy limitation. Illinois has no state ADU statute overriding any of this.

Ordinance read August 2026

Recorded as unknown because Cicero has no accessory dwelling unit regime for an owner-occupancy condition to attach to. A full-text read of the adopted UDC finds no owner-occupancy or owner-residency language in any form, and the Code of Ordinances has no rental licence or rental registration scheme. The only ownership-linked control is the point-of-sale regime in Chapter 22, Article VI: every transfer of improved real property requires a certificate of compliance confirming the property meets the Town's minimum housing, building, electrical, plumbing and zoning codes, which is where an unlawful extra unit is usually caught. That is a transfer trigger, not an occupancy requirement. Article 9 defines an accessory use only as one 'subordinate to the principal use' on the same lot, with no residency condition.

Ordinance read August 2026

There is no permit route for an ADU because there is no ADU use to permit. Article 4, Division 2 provides that no use may be established in any zoning district unless Table 4.1 expressly designates it a permitted use or a special use, and that uses not listed may also be prohibited. The Zoning Administrator may treat an unlisted use as permitted only where it is 'similar to and compatible with those uses permitted in the zoning district in question', which a second dwelling unit on a single-family lot is not. A homeowner who wants an answer in writing files the Town's Unified Development Code Determination Request Form with the Legal/Zoning Department; its outcomes are compliance with the UDC, noncompliance with notice to the owner, a certificate of nonconforming status, other zoning relief, or the pre-October-1990 / post-October-2000 second unit exception. Separately, the Building Department lists 'Reconverting illegal rooms or apartments' among the works that require a building permit.

Ordinance read August 2026

There is no internal or attached ADU as such, but in four districts a second unit is reachable by converting the house into a two-family dwelling. Section 14.2 defines a dwelling unit as rooms with 'individual bathrooms and complete kitchen facilities, permanently installed', a single-family dwelling as 'a building containing only one dwelling unit', and a two-family dwelling as one 'containing only two dwelling units'. R-1 through R-5 permit only 'Single-family detached dwellings' and group homes, so adding a second kitchen-and-bath unit inside the house creates a use the district does not allow. R-5A permits two-family dwellings and townhomes, and R-6, R-7 and R-8 permit two-family and multiple-family dwellings, so in those districts the conversion is a permitted use if the lot clears the density gate: 3,000 square feet per unit in R-5A, 5,000 square feet for a two-family dwelling in R-6, and 5,000 square feet per dwelling unit in R-7 and R-8. The result is legally a duplex, not an accessory unit, and it must also meet the district's minimum unit size (600 square feet per unit in R-6, 720 square feet in R-5A).

Ordinance read August 2026

There is no ADU permit, so what applies depends on the route. In R-5A, R-6, R-7 and R-8 a two-family dwelling is a permitted use, which means ministerial review: 'An application for a building permit shall be deemed an application for a zoning certificate', the Zoning Administrator reviews and approves it, and a certificate of occupancy issues after final inspection, with the department required to answer within 14 days. In R-1 through R-5 there is no ministerial path at all, because a second dwelling unit is simply not an authorized use; a homeowner would have to seek a unique use under Section 8.9.8, which is expressly for 'a use which is not expressly enumerated as a permitted, special, temporary or accessory use' and is decided through the special use procedure (Zoning Board of Appeals public hearing, published and mailed notice, County Board action), or seek a map amendment. A variance is not a substitute: Section 13.6.1 frames variances as relief from 'unreasonable difficulties or unnecessary hardships' in applying the ordinance, and the Zoning Administrator's administrative adjustment authority is limited to ten percent or less of bulk and location standards.

Ordinance read August 2026

There is no owner-occupancy rule to report, because Elgin authorizes no ADU and Title 19 never conditions a residential use on the owner living on site. Owner occupancy does appear in Elgin law, but as an exemption rather than a mandate: chapter 6.37 exempts 'Single-family owner-occupied dwellings' from the rental residential license, and separately exempts 'Single-family and two-unit rental residential properties, lawfully established as either a lawful conforming or lawful nonconforming use, in which each dwelling unit is occupied by the owner or a member of the owner's immediate family.' That second exemption is the one that reaches a grandfathered second unit in an older Elgin neighborhood. Recorded as unknown rather than no because the question presupposes an ADU regime Elgin does not have.

Ordinance read August 2026

No ADU permit path exists, so no review type can be reported. Elgin's use lists are closed, and its use-variation power is unusually narrow: section 19.10.500 permits land use variations 'only in the following instance and no others', namely changing one unabandoned nonconforming use of a structure to another nonconforming use, and section 19.70.020 expressly withholds land use variations from the planning and zoning commission's general variation authority while adding that the power 'shall be sparingly exercised'. There is therefore neither an administrative ADU permit nor a conditional-use hearing that can produce one. The only routes to a second dwelling unit on a single-family lot are a zoning text or map amendment under chapter 19.55 or a planned development approved by the city council under chapter 19.60, both legislative acts rather than permits.

Ordinance read August 2026

No ministerial path to a second dwelling unit exists in Joliet; every route is discretionary and ends at the City Council. A two-family dwelling in R-3 outside a Planned Unit Development is a special use decided by the Mayor and City Council with the advice of the Board of Appeals (47-7.2(B)(2)), and the applicant must prove all seven criteria in 47-5.2(C) by clear and convincing evidence. In a single-family district the route is a variation of use under 47-17.28: a published notice, a posted sign, a Zoning Board of Appeals hearing and recommendation, with "the City Council ... vested with the final authority to approve or reject". A PUD use exception under 47-15A.5 is capped at less than 5 percent of the development's ground area. Rezoning to R-3 is the fourth route (Ordinance 201-26 ran a reclassification the other direction in April 2026). Read the enum as "a discretionary hearing at best", not as an available ADU permit.

Ordinance read August 2026

An attached or internal second dwelling unit is possible only as a 'residential care unit,' and only for a narrowly defined occupant. Section 6-2-34.1 permits the unit to 'be attached to a principal dwelling unit so long as the subject property's underlying zoning district requirements are met,' and section 6-2-34.2.3 lets conditional use approval be sought 'in any zoning district where a detached single-family home is a permitted use.' The gate is the occupant, not the construction: section 6-1-6 defines a residential care unit qualifying individual as someone 'screened and determined eligible for services by an independent service coordination agency' whose eligibility 'substantiate[s] that joint occupancy of a residential lot is medically necessary and/or beneficial,' and expressly excludes people with drug, alcohol or other chemical dependency. A general-purpose in-law suite, rental apartment or basement unit for a non-qualifying relative or tenant is therefore not permitted in Naperville.

Ordinance read August 2026

There is no administrative or ministerial route. Section 6-2-34.3 states that a residential care unit, 'whether it houses one residential care unit qualifying individual or is used as a residential care home for residential care unit qualifying individuals, is subject to conditional use approval.' Conditional uses run through the procedures in section 6-3-8 and Title 6, Chapter 4, meaning a Planning and Zoning Commission public hearing and City Council action. The applicant carries an evidentiary burden under section 6-2-34.2.2: petitioners 'have the burden of proving that the intended user of the residential care unit qualifies as a residential care unit qualifying individual.' Section 6-2-34.4.1 also requires floor plans, elevation drawings and reconversion plans to be submitted and approved at the time of conditional use approval. Petitions are filed as a Development Petition through the city's Civic Access portal after a required concept meeting with staff.

Ordinance read August 2026

A detached backyard cottage is not allowed in any of Peoria's ordinary residential zoning districts. UDC 5.4.2.A states that accessory structures and accessory storage buildings 'shall not be used as dwelling units,' and UDC 3.5.1 permits only one principal building per zoning lot outside multifamily developments, the Form Districts, and the commercial, office and industrial districts. The single real exception is the Heart of Peoria Form Districts, small mapped areas in the historic core: on R-4 frontage lots in Sheridan Triangle (6.2.D.8), Prospect Road (6.3.D.8) and West Main (6.4.H.8), and on West Main Local frontage lots (6.4.F.8), 'parking and accessory unit (maximum 650 square feet)' are permitted in the buildable area at the rear of the lot. The code never uses the phrase 'accessory dwelling unit' anywhere, and a full text search of the whole Code of Ordinances returns zero hits for it.

Ordinance read August 2026

Peoria defines a 'Dwelling' as a building containing one or two dwelling units (10.3), so carving a basement or internal apartment out of a house creates a Two-Family (Duplex) use rather than an accessory unit. The permitted use table in 5.2 shows Two-Family permitted in RE and R1 through R8, but the use standard closes the conversion path in the low density districts: 5.3.1.A provides that 'a duplex, in the RE, R1, R2, and R3 Districts is permitted only when designated at the time of platting. A duplex, in the R-4 district, is permitted only as new construction.' R4 covers a large share of Peoria's older single family fabric: a Community Development staff presentation in the 2026-08-10 Land Bank Board packet counts 958 of the city's 1,100 land bank parcels as R4. In R5 through R8 a two unit conversion is permitted by right subject to the minimum lot area per unit in 4.2.4 (3,600 square feet per unit in R5, 2,900 in R6, 2,170 in R7, 1,089 in R8). In the Form Districts only the West Main Local frontage allows an internal second unit: 'One English basement unit or one accessory unit is permitted per lot' (6.4.F.8.a); Sheridan Triangle, Prospect Road and the other West Main frontages expressly prohibit conversion of a single family primary structure to multiple family use.

Ordinance read August 2026

There is no internal or attached ADU either, but a second unit inside the house is lawful in the districts where 'Two-unit house' is a permitted use: R-2, R-3 and R-4, where it is marked P. Section 90-002-B.3 defines a two-unit house as 'a building containing 2 dwelling units, both of which are located on a single lot or parcel (also referred to as a “duplex” or “two-flat”)', attached and on separate floors or side by side, so a basement or upper-floor conversion there is a duplex of two co-equal principal units, with no accessory-unit size, occupancy or owner-residence cap. In RE, R-1 and R-1U, which cover most of Rockford's single-family neighborhoods, a two-unit house is marked '-' and is prohibited; the only exception in Table 20-1 is a grandfather row carrying forward two-family structures 'legally established and originally constructed as evidenced by the original building permit, prior to March 28, 2011, with a minimum lot size of 7,700 square feet' as permitted uses in R-1. Where a conversion is allowed it is gated by minimum lot area per dwelling unit (3,850 sq ft in R-2, 2,900 in R-3, 1,450 in R-4, on a minimum 8,800 sq ft lot) and by the off-street parking schedule. Ordinance 2026-141-O, adopted August 3, 2026, added three-unit and four-unit houses as permitted uses in R-2, R-3 and R-4, but only for new construction: the new Section 20-005-C.3 says three- and four-unit houses in R-2 are 'permitted as new construction' and 'does not include conversion of existing structures'.

Ordinance read August 2026

It depends entirely on which path a homeowner takes, and the ADU path does not exist. A two-unit house in R-2, R-3 or R-4 is a permitted use, so the review is ministerial: a zoning clearance and certificate of zoning compliance from the Zoning Officer under Section 60-001, folded into the building permit ('any construction or alteration of a building or other structure and any new use of land or a building must be cleared with the Zoning Officer'), with no hearing. A detached second dwelling, or any second unit in RE, R-1 or R-1U, is a prohibited use rather than a special use, so no special use permit under Article 63 is available for it, and Section 64-001 forbids using a variation 'in lieu of a special use permit or zoning map amendment'. The realistic routes are therefore a zoning map amendment to a district that allows two-unit houses or a text amendment to the ordinance, both of which run through the Zoning Board of Appeals with a noticed public hearing and a final decision by City Council (Articles 62 and 63). Two principal residential buildings on one lot separately triggers mandatory planned unit development review under Section 30-004-I, another City Council decision.

Ordinance read August 2026

There is no accessory dwelling unit in Schaumburg, so no owner-occupancy rule attaches to one; the value is recorded as unknown to match how this directory codes other jurisdictions that prohibit ADUs outright. What the code does say about owner occupancy is worth knowing, because it points in two directions. The two accessory-living arrangements Schaumburg does allow are both owner-occupancy tests by definition: a rooming house is 'Any owner-occupied residential house or part thereof in which two (2) bedrooms are let separately,' and a bed and breakfast (a special use, not a permitted use) is 'Any owner-occupied residential structure or part thereof in which two (2) or more bedrooms are offered for rent for a period of thirty (30) consecutive days or less.' Renting out the whole single-family house, by contrast, carries no owner-occupancy requirement at all: it needs only a rental license under Chapter 123. Illinois has no statewide ADU statute, so no state preemption of owner-occupancy rules applies here.

Ordinance read August 2026

No approval pathway of any kind exists, so none of permitted, conditional-use or varies describes the reality; unknown matches how this directory codes other outright prohibitions. Section 153.14 removes accessory dwelling units from the adopted construction and occupancy types, so the Permit Services division has nothing to issue a building permit against, and the zoning side offers no special use either: each residence district section lists the complete set of special uses (bed and breakfasts, group homes, institutional housing, plus agricultural, religious, educational, institutional, recreational and utility uses) and no second or accessory dwelling appears among them. Changing the answer would take legislation rather than a permit: a zoning text amendment under section 154.43, plus an amendment to the building code chapter. A homeowner cannot even start that process, because section 154.43(B)(1) provides that text amendments 'may be proposed by the village board, the zoning board of appeals, the zoning administrator, or other governmental bodies,' with residents and property owners limited to proposing rezonings and map amendments; the amendment itself is granted or denied by the Village Board by ordinance only after a public hearing before the zoning board. For reference, ordinary residential building permits are filed through the village's OpenGov portal and administrative site plan amendments under section 154.51(A) reach only listed minor changes, none of which involve dwelling units.

Ordinance read August 2026

There is no attached or internal ADU category either, so a second unit inside a house is simply a conversion to a duplex, and whether that is allowed depends entirely on the district. In R-1 the only permitted residential use is a single-family detached residence (§ 155.016(b)(1)), and § 155.001 defines a single-family residence as a building containing only one dwelling unit, so a basement, attic or addition apartment is not allowed in R-1 at all. R-2 permits duplexes (§ 155.017(b)), as do R-3, R-5, OFF and the H-3 historic district, so in those districts a homeowner can legally add a second unit, but as a co-equal duplex half rather than a subordinate ADU. Section 155.056(c) applies the full lot-area table to the resulting unit count for any conversion that increases the number of dwelling units, which in R-2 means 3,000 square feet of lot per unit.

Ordinance read August 2026

There is no ADU permit because there is no ADU use, and what a homeowner faces depends on the district. A detached unit is barred outright everywhere by § 155.068(b)(2), so the only conceivable route is a use variance or a rezoning, not a permit. In R-2, R-3, R-5, OFF and H-3, adding a second unit inside the house is a permitted duplex reviewed administratively: the zoning administrator must certify compliance with Chapter 155 before the building services department issues a building permit or certificate of occupancy (§ 155.241(a)). In R-1 no second unit is permitted at all, and the conditional-use catalogue at §§ 155.175 through 155.211 contains no accessory-dwelling or second-dwelling category, so there is no hearing to ask for. Properties in the H-1, H-2 and H-3 historic districts additionally route building permit applications to the historic sites commission, which has 45 days to act (§ 155.267).

Ordinance read August 2026

Urbana has no accessory dwelling unit category at all, so a detached backyard cottage or garage apartment is treated as a second principal structure. Dwellings are principal uses (Section V-2.A) and an accessory use is only 'a use that is incidental to a principal use' (Section II-3), so a second dwelling cannot ride along as an accessory structure. Section V-3.C allows more than one principal structure per lot in any zoning district only 'under conditional use procedures', which means a public hearing before the Zoning Board of Appeals under Section VII-2 and a decision sheet recorded with the Champaign County Recorder. There is no ministerial path and no by-right detached second unit anywhere in the city.

Ordinance read August 2026

Adding a second unit inside the house, in the basement or as an addition, does not create an ADU in Urbana; it converts the building into a 'Dwelling, Duplex', defined as 'a building containing two dwelling units', because a dwelling unit is any suite with its own kitchen, bathroom and independent entry (Section II-3). That reclassification is what governs: the duplex use does not appear at all in the R-1 district, it is a conditional use requiring Zoning Board of Appeals approval in R-2, and it is permitted by right in R-3 (Single and Two-Family Residential) and in the denser R-4 through R-7 districts. Lot size gates then bite in R-2 and R-3: a lot platted after December 21, 1970 needs at least 9,000 square feet and 80 feet of average width for a duplex, and a lot platted before that date needs at least 6,000 square feet and 60 feet.

Ordinance read August 2026

There is no ADU permit in Urbana, so which review applies depends on the form and the district. A detached second dwelling always needs a conditional use permit for more than one principal structure on a lot, heard by the Zoning Board of Appeals with published notice, findings and a decision sheet recorded with the county, and that requirement applies 'in any zoning district'. An internal second unit is instead reviewed as a two-family dwelling: not allowed in R-1, a conditional use before the same board in R-2, and permitted by right (staff-level zoning and building permits) in R-3 and the denser residential districts, subject to the duplex lot area minimums. Conditional use approvals lapse if no building permit or Certificate of Occupancy issues within one year, and a valid written protest raises the approval threshold to two-thirds of the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Ordinance read August 2026

Waukegan allows a detached backyard ADU, but only in the R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, L1, L2 and L3 districts, only on a zoning lot that already contains a single-unit dwelling, only in the rear yard, and only after a site plan review hearing. Table 9.03-1 of the Unified Development Ordinance marks 'Accessory Dwelling Unit (Detached)' with an S (site plan review) in those eight districts and leaves the cell blank everywhere else, and UDO 9.03.B.4 says a blank means the structure is not allowed in that district. So ADUs are off the table in the CR conservation district and in every business district (B1, B2, B3, B4, H/C, E) and industrial district (R/LI, I). One ADU is permitted per zoning lot, and the general accessory rules put it at least five feet from any lot line with accessory structures plus impervious surfaces capped at 40 percent of any yard.

Ordinance read August 2026

Formally this is site plan review, not a conditional use permit, but it is a discretionary public hearing rather than a staff sign-off. UDO 9.03.C.1 states flatly that 'accessory dwelling units are subject to site plan review', and 4.09.B.1 lists 'new construction of an accessory dwelling unit in any zoning district' as the first trigger for the process. The Zoning Administrator takes the application and writes a report, then the Development Review Board holds a public hearing (noticed by first class mail or hand delivery to owners within 250 feet plus a posted sign under Figure 2.07-1) within 60 days and approves, approves with conditions, or denies against the eight standards in 4.09.F, which include consistency with 'the existing character and zoning of adjacent properties' and architecture that 'will contribute positively to the City's aesthetic appearance'. The Development Review Board decides; no City Council vote is required, though the board may vote to refer an item up to the Planning and Zoning Commission or City Council. Approval lapses if no building permit issues within one year, with one six-month extension available.

Ordinance read August 2026