ADU rules in Leawood

Leawood does not allow a backyard cottage or any other detached ADU. The Leawood Development Ordinance (LDO) says flatly that "No accessory building may be used for residential dwelling purposes at any time" (16-4-2.1(B), Ord. 2120 of 2005), and on any single-family lot outside the AG district "only one principal permitted use or building shall be located on such lot" (16-1-5.1). The residential accessory-use list in 16-4-1.3(B) (pools, pool cabanas, gazebos "not for habitation", sport courts, playhouses and similar items) names no dwelling, guest house or living quarters, and 16-2-3.4 allows only accessory buildings that 16-4-1 permits. The one narrow exception is living quarters for farm attendants in an accessory building in the AG district, which is limited to farm workers on 40-acre agricultural tracts and is not an ADU.

An internal or attached apartment (basement suite, addition or converted space with its own kitchen) is also not allowed. A dwelling unit is a living quarter "with permanently installed bathroom and kitchen facilities" (16-9-96), a single-family dwelling is "A building designed exclusively to contain 1 dwelling unit" (16-9-98), and a building with two units is a two-family dwelling or duplex (16-9-101), a use the Table of Uses (16-2-7) does not list in any district. Under 16-2-3.5 a use not authorized in the Table of Uses or as an accessory use in Article 4 "shall be prohibited" unless the Planning Commission and Governing Body find it similar to a listed use. The only multi-unit routes are planned-district developments: Apartment House (2 or more rented units) as a planned use in RP-4, and Single Family Attached units on separate platted lots in RP-3 and RP-4.

Leawood sets no ADU size limit because it allows no ADU. For context, 16-4-1.2(C) caps every accessory building in a residential district at one floor level and 15 feet in height and at 2% of lot coverage (75% total impervious coverage), with AG and RP-A5 exempt from the coverage cap. A pool cabana, allowed only with a swimming pool in RP-A5, R-1 and RP-1, may be no larger than 2% of the lot or 400 square feet, whichever is less. None of these structures may be lived in (16-4-2.1(B)).

No ADU of any form is allowed in Leawood, so no owner-occupancy rule exists to apply. The LDO contains no owner-occupancy covenant or affidavit regime for any accessory use, and the city's rental licensing section (City Code 8-536) licenses rented dwelling units without a primary-residence test. Kansas has no statewide ADU owner-occupancy statute.

With no ADU use there is no ADU parking standard. The parking ratio table in 16-4-5.4 requires "2 per unit (totally enclosed)" for single-family residential use in AG, RP-A5, R-1, RP-1 and RP-2 and for multi-family units in RP-3, and 2 per unit with 1 enclosed in RP-4, so any lawful additional dwelling unit in a planned development carries two more spaces.

There is no ADU permit path in Leawood: no district lists an ADU, guest house or accessory apartment as a permitted, planned or special use, and accessory buildings may never be used as dwellings. Kansas SB 418 (effective 7-1-2026) requires by-right approval of ADUs that meet "the criteria outlined in the zoning code and land use regulations", but it does not itself make ADUs a permitted use, and the LDO supplies no ADU criteria to meet. The LDO's Table of Uses already provides that any use "required to be permitted as a right in a residential district by applicable federal or state law shall be so permitted", so a future state mandate would attach there. Leawood has adopted no SB 418 implementation ordinance (ordinance archive through Ord. 3225 of 9-21-2026 and Governing Body and Planning Commission agendas through September 2026 checked).

Since Leawood allows no ADU, there is no ADU-specific rental rule. Citywide, City Code 8-536 (the city's added IPMC Section 405) provides that no one "shall lease or rent, or offer for lease or rent, any portion of a dwelling unit" and no one "shall lease or rent, or offer for lease or rent, a dwelling unit for a period of less than 30 days", so room rentals and short-term rentals are banned outright. A whole dwelling unit rented for 30 days or more needs an annual rental license (expiring December 31), an initial inspection and a certificate of occupancy; the license can be revoked after three code violations or for renting in violation of the code or the LDO. The family definition (16-9-109) also caps a household at 3 unrelated people.