ADU rules in Barnegat Light

Barnegat Light's zoning chapter (Chapter 215) has no accessory dwelling unit, accessory apartment, guest house or garage apartment provision, and nothing in it lets an accessory building serve as a home. The R-A Single-Family Residential Zone permits single-family detached dwellings, private garages and "accessory uses or buildings" and prohibits every unlisted use (§ 215-7A, E); an accessory building is "a subordinate use or building, the purpose of which is incidental to that of the main use or building on the same lot," its loft "may not be used for living quarters" (§ 215-4C(2)), and a building holding a dwelling unit is by definition a one-family dwelling, not an accessory building (§ 215-2). The R-B, G-B and M-C zones add two-family dwellings, but a two-family dwelling is a single "building designed for or occupied exclusively by two units" (§ 215-2), so a backyard cottage does not qualify there either. The chapter has no express one-principal-building sentence; the bar rests on these use lists and definitions, on § 215-4B(1)'s rule that one building's required yards cannot serve another, and on § 215-2's statement that no definition permits a use the district sections do not.

A basement, attic, internal or attached apartment would turn the house into a two-family dwelling, which R-A does not permit (§ 215-7A, E), and § 215-2 separately counts a basement and most attic space as a half story and forbids occupying any half story "as separate living quarters." The nearest lawful route is a full two-family dwelling in the R-B Two-Family Residential Zone (by a visual read of the zoning map, the ocean side of Central Avenue) or in the G-B and M-C zones that adopt every R-B use under R-B rules, on a lot of at least 9,375 square feet with 75 feet of street frontage and side yards totaling 36 feet (§ 215-8A(2), C); that is a second principal unit approved like any duplex, not an ADU, and only about 33 of roughly 490 ocean-side house lots meet the lot test on the state MOD-IV records. At the March 20, 2024 Planning Board meeting the board attorney said a "mother-daughter" home counts as one house only while "there is a free-flowing connection from one section of the house to another" and stops being one "as soon as the area is blocked off"; the Zoning Officer suggested amending the ordinance to require conditioned connecting space, which has not happened.

Chapter 215 sets no ADU floor-area, percentage or bedroom cap because it authorizes none. § 215-4C limits accessory buildings in residence districts to one story or 15 feet at the ridge with sidewalls of no more than 10 feet (10 feet overall where the roof does not slope straight from a ridge), keeps them out of required front yards and 10 feet from any adjacent building; R-A also holds them 5 feet from side and rear lines and at least 25 feet behind the required front yard, R-B 5 feet from side and rear lines and 50 feet from any street line, and in both zones all buildings together may cover 35 percent of the lot (§§ 215-7B(5), (6), 215-8C(5), (6)). A two-family dwelling in R-B needs 9,375 square feet, 75 feet of frontage, and side yards totaling 36 feet with at least 30 feet between houses (§ 215-8C), and every new dwelling unit must have at least 7.2 square feet of first-floor living space per 50 square feet of lot area up to 5,000 square feet (720 square feet), or 11 square feet per 50 in total for a multistory unit in R-B (12 in R-A), a floor rather than a cap (§§ 215-7C, 215-8D). Principal buildings stay at 30 feet measured from the crown of the nearest improved street (§ 215-4G): Ord. 2026-03 raised the limit to 34 feet on 2-11-2026, and Ord. 2026-07 rescinded and repealed it on 6-24-2026.

Chapter 215 attaches no owner-occupancy condition to any accessory unit because it authorizes none, so the directory records not-applicable rather than no. Nothing in the code ties a two-family dwelling to owner occupancy either; the nearest owner-related rules are that home occupations and home professional offices must be run by members of the resident family (§ 215-2), and that the Ocean County Bureau of Fire Safety enforces the Uniform Fire Code in every building except owner-occupied one- and two-family dwellings, which brings a rented house or duplex under county fire inspection (§ 91-9). New Jersey has no statewide ADU statute that would impose or preempt an owner-occupancy rule, and the Mayor and Council formally opposed the 2024 state ADU bills S2347 and S1106 by Res. 2024-059 on 4-10-2024.

§ 215-7D(1) requires "Two spaces for each dwelling unit" at the erection or enlargement of any principal building, and R-B, G-B and M-C apply the same residential rule (§§ 215-8E, 215-9F(1), 215-10E(2)); a home occupation adds two spaces, a space is 9 by 20 feet (§ 215-2), and parking areas must be gravel or paved (§ 215-4E). The Residential Site Improvement Standards govern site improvements for residential development approvals (N.J.A.C. 5:21-1.5(a)) and make Table 4.4 "the maximum number of parking spaces planning boards and other local reviewers shall require" (5:21-4.14(c)): 1.5 spaces for a two-bedroom house, 2.0 for three, 2.5 for four and 3.0 for five, with each duplex unit at the single-family value, so the borough's flat two spaces exceeds the state maximum for a two-bedroom unit and falls under it for larger homes. Chapter 215 offers no ADU, transit or affordable-unit reduction; only the 2026 Affordable Housing Overlay ties its parking to RSIS (Ord. 2026-06).

There is no ADU permit path. Every new use or construction needs a zoning permit from the Zoning Officer confirming compliance with Chapter 215, who must certify or reject the plans within 10 days or they are deemed compliant, and no permit may issue for a use that would violate the chapter (§ 215-16A, D(3)); a conforming two-family dwelling in R-B is approved this way for the $300 new-duplex zoning fee (§ 21-46B(2)), without site plan review even in G-B and M-C (§§ 215-9H, 215-10I). A second unit anywhere else needs a use variance from the seven-member Zoning Board of Adjustment, granted "only by the affirmative vote of at least 2/3 of the full authorized membership of the Board" (five votes, matching N.J.S.A. 40:55D-70(d)) for special reasons (§§ 21-11A, 21-22A(4)); the filing fee is $200 (§ 21-45A), a granted variance lapses unless the use starts within nine months (§ 21-21), and Zoning Board decisions can be appealed to the Mayor and Council within 10 days (§ 21-38). The Zoning Board's 2023 and 2025 records and its January 2026 reorganization agenda show only bulk variances (elevator stacks, decks and stairs) and no second-unit application.

Chapter 148 (Ord. 74-4) bars renting any "room, apartment, cottage or house" to a group of three or more people under 18 unless a parent, guardian or competent adult at least 10 years older than the oldest minor supervises them, registers the group with the Police Department or Borough Clerk and signs a written lease, and a person with a criminal record may not take charge of such a group (§§ 148-1, 148-2). Code-wide eCode360 searches on 2026-10-28 found no short-term rental, rental license, landlord registration or rental insurance provision, and none of the 2025 or 2026 ordinances adds one. § 215-17 (last amended by Ord. 2024-09) requires a new certificate of zoning occupancy, after an inspection confirming a permitted or valid nonconforming use, a plumbing count and a life-safety check, before any transfer of title or change in use or occupancy ($75 for a house, $150 for a duplex, § 21-46C), and rented one- and two-family dwellings fall under the Ocean County Bureau of Fire Safety (§ 91-9). Barnegat Light is a seasonal resort town: the 2025 Housing Element, citing the 2023 American Community Survey, counts 205 occupied homes among 1,273 housing units, only 16 of them renter-occupied.