ADU rules in Point Pleasant Beach

Point Pleasant Beach's Development Ordinance (Chapter 19) has no accessory dwelling unit provision and bans living in an outbuilding outright: § 19-11.1g, 'Residence Prohibited,' says 'No accessory building shall be used or occupied for residence purposes,' and § 19-11.1a.1(c), added 12-9-2025 by Ord. No. 2025-35, adds that no garage may be 'converted into or used as a separate residential or dwelling unit.' The single-family districts list only pools, sheds, private garages, off-street parking and fences (plus, since Ord. No. 2026-07 of 3-17-2026, gazebos and pergolas) as accessory uses, § 19-11.9 allows no more than one principal structure per lot outside approved apartment developments, and § 19-5 prohibits every use a district does not list. A backyard cottage, garage apartment or pool-house suite can only be reached through a d(1) use variance from the Zoning Board of Adjustment, which in 2026 required one even to use a fully enclosed structure as a cabana (Application 2026-06, memorialized 5-21-2026).

No district permits a second unit inside or attached to a house. LR, SF-2 and SF-5 permit 'Single family detached dwelling units,' HR, RR-1 to RR-3 and LC permit single-family detached dwellings among their principal uses, § 19-7.1 defines a single-family dwelling as 'A detached building designed for and used exclusively as one dwelling unit,' and § 19-11.1c treats any attached accessory building as part of the principal building. Basements and cellars may not be used for sleeping (§ 19-7.1), and the half story above a house is capped at the lesser of 33 percent of the floor below or 500 square feet with 'All cooking facilities ... prohibited' (§ 19-11.17-3), which rules out the usual basement, attic and addition apartments. The only as-of-right second unit is a two-family dwelling in one sliver of SF-5 (east of Ocean Avenue and south of Carter Avenue, within 110 feet of Carter Avenue and not within 100 feet of the boardwalk right-of-way, § 19-9.1a.5); elsewhere apartments exist only as principal uses (garden apartments and townhouses on 2-acre HR tracts, apartments above a permitted use in GC, one apartment over a commercial use in MC), never as an accessory unit on a house lot.

Because Chapter 19 recognizes no ADU, it sets no accessory-unit size cap; the binding envelope for anything built in a back yard is § 19-11.1 plus the district schedule. § 19-11.1a caps garages at 16 feet from any curb and 30 feet wide by 25 feet deep (the 16-foot garage height is repeated in § 19-9.1b.3) and sheds at 120 square feet, 10 feet and one per property, and Ord. No. 2026-07 (adopted 3-17-2026, awaiting codification) adds gazebos and pergolas of up to 250 square feet and 12 feet, one per property, all subject to building and impervious coverage limits. The Schedule of District Regulations (19 Attachment 1) sets accessory buildings at 16 feet with 15-foot side and rear setbacks in LR and 5 feet in SF-2, SF-5 and for houses in HR, RR-1, RR-2 and LC, and the half story above a house may not exceed the lesser of 33 percent of the floor below or 500 square feet, with no cooking facilities (§ 19-11.17-3). Ord. No. 2026-07 restated § 19-11.1a from a text that predates Ord. No. 2025-35 and omits, without striking, the garage paragraph, so the 30 by 25 foot footprint cap may not survive codification; the § 19-9.1b.3 garage height does not depend on it.

Point Pleasant Beach authorizes no ADU, so there is no accessory-unit owner-occupancy rule, and nothing in Chapter 19 conditions a house or a two-family dwelling on the owner living there. Owner residence matters in three nearby places: a bed-and-breakfast inn (a conditional use in parts of SF-5 and in RR-2, RR-3, GC and RC) 'shall be managed and occupied by the owner of the inn,' who must live there during the season (§ 19-12.3f.5); the short-term rental minimums in § 13-14.2c do not apply when 'the owner personally resides in one of the units of a multiunit dwelling' for the whole stay (§ 13-14.2d); and the owner of an owner-occupied home of four or fewer units needs $300,000 of liability insurance against $500,000 for other rental owners (§ 13-28a). Deed-restricted affordable ownership units must be the certified buyer's principal residence and may not be leased (§ 19-25.11c), a rule that reaches only units created under the affordable housing article.

Ord. No. 2025-19 (adopted 8-5-2025) struck the borough's own residential minimums (one space for a single-family dwelling, two for a two-family dwelling, 1.5 per apartment and two per townhouse) and replaced them with 'All residential uses - As provided in N.J.A.C. 5:21-1 et seq. - Residential Site Improvement Standards.' Under N.J.A.C. 5:21-4.14(c), Table 4.4 is 'the maximum number of parking spaces planning boards and other local reviewers shall require': 1.5 spaces for a two-bedroom house, 2.0 for three, 2.5 for four (also the default when bedrooms are not stated) and 3.0 for five, with 'Single-Family Detached' values applied to each unit of a two-family dwelling. Driveway rules still bite on a house lot: one curb cut per single- or two-family residence, 10 to 16 feet wide depending on the garage (§ 19-15.3i), and every rental license application must include a drawing of the approved driveway and legal spaces that 'shall prominently announce the fact that there is no parking on the delineated front, side and/or rear lawns' (§ 13-8h).

No district lists an accessory dwelling as a permitted or conditional use (the conditional uses are hotels and motels, certain restaurants, service stations, public utilities, boardwalk amusements, bed-and-breakfast inns, schools and MC-2 townhouses), so there is no ADU permit path. A second unit on a single-family lot is a use 'in a district restricted against such structure or use,' which the Zoning Board of Adjustment may allow only as a use variance 'by affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of the full authorized membership of the board' (§ 19-13.2d; five of the seven regular seats, matching the five votes N.J.S.A. 40:55D-70(d) requires of a municipal board), and § 19-13.2c bars reaching it through a bulk variance. § 19-16.1 charges a $500 nonrefundable fee for each 40:55D-70d variance (the same table also lists a $100 residential use-variance fee) plus a residential use-variance escrow of $250 per dwelling unit with a $750 minimum. By contrast, a conforming two-family dwelling in the SF-5 sliver where § 19-9.1a.5 permits it needs only zoning and construction permits, because § 19-14.2b exempts individual-lot 'detached one or two dwelling unit buildings and their accessory building(s)' from site plan approval (zoning fee $100 under § 19-16.1d).

Rental rules live in the Housing chapter, not zoning. § 13-6a requires the owner of 'any dwelling unit' rented in whole or in part to obtain a rental permit and rental license from the Construction Official, § 13-7 sets the fee at $300 per unit ($50 per reinspection or missed inspection, cut from $100 by Ord. No. 2025-29 of 12-9-2025), and § 13-9c requires an inspection once a year and at each change of occupancy for rentals of a year or more (waivable for 12-month rentals for up to three years). The duration limits come from Ord. No. 2024-32B (adopted 12-18-2024); on 4-15-2025 the borough attorney told the council that the borough had amended its short-term rental ordinance to resolve a federal constitutional challenge (Selvaggi v. Borough of Point Pleasant Beach) and that the settlement was on that night's agenda. Licensed rentals must also meet occupancy caps (one person per bedroom, or two per bedroom of 100 square feet or more, and no sleeping in a basement, garage or porch, § 13-15), carry $500,000 of liability insurance (§ 13-28) and avoid commercial or corporate leasing (§ 13-16); advertising a noncompliant rental is itself a violation (§ 13-18), a conviction can bar the owner from rental licenses for two years (§ 13-29b), and repeated disorderly-conduct convictions can require a $500 to $5,000 landlord bond (§ 13-4). Stays under 90 days booked through a transient space marketplace (Airbnb-type platforms) also owe a 3% transient accommodation tax (§ 28-2.1), and Chapter 19's definition of family excludes 'a group of individuals whose association is temporary and resort seasonal in character or nature.'