ADU rules in Spring Lake

Spring Lake's Land Development Ordinance (Chapter 225) has no accessory dwelling unit permission. The R-1, R-2 and R-3 districts, which hold the borough's house lots, permit as principal uses only 'One detached dwelling unit per lot' plus parks, churches, schools and community residences (§ 225-12A), and their accessory uses are a closed list of garages, sheds, greenhouses, gazebos, pool cabanas, decks, fences, pools, signs and parking (§ 225-12B); § 225-4 prohibits all uses not expressly permitted and § 225-24 allows no more than one principal structure per lot. The accessory rules also rule out living space: a private garage 'shall contain no hot water plumbing or sanitary facilities' (§ 225-16A(2)), any garage's half-story must be non-habitable and its basement is for utilities and storage only (§ 225-12D note (7)), and a pool cabana's heated or plumbed portion is capped at 60 square feet (§ 225-12B(6)). A cottage, carriage house or garage apartment therefore needs a d(1) use variance from the Planning Board, which holds the Zoning Board of Adjustment's powers.

No district permits a second unit inside or attached to a house. The residential districts allow 'One detached dwelling unit per lot' (§ 225-12A(1)), the GC General Commercial district allows detached dwellings only under the R-2 rules (§ 225-13A(9)), § 225-7 defines a dwelling unit as rooms 'for one housekeeping unit' with no 'shared facilities with another housekeeping unit', and § 225-15A makes any attached accessory building part of the principal building. No zone permits two-family dwellings (Chapter 225 uses the term only in the § 225-41B(1) site plan exemption and the § 225-58D(5) insurance sentence), so the duplex route some shore towns offer does not exist here. Chapter 225 does define 'accessory apartment' twice, in § 225-7 (Ord. No. 2019-02) and in the Fourth Round affordable housing article at § 225-31.3 (Ord. No. 2026-001: units within the house or an accessory structure, built as an extension, or detached, 'also referred to as "accessory dwelling units"'), but no district uses either definition and § 225-31.6C states that the borough 'does not have an accessory apartment program in its current HESP.' A basement, attic or in-law apartment therefore needs a d(1) use variance.

Because Chapter 225 recognizes no ADU, it sets no accessory-unit size; the binding envelope for anything built behind a house is the § 225-12D accessory building table. Detached private garages may cover 600, 500 or 550 square feet in R-1, R-2 and R-3 (note (10) lets that rise to 5 percent of the lot area, at most 750 square feet), and every other accessory building together (sheds, greenhouses, gazebos, pool cabanas) is held to 100 square feet (note (11): up to 1 percent of the lot, at most 150 square feet). The table prints a 1 1/2-story, 18-foot cap for detached garages while note (7), added in 2013 by Ord. No. 2013-001, says no garage may exceed 1 1/2 stories and 15 feet and that its half-story 'shall be non-habitable' with no more than six feet of standing room; other accessory buildings are capped at one story and 15 feet. Accessory buildings sit only in side and rear yards, 6 feet from side and rear lot lines and 20 feet from the house (§§ 225-12D, 225-15E). The house itself is limited to 2 1/2 stories and 35 feet, 25 percent building coverage, a second floor of no more than 80 percent of the first-floor footprint and a half-story of no more than 50 percent of the second floor (note (1)).

Spring Lake authorizes no ADU, so there is no accessory-unit owner-occupancy rule to report, and nothing in Chapter 225 conditions a dwelling on the owner living there. The nearest owner-related provisions sit in the rental chapters: an owner-occupied two-, three- or four-family home may carry $300,000 of rental liability insurance instead of $500,000 (§ 292-1), Chapter 292's landlord definition for the seasonal-rental bond regime includes 'owner-occupied two-unit premises' (§ 292-10), and the certificate of inspection required before every new occupancy exempts only 'the landlord's reoccupying their home after a summer rental' (§ 211-13A(1)). New Jersey has no ADU statute, so no state rule would preempt an owner-occupancy condition if the borough adopted one.

§ 225-21B(1) (as amended 10-7-2002 by Ord. No. 26-2002) requires 'two spaces per dwelling unit' for detached dwellings, on the same lot as the use (§ 225-21A(3)); residential driveways must be at least eight feet wide and two feet from side and rear lot lines (§ 225-21A(5) and (6)), driveway coverage is capped at 1,650 square feet (§ 225-12D) and front-yard parking is banned (§ 225-34F). A private garage must accompany all new house construction in R-1 and R-3, and a teardown counts as new construction (§ 225-16A and B; § 225-12D note (6)). The state Residential Site Improvement Standards govern site improvements for any residential site plan or variance application (N.J.A.C. 5:21-1.5(a)), are 'the maximum that may be required in connection with residential development' (5:21-1.5(b)), and make Table 4.4 'the maximum number of parking spaces planning boards and other local reviewers shall require' (5:21-4.14(c)); the table gives a single-family detached house 1.5 spaces for two bedrooms, 2.0 for three, 2.5 for four and 3.0 for five, and each duplex unit the same values, so the local two-space rule exceeds the state ceiling for a two-bedroom house.

No district lists an accessory dwelling as a permitted or conditional use; Ord. No. 15-2003 repealed Chapter 225's list of conditional uses, leaving § 225-32 as a procedure for the few that remain (wireless facilities and outdoor cafes in the business zones, MUAHOZ mixed-use buildings). A second unit on a house lot is 'a use or principal structure in a district restricted against such use or principal structure', which § 225-36A(4)(a) sends to the Planning Board, vested with Zoning Board of Adjustment powers under N.J.S.A. 40:55D-25c, as a use variance that 'shall be granted only by affirmative vote of at least five members'; the Class I (Mayor or designee) and Class III (council) members may not take part (§ 225-35A(1) and (3)), and an approval lapses unless construction starts within two years (§ 225-36A(5)(b)). The Board's 2026 agendas (January 14 through November 4) carry no such request; its one 2026 use variance, approved 3-11-2026 at 2 Worthington Avenue, was a d(6) height variance for a historic lookout tower. A conforming house or accessory building needs only a zoning permit from the Zoning Officer ($50 for incidental structures, $100 for new structures or major additions, § 225-58D) and a construction permit, since § 225-41B(1) exempts single- and two-family dwellings and their accessory buildings from site plan review, and a unit added by variance would owe the 1.5 percent residential development fee on the added equalized assessed value (§ 225-50A(1)).

Rental rules live in Chapter 292 (Ord. No. 2019-05) and the older Chapter 211 Housing Code, not in zoning. § 292-14A(1) makes it unlawful to 'receive compensation of any kind for the use, occupancy, or rental of any dwelling for a period of six days or less' (a rule already in the 2019 text), and Ord. No. 2025-006 (introduced 11-10-2025, adopted 5-0 on 12-2-2025) added to §§ 292-1 and 292-14A(1) that rental certificates of occupancy 'shall not exceed four per calendar year'; at the hearing the council's ad hoc committee reported 267 rentals in 2025 (211 summer, 43 winter, 13 annual) and 16 homes with five or more. Ord. No. 2026-003 (adopted 3-10-2026) set the application fee at $150 for houses up to four bedrooms and $200 above (§ 292-3) and a $2,000 fine 'for each day of unauthorized occupancy' (§ 292-17). The owner must apply within 10 days of signing a lease, pass an inspection before occupancy, show taxes and utility charges are current, carry $500,000 of liability insurance and register the certificate annually (§§ 292-1, 292-2), and apply again at every change in tenant (§ 292-5); § 211-13A separately requires a certificate of inspection before any letting, renewal or sale, 'whether the occupancy, rental, lease or transfer of title is temporary, seasonal or permanent', with an affidavit from each adult occupant. Pools and other amenities may not be leased separately (§ 292-14A(8)), and a landlord whose seasonal rental (under one year and touching May 15 to September 15) draws two substantiated disorderly-conduct convictions in 12 months can be made to post a $500 to $5,000 bond for four years (§§ 292-10, 292-11).