ADU rules in Woodbridge

Woodbridge Township's Land Use and Development Ordinance (Chapter 150) creates no accessory dwelling unit anywhere. A full-text search of the whole code returns zero hits for "accessory dwelling" and "accessory dwellings", and the single hit for "accessory apartment" sits in the affordable housing trust fund spending clause at § 150-83C, which is a spending authorization rather than a zoning permission. All seven residential districts (R-40, R-15, R-10, R-7.5, R-6, R-5 and R-4) list exactly one residential principal use, "Detached one-family dwelling as a principal structure," and each district's accessory list runs to private garages, tool sheds of no more than 150 square feet, pools and tennis courts, signs, fences and "other customary accessory uses and structures which are clearly incidental to the principal structure and use," with no dwelling unit among them. § 150-24B(3) closes the door directly: no more than one principal building or use may be established on any one lot in any residential zone, and § 150-4C makes a dwelling the principal use of its lot in every residential zone. A backyard cottage is therefore a prohibited second principal use, reachable only by a discretionary use variance from the Zoning Board of Adjustment under § 150-9I(4).

There is no attached, internal or basement ADU category either. The districts permit only a detached one-family dwelling, which § 150-4C defines as a building "containing one dwelling unit only and not occupied or designed for occupancy by more than one family or household unit." Carving a separate unit out of a basement, attic or addition would make the building a two-family dwelling under § 150-4C, a use permitted only in the R-6/2F subzone and there only as a principal use on a lot of at least 7,000 square feet, never as an accessory unit bolted onto an existing house. One nuance homeowners should know: the single-family definition expressly says "The dwelling may have more than one kitchen," so a second kitchen by itself does not create an unlawful unit as long as the house remains one dwelling unit occupied by a single household. § 17-10.2d states the flip side, conditioning a Certificate of Compliance on sale on a finding that "No illegal conversions have occurred."

Because Chapter 150 recognizes no ADU, it sets no accessory-unit floor area, height or percentage cap. The binding numbers are the accessory building standards repeated in every residential district, for example § 150-28C(1)(b)[1] in the R-7.5 Zone: sheds for grounds tools and equipment may not exceed 150 square feet or 10 feet to the ridge, with side walls no higher than 8 feet, and all other detached accessory buildings may not exceed 15 feet in height, with side and rear setbacks of 4 to 10 feet depending on the district. The principal-dwelling minimums run the other way and show the districts are written for one house each: 2,000 square feet of gross floor area in R-40, 1,000 in R-10 and R-7.5, and 900 in R-6, R-5 and R-4, on minimum lots of 40,000 down to 4,000 square feet. A second unit would be measured against the R-6/2F two-family standards (7,000 square foot minimum lot, 900 square feet minimum gross floor area), not against any ADU rule.

Not addressed anywhere in Chapter 150. Because Woodbridge authorizes no accessory dwelling unit, there is no owner-occupancy standard for accessory units to report: the residential district sections (§§ 150-25 through 150-31), the general residential regulations at § 150-24B and the 22 conditional-use standards at § 150-44 all set permitted uses and bulk limits without conditioning any dwelling on the owner living there. If the Zoning Board of Adjustment ever granted a use variance for a second unit under § 150-9I(4), it could attach owner occupancy as a condition of that one approval, but that would be case-specific relief, not an ordinance rule. Separately, the Township's rental chapter reaches any house let to anyone but the record owner: § 17-9.2 applies to all residential dwellings including single-family houses offered for lease to persons other than the record owner, whether or not rent is paid.

§ 150-78B(1) hands all residential parking to the state standard rather than setting local ratios, so there is no separate ADU space requirement to report and none can arise until the Township permits ADUs. Two related limits would shape any added parking: § 150-78A(21) bars parking in the front yard in any residential zone, and § 150-78A(10) requires residential driveways at least 10 feet wide with a maximum width of 40 feet. Each district also caps impervious coverage (for example 25 percent in R-40 and 40 percent in R-7.5 and R-6), which constrains how much new paving a lot can absorb.

There is no ADU permit path, because no Woodbridge district lists an accessory dwelling as a permitted or a conditional use. The conditional-use article, § 150-44, enumerates 22 categories (government buildings, places of worship, drive-through eating establishments, public utilities, nurseries, automotive uses, quasi-public uses, community residences for the developmentally disabled, hotels and motels, cannabis businesses and others) and none of them is an accessory or second dwelling. Ordinary residential work runs through the Construction Official and a zoning permit under §§ 150-5 and 150-7, although § 150-7A exempts "the use, reuse or sale of single-family residential dwellings" from the zoning permit itself. The only route to a second unit on a one-family lot is a use variance from the Zoning Board of Adjustment under § 150-9I(4), Woodbridge's codification of N.J.S.A. 40:55D-70(d), which requires the affirmative vote of at least five of the Board's full authorized membership; the Board may grant any accompanying site plan or conditional use approval under § 150-9J.

Chapter 17, § 17-9 is the operative rental chapter and it reaches any dwelling let to someone other than the record owner, whether or not rent is paid (§ 17-9.2). § 17-9.3c forbids renting, leasing or subletting any residential property or any portion of it, expressly including pools, hot tubs, driveways and yards, for less than 30 consecutive days; the purpose clause added by Ord. No. 2024-68 (10-1-2024) states the aim as prohibiting short-term rentals township-wide. Before any change in tenancy the landlord must obtain a Certificate of Continued Rental Housing Compliance (or a conditional one) from the Chief Housing Inspector (§ 17-9.3a) at a $50 per unit inspection fee (§ 17-9.6), and every rental owner must file a registration statement with the Housing Bureau listing owners, agents, unit types and authorized occupancy (§ 17-9.7). Woodbridge's rent control chapter does not reach small properties: § 20-1 exempts multifamily facilities of four or fewer units. A Certificate of Compliance on sale also requires a finding that no illegal conversions have occurred (§ 17-10.2d), which is how an unpermitted second unit typically surfaces.