ADU rules in Minot

Detached ADUs are allowed by right in the AG, RR, R1, R1S and R2 districts since Ordinance No. 6234 (adopted August 17, 2026, effective on passage). It changed the Table 2.2 entry for Accessory Dwelling Unit from C (conditional use permit) to P in RR, R1, R1S and R2 (AG was already P) and added LDO 4.1-4.E.1.f, which permits one detached ADU on a lot containing a single-family principal residential structure. A detached unit must sit on a permanent foundation, cannot be a manufactured home or temporary structure, and must match the house's architectural style and materials. ADUs are not listed in RM, R3C/R3D, RH, MH or any commercial or mixed-use district. Before 2021 the 2013 zoning ordinance barred ADUs in detached structures outright.

Attached and internal ADUs (including basement apartments) are allowed by right in the same five districts (AG, RR, R1, R1S, R2) under Table 2.2 as amended by Ord. 6234. Before August 17, 2026 they needed a conditional use permit everywhere except AG. If the ADU has its own entrance, that entrance must be less visible from the street than the main door of the house, and ADU stairways cannot be built on the front of the house. One ADU per residential site.

An ADU must be at least 300 sq ft and cannot exceed 960 sq ft; in addition, its total floor area cannot exceed 70% of the primary dwelling's living area. Ord. 6234 (8-17-2026) raised that ratio from 30%, so a 1,200 sq ft house now supports an 840 sq ft ADU instead of 360 sq ft. A basement apartment that occupies roughly the same area as the main floor of the house may be granted an exception; the ordinance does not say who grants it or how. The ADU section sets no height limit of its own; the district tables cap accessory structures at 16 feet and residences at 35 feet, and the code does not say which applies to a detached ADU.

Minot requires common ownership, not owner residency: the ADU must be owned by the owner of the primary dwelling, but nothing requires the owner to live in either unit, and Ord. 6234 left that rule unchanged. The 2013 zoning ordinance (revised March 2020) had required the house to be occupied by a family member of the ADU's owner. The 2021 Land Development Ordinance dropped that requirement. North Dakota has no statute on ADU owner occupancy, so the rule is purely local.

LDO 4.1-4.E.1.b requires one on-site parking space for the ADU, and Ord. 6234 kept that standard. The same night (August 17, 2026) the council adopted Ord. 6233, which struck most of the Chapter 6.2 parking table, including its Accessory Dwelling Unit row (1 space per unit). The use standard in 4.1-4.E still governs, so the one-space requirement stands. The retained single-family rows of the parking table still require 2 spaces for the house itself.

ADUs are a use permitted by right (P) in AG, RR, R1, R1S and R2, reviewed through the ordinary building permit, which cannot issue for anything that does not conform to the LDO (§1.2-1.E). Under the LDO as it stood through its April 2026 edition (the code was adopted April 5, 2021), ADUs in RR, R1, R1S and R2 required a conditional use permit with a Planning Commission hearing (§9.1-4). Ord. 6234 changed those four cells to P. The Planning Commission recommended the change 9-0 on July 14, 2026. The council passed it 7-0 on first reading on August 3 and 6-0 on second reading on August 17.

Nothing in the LDO or the Code of Ordinances bars renting an ADU long term. The owner of the house must own the ADU, which rules out selling it separately, although the ADU may request its own address. Since Ord. 6234 the ADU must be occupied as a place of residence and cannot host a home-based business. Table 4.1-8 says accessory buildings in R1 and R1S cannot be rented, but that section is headed 'Excluding Accessory Dwelling Units'. Minot has no short-term rental license or ordinance (its only short-term rental licensing section, 18-23, was repealed in 1987). The LDO does not list short-term rentals as a use, so nightly rental of an ADU would fall to the Planning Division's unlisted-use classification (for example Bed and Breakfast, a conditional use in AG through RM).