ADU rules in Cleveland

The zoning code has no accessory dwelling unit use category. Section 337.23(a) lists the accessory uses permitted in Residence Districts (garages, home occupations, agriculture, incinerators, fences, parking, garage sales, signs) and dwelling units are not among them; One-Family Districts permit only dwelling houses occupied by not more than one family (337.02(a)). A detached backyard unit therefore requires a use variance from the Board of Zoning Appeals. Exception: in the Form-Based Code pilot areas (Detroit Shoreway-Cudell, Hough, Opportunity Corridor), H3/H4 House districts allow 3 or 4 dwelling units per site and 'Dwelling units may be detached or attached' (FBC Sec. 3002.2, 2.2.3.C.2), so a detached second unit is by right there.

Not as an ADU category (none exists), but a second unit inside the house is a permitted principal use in Two-Family Districts: 'Dwelling houses, each occupied by not more than two (2) families' (337.03(a)), with no owner-occupancy or size condition attached. In Limited One-Family and One-Family Districts a dwelling may house only one family (337.02(a)), so an in-house second unit there requires a BZA variance. FBC pilot districts allow 3 to 4 units per site by right.

The 40% rear-yard and garage floor-area caps in 337.23 would constrain any structure a variance applicant proposed to convert. FBC pilot House districts instead cap building height at 2.5 stories/32 ft and building width at 35 ft.

No owner-occupancy requirement exists anywhere in the provisions read, because there is no ADU use to condition. Two-family dwellings in Two-Family Districts (337.03) and multi-unit sites in the FBC pilot districts carry no owner-occupancy condition.

Base-code residential parking otherwise follows the generally applicable off-street parking chapters; a variance board can impose parking conditions case by case.

Citywide: no ADU use exists, so a second unit on a one-family lot needs a use variance from the Board of Zoning Appeals (relief route referenced at FBC 2.2.3.D, Sec. 329.03 Variance). In Two-Family Districts a second in-house unit is by right as a two-family dwelling, and 3 to 6 unit remodels take a BZA special permit (337.03(c)). In FBC pilot districts up to the mapped unit count (3 or 4 per site in H3/H4, more in larger districts) is by right, detached or attached.

No short-term rental zoning chapter for Cleveland surfaced in the code searches performed; STR treatment was not verified beyond that and is not ADU-specific in any case.