ADU rules in Moore

Moore has no citywide ADU use. A detached unit is possible two ways. In the Original Townsite (Old Town) and the Electric Addition, §12-408(I) (Ord. 1013.22, 2022) expressly allows ADUs ('carriage houses, granny flats, or garage apartments') in the rear yard, at least 10 feet from the main house. Elsewhere the only route is a 'garage apartment', a dwelling unit built into an accessory building where cars are kept; the R-2, R-3 and R-4 area rules set a 7,500 sq ft lot (and 75 ft frontage in R-2) for a house with a garage apartment, while R-1, RE and the agricultural districts allow only a single-family house on a lot 'unoccupied by any other dwelling unit'.

No attached or internal ADU use exists: the Old Town ADU rule places the unit in the rear yard set back 10 feet from the main dwelling, and the garage apartment must sit within a garage building. The lawful route for a second unit inside or attached to a house is a duplex ('Two-family attached residential'), allowed by right in R-2, R-3 and R-4 on a lot of at least 7,500 sq ft with 75 feet of frontage. R-1, the city's most common single-family district, does not allow a duplex.

The Traditional Neighborhood rule caps an ADU at 600 square feet. Citywide, the garage apartment definition limits the unit to 50 percent of the size of the main dwelling and keeps the house plus garage apartment within district lot coverage. Because a garage apartment is co-located within an accessory building, the §12-396 accessory-building limits appear to bind as well: on residential lots under one-half acre all accessory buildings together may not exceed 600 sq ft, 10 ft wall height or 15 ft overall height (1,000 sq ft, 14 ft walls and 17 ft overall on one-half to three-quarter acre lots), which in practice rules out a two-story garage apartment on most city lots. The code does not say expressly how §12-396 and the garage apartment definition interact; that reading is an inference.

Neither the Old Town ADU rule nor the garage apartment definition requires the owner to live on the property, at application or afterward. The only owner-residency rule in the Land Development Code applies to bed and breakfast establishments (§12-462). Oklahoma has no state ADU owner-occupancy statute either way.

In the Traditional Neighborhoods an ADU needs at least one parking space on the main dwelling's lot, surfaced in concrete or gravel, and must share the main house's driveway (no second driveway). The citywide parking table in §12-400 lists 2 spaces per dwelling unit for single-family and two-family residential but has no row for a garage apartment; for an unlisted use the Community Development Director sets the requirement, appealable to the Planning Commission. Because a garage apartment is defined as a 'single-family dwelling unit', expect staff to apply 2 spaces, but that is not written.

Where an ADU or garage apartment is allowed it needs only a building permit with a zoning clearance and site plan; no use-on-review, special use permit or Board of Adjustment special exception is listed for garage apartments or ADUs. On lots that do not qualify (R-1 and other single-family districts outside Old Town and the Electric Addition, or lots under 7,500 sq ft) the path is a rezoning or PUD heard by the Planning Commission and City Council, which the city's own planning page describes as 8 to 12 weeks with 2 to 3 public hearings.

Moore's codes contain no rental registration, licensing or primary-residence test, and nothing limits renting a garage apartment or ADU long term. Neither book mentions short-term rentals: the zoning code defines residential uses as occupancy 'on a non-transient basis' and lists hotels, motels and transient boardinghouses ('Tourist accommodations: lodging') only in commercial districts, so whether a nightly rental of an accessory unit is allowed in a residential zone is unsettled. The city hotel tax (Code of Ordinances ch. 7-5) reaches only facilities with five or more rooms. In Old Town and the Electric Addition a lot with an ADU may not be split to make the ADU the primary dwelling of a new lot, and it must stay on the main house's water meter.