ADU · Erie County

Can you build an ADU in Eden, NY?

Town of Eden has 8 districts. 4 districts allow ADUs with occupancy restrictions, 2 do not. 2 districts have incomplete data - verify with the building department at (716) 992-3408. Check your address to confirm the district that applies to your parcel:

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What the Eden code says

Eden allows one accessory dwelling unit of at least 800 sq ft, attached or detached, by right in AP, RR, MFR and R2, if the owner lives in the main house. PK and LI do not allow one, though a dwelling that existed as a residence on May 11, 1977 may become a two-family by right.

Conditions the code attaches:

On a well and septic system an engineer must certify the capacity
On public utilities the unit needs its own meter
One parking space is required
The design must complement the house and sit to the rear or side where space allows, and the Zoning Officer may refer it to the Planning Board
That conversion is allowed in any district but may not enlarge the outside dimensions, and each unit must meet the minimum single-family floor area

How big an ADU can be in Eden

Size limits are set per district, and a unit inside the house is a different standard from a detached one. These are the figures the code publishes.

Accessory dwelling unit

At least 800 sq ft

AP, RR, MFR, R2 · owner-occupancy required · § 225-14B(1)(a), (c), (e)

What the Eden code indicates by district

The table below shows how each district treats ADUs, alongside the lot and setback standards that govern a second unit. District boundaries and conditions vary, so treat this as a starting point and confirm the district that applies to your parcel.

District	Min lot	Setbacks F / S / R	Max height	ADU
Agricultural Priority	4 ac	50 / 35 / 35 ft	35 ft	Occupancy restricted
Rural Residential	2 ac	40 / 25 / 35 ft	35 ft	Occupancy restricted
Multi-Family Residential	2 ac	50 / 35 / 35 ft	35 ft	Occupancy restricted
Neighborhood Residential	0.75 ac	30 / 5 / 20 ft	35 ft	Occupancy restricted
Light Industrial	—	0 / 10 / 20 ft	35 ft	No
Parkland	—	—	—	No
Mixed-Use 1	—	0 / 0 / 20 ft	36 ft	—
Mixed-Use 2	—	0 / 0 / 20 ft	36 ft	—

Agricultural Priority - The four-acre minimum does not change with utilities: it is four acres whether or not public water and sewer reach the parcel. A farm operation is held to a different standard again, which raises the minimum here to five acres.

Keeping cattle, sheep, goats, pigs or horses requires at least twenty acres, and keeping fowl at least five
Hobby farming is capped at four horses over six months old, ten fowl and two of any other species
No animal may be housed within seventy-five feet of a plot line, except dogs and cats
Accessory buildings keep the same thirty-five feet to each side and rear as the house, and may stand in a front yard at fifty feet back
Barns, silos and produce warehouses must meet the principal-building yards
A farm stand may not exceed five thousand square feet and must sit thirty feet from any line

Rural Residential - A farm operation is held to a different standard: five acres, two hundred feet of frontage, a fifty-foot front yard, thirty-five feet to each side and rear and thirty-five percent coverage.

Accessory buildings take thirty-five feet to each side and rear behind a house, and may stand in a front yard at fifty feet back
A townhouse may be subdivided onto its own lot only where that lot is at least four times the floor area of the dwelling
Single-family attached housing is permitted outright, and a multi-unit building only by special use permit
Keeping cattle, sheep, goats, pigs or horses requires at least twenty acres, and keeping fowl at least five
Hobby farming is capped at four horses over six months old, ten fowl and two of any other species
No animal may be housed within seventy-five feet of a plot line, except dogs and cats

Multi-Family Residential - A multiple-dwelling structure must stand at least fifty feet from every lot line, more than the thirty-five feet shown to the side and rear. Multiple dwellings must be served by public water and sewer, and the two-acre minimum is the figure for a serviced lot.

No detached single-family house is permitted here, and single-family attached needs a special use permit
The Planning Board may reduce the fifty-foot separation only for townhouse forms and only to the semi-attached standard
A building may not run more than a hundred and sixty feet long, and no roofline may run eighty feet without a vertical break
No structure may stand closer to another than the height of the taller wall
Accessory buildings take thirty-five feet to each side and rear and are barred from front yards

Neighborhood Residential - A farm operation is held to a different standard: five acres, 125 ft of frontage, a fifty-foot front yard, thirty-five feet to each side and rear and thirty-five percent coverage.

Accessory buildings take the same five feet to the side and twenty to the rear as the house behind a residence, and fifty feet each way under the farm standard
Accessory buildings are barred from front yards in every case
Banks, personal services, retail sales, medical offices and day care are permitted here by special use permit, and no lot area, frontage or yards are published for them

Light Industrial - This district requires no lot area, no frontage and no front yard: the only yards are ten feet to each side and twenty to the rear, which accessory buildings take as well.

Accessory buildings are barred from front yards
No residential use of any kind is permitted here
Licensed adult-use cannabis retail dispensaries and on-site consumption sites need a special use permit, and may not sit on a property adjacent to one whose primary use is residential

Parkland - No lot area, frontage, yard, coverage or height standard is published for this district. What binds instead are the setbacks the code puts on the recreational facilities themselves.

A single-family detached house, a place of worship, a library, a restaurant, a brewpub, a craft brewery and both indoor and outdoor recreation are permitted outright
Handball courts, concession stands, casino buildings, concentrated picnic areas and a baseball diamond stand a hundred feet from any property line
The distances scale down from there: sixty for basketball and volleyball, fifty for outfield, unimproved picnic grounds, golf and horseshoe pits, forty for tennis and twenty-five for parking areas
Each of those distances doubles where lighting allows the facility to be used after ten at night
A swimming pool over three thousand five hundred square feet must sit a hundred and seventy-five feet from any property line, scaling down through four smaller classes

Mixed-Use 1 - The front figure is a build-to band, not a floor: a building on a primary street must stand between zero and twenty feet from the right-of-way, or at the average setback of the principal structures within two hundred feet if that is less.

In no case may a front plane sit more than twenty feet back, and where an approved public open space fronts the street the band runs eleven to twenty feet
A side yard may be zero feet where the state building code allows it, and on a lot without driveways the two side yards may not add up to more than twenty feet
Where a driveway runs down the side, the side yards may total forty-five feet
The twenty-foot rear yard applies where the lot abuts a district boundary
A building must be at least two usable stories, and at least forty percent of a first-floor facade between three and ten feet above grade must be transparent
No lot area and no frontage are published for this district

Mixed-Use 2 - These figures are the Mixed-Use 1 standards, adopted here by cross-reference. The front figure is a build-to band, not a floor: a building on a primary street must stand between zero and twenty feet from the right-of-way.

The band may instead run to the average setback of the principal structures within two hundred feet if that is less, and in no case may a front plane sit more than twenty feet back
Where an approved public open space fronts the street the band runs eleven to twenty feet
A side yard may be zero feet where the state building code allows it, and on a lot without driveways the two side yards may not add up to more than twenty feet
Where a driveway runs down the side, the side yards may total forty-five feet
A building must be at least two usable stories, and at least forty percent of a first-floor facade between three and ten feet above grade must be transparent
No lot area and no frontage are published for this district

ADUs vs. short-term rentals in Eden

Short-term rentals allowed for Town of Eden. Eden permits a short-term rental outright in PK, AP, RR and R2, subject to the conditions of § 225-15B, and does not permit one in MFR or LI. These are separate questions from whether you can build an ADU — a unit you're allowed to add isn't automatically one you're allowed to rent nightly, so check both.

Good to know

Residential lot minimum0.75–4 ac — an ADU still has to fit the district's lot and setback envelope.
UtilityNational Grid territory.
Zoning codeecode360.com/10571374
Building dept(716) 992-3408

ADU FAQ — Eden, NY

Are ADUs allowed in Eden, NY?

Do I need a special permit for an ADU in Eden?

No district in Town of Eden requires a special-use permit for an ADU - 4 districts allow ADUs with occupancy restrictions, 2 do not. Site-plan review or a building permit may still apply.

Can I use an ADU as a short-term rental in Eden?

Short-term rentals allowed for Town of Eden. ADU occupancy and short-term-rental rules are separate: an ADU you can build isn't automatically one you can rent nightly. Confirm both before you count on STR income.

Run the free ADU check for your parcel →

What an ADU costs to build in Eden

Permission is one question and budget is another. An 800 sq ft accessory unit here runs roughly $200k–260k at a standard finish, and the per-square-foot rate comes in above a full house because the kitchen, bath, panel and heating plant cost the same either way. See the full cost to build an ADU in Eden, priced by size.

How we know this

Sections analyzed: § 225-14B(1) · § 225-10G Table IV-1 · § 225-9B · § 225-12A(6)
Districts confirmed: 6 of 8 — 2 not yet analyzed, so this page does not answer for them.
Last reviewed: 2026-08-06
Not covered here: Overlay districts, the zoning map, and any conditions attached to an individual parcel. Size limits and owner-occupancy terms sit in the code section above, not in this summary.

More on Eden: Full zoning for new construction · ADU build cost · House build cost · ADU rules across Erie County · All Erie County towns

ADU information for Town of Eden is compiled from the municipal code (last reviewed 2026-08-06) and provided for decision-support only — not legal or architectural advice. ADU eligibility, size, owner-occupancy and permit conditions vary by district and often carry exceptions; verify with the building department at (716) 992-3408 before relying on any answer. Source: the Offsite / Aldo zoning dataset.