Village of Farnham, NY: zoning for new construction

Residential - The code states no lot area at all: it sizes a lot by minimum width and minimum depth only, and depth is measured from the property line, so a lot with enough square footage on other proportions does not comply.

• The two side yards must total at least 40 ft, which on the 80 ft minimum width leaves a 40 ft building envelope, exactly half the lot
• At 5% the coverage cap and the 920 sq ft minimum floor area nearly collide, so a single-storey house has almost no margin
• Cluster development of one-family houses is allowed by special permit on at least ten acres, a quarter of which must be dedicated as permanent open space offered to the village
• Height varies with the use: a house or a farm may reach 35 ft, a professional office only 25 ft, and a nursing home or a veterinary office, which needs a special permit, 20 ft
• An open porch may extend up to eight feet into the required front yard
• No structure may be built within fifty feet of the bed of a stream that carries water six months of the year on average, or on land subject to periodic overflow

Commercial - The figures shown are for retail and general business use. Standards here are set by use rather than by district, so another use on the same land answers to different lot sizes, yards and heights.

• The code states no lot area: a lot is sized by minimum width and minimum depth only, and depth is measured from the property line
• Most of those other uses need a special permit
• A hotel or motel takes a lot three hundred feet wide by two hundred and fifty deep, with 25 ft to each side and fifty for both, one storey and 30 ft
• Accessory buildings behind a shop take 25 ft to the rear and ten to the side
• Every permitted and special permit use here requires an approved site development plan
• No structure may be built within 50 ft of the bed of a stream that carries water six months of the year on average, or on land subject to periodic overflow

Industrial - The figures shown are for manufacturing and industrial use. Offices and laboratories answer to a different set: a hundred and fifty feet of width by two hundred deep, a 40 ft front yard, 25 ft to each side and 30 for both, two stories at 35 ft.

• The code states no lot area: a lot is sized by minimum width and minimum depth only, and depth is measured from the property line
• Light industry here is limited to processing, assembly or packaging of previously prepared or refined materials
• Nothing may carry dust, effluent, smoke, radiation, gas, waste, noise, glare or vibration beyond the lot line
• An excavation operation, allowed only by special permit, is held to a hundred feet at the front, rear and each side, against a both-sides total of seventy-five feet that cannot be met with it
• Every permitted and special permit use here requires an approved site development plan
• No structure may be built within 50 ft of the bed of a stream that carries water six months of the year on average, or on land subject to periodic overflow