Town of Pittsford, NY: zoning for new construction

Residential Neighborhood - Lot area, lot width and the front setback are set parcel by parcel in a town database held by the Planning Department, and the front of a new house must sit within 10 feet of the building line set for that lot.

• The combined side yard grows with lot width, from 15 ft under 60 ft wide to 120 ft above 225 ft wide, and the one-side minimum may be used on one side only.
• The footprint is also capped by a sliding scale tied to lot size, starting at 29% of a lot under 10,000 sq ft, alongside the 40% coverage cap.
• The rear 10 ft is a buffer across the full width where no structure may stand except a fence or garden shed.
• The Design Review and Historic Preservation Board may raise the height to 40 ft where it fits the neighbourhood.
• A flag lot created after 22 October 2012 takes 60 ft on the front, the sides and the rear buffer; one created before takes 20 ft side and rear setbacks.
• A stamped survey showing a different lot width or lot size governs over the town's figures.

B Residential - B is the only district in the town where two-family dwellings and apartment houses are permitted by right rather than by special permit. No more than one residential building may stand on any one lot.

• An apartment house needs a full acre, 1 acre at minimum, and then 2,850 sq ft of lot area for each dwelling unit, against the 16,000 sq ft a single- or two-family dwelling takes.
• It is capped at 8 dwelling units whatever the lot size, which binds before the per-unit figure: an acre allows 15 units on that arithmetic and the cap allows eight.
• Each unit needs at least 700 sq ft of livable floor space and a separate bathroom, plus 150 sq ft for each bedroom beyond the first.
• The rear setback rises from 10 ft to 20 ft for an apartment house, the front stays at 50 ft and the side at 15 ft, and two apartment houses must stand at least 40 ft apart.
• Public water, storm and sanitary sewers are required, and the whole is subject to site plan review under Article XXIX.
• A single-family or two-family home takes the same lot standards.

Rural Residential - The figures shown apply to a parcel of less than 10 acres. A parcel of 10 acres or more develops at one dwelling per ten acres under § 185-32 unless it is clustered, which restores one unit per acre.

• A cluster under § 185-32 restores the density to 1.0 dwelling units per acre and raises lot coverage on the resulting lots from 33% to 40%.
• In exchange, dwellings may occupy at most 35% of the base site area and at least 65% must be permanently designated rural conservation under an easement running to the Town.
• Conservation land is limited to crop agriculture, with horses kept and pastured but no livestock farming, dedicated park and recreation, and open space, and no structure but a fence may stand on it.
• A parcel means the tax parcel or contiguous parcels in single ownership as of 13 January 1986, and no parcel may be reconfigured after that date to apply or avoid these restrictions.
• Single-family attached dwellings are permitted with no more than four attached units per building and one dwelling unit per lot.

Rural Residential South Pittsford - The figures shown apply to a parcel of 5 acres or more but under 20 acres, where a cluster subdivision under § 278 is prohibited, so a holding of that size has no route to smaller lots.

• On 20 acres or more density is bought with conservation: no set-aside gives 0.20 units per acre on five-acre lots, and a 40% set-aside gives 0.5 units per acre on one-acre lots at 25% impervious.
• A 50% set-aside gives 0.75 units per acre at 33% impervious, and a 65% set-aside 1.0 units per acre at 40% impervious, five times the baseline, with no lot dimensions stated at either rung.
• A pre-existing nonconforming lot under 5 acres but over 16,000 sq ft may take one dwelling, on a 125 ft width with 70 ft front, 20 ft side and 10 ft rear setbacks and the same 1,800 sq ft floor area.
• The lot width is the front property line width, measured parallel with the highway.
• The 15% coverage cap is stated as lot coverage in § 185-33.5 and as impervious coverage in the § 185-33.6 table.

Suburban Residential - All residential development here must be processed by the Planning Board as a cluster development under § 278 of the Town Law, so a conventional subdivision is not available. Lot area, width and setbacks are settled by the Planning Board at that review.

• Dwellings may occupy at most 70% of the land within the parcel.
• At least 30% of the base site area must be permanently designated rural conservation under a recorded conservation easement.
• The number of units comes from the Town's site capacity calculation worksheet, not from the density alone.
• Conservation land is limited to crop agriculture, the keeping of horses, dedicated park and recreation, and open space; livestock farming is excluded.
• Single-family attached dwellings are permitted with no more than four attached units per building and one dwelling unit per lot.

Agricultural - The district sets no minimum lot area: the 1 acre shown is a density of one dwelling per acre on a parcel of two acres or more, and a parcel under two acres gets a single dwelling.

• A structure in a farmstead is held to 60 ft of height rather than 40 ft, and silos and grain elevators may reach 80 ft; the setbacks are unchanged.
• Structures on land designated a farmstead in a recorded conservation easement are limited to the types that easement allows, and agricultural accessory structures answer to § 185-11.2.
• A buffer must be kept between homes and any adjoining agricultural use, sized and landscaped as the Planning Board directs at subdivision review.

Monroe Avenue Transitional Zone - A wooded landscape buffer applies on top of the setbacks, 35 ft in front, 15 ft at the sides and 20 ft at the rear, where no tree or shrub may be trimmed or removed without a Landscape Alteration Permit.

• The 150 ft figure is both a minimum lot width and a minimum road frontage.
• Only one primary structure may stand on a lot.
• A walk and a driveway are excluded from the front buffer, and routine seasonal maintenance and minimal clearing for utility connections need no permit.
• The Planning Board may require larger buffers at site plan review to screen parking or refuse storage.
• Facade and site changes must conform to the Monroe Avenue Design Guidelines of 2 April 2002, kept on file with the Town Clerk rather than printed in the code.