Orange County
Town of Montgomery, NY: zoning for new construction
Residential lots in the Town of Montgomery run from a 0.46-acre minimum in Mobile Home Court up to 2 acres in Residential Agriculture — One-Family Residences, across 13 zoning districts in all. Short-term rentals allowed with local rules. Power here is Orange & Rockland territory. The district table below has the setbacks, height limits and coverage - confirm the specifics with the building department at (845) 457-2640 before you rely on a figure.
Looking specifically at an accessory dwelling unit? See ADU rules for Montgomery →
Zoning districts
| District | Min lot | Setbacks F / S / R | Max height | ADU |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residential Agriculture — One-Family Residences | 2 ac | 75 / 40 / 75 ft | 35 ft | Occupancy restricted |
| Residential Agriculture — One- and Two-Family Residences | 1 ac | 60 / 30 / 40 ft | 35 ft | Occupancy restricted |
| Multifamily | 0.11 ac | 25 / 10 / 25 ft | 35 ft | Occupancy restricted |
| Mobile Home Court | 0.46 ac | 35 / 15 / 35 ft | 35 ft | No |
| Mobile Home Park — Age-Restricted | 0.46 ac | 35 / 15 / 35 ft | 35 ft | No |
| Regional Commercial | 0.92 ac | 50 / 20 / 30 ft | 40 ft | No |
| Community Commercial | 0.46 ac | 50 / 20 / 30 ft | 40 ft | No |
| Tourist Commercial | 0.23 ac | 50 / 20 / 30 ft | 40 ft | Occupancy restricted |
| Crossroads Commercial Overlay | 0.46 ac | 50 / 20 / 30 ft | 40 ft | No |
| General Industry | 1.84 ac | 75 / 30 / 50 ft | 55 ft | No |
| Airport Industry | 0.92 ac | 50 / 20 / 50 ft | 55 ft | No |
| Tech Industry | 0.92 ac | 50 / 20 / 30 ft | 55 ft | No |
| Business Park | 0.92 ac | 50 / 20 / 50 ft | 55 ft | No |
Residential Agriculture — One-Family Residences - Only a single-family house is permitted here; a two-family house is not, and converting an existing house to a multifamily one needs a special use permit. The two-acre minimum is the same with or without central water or sewer.
- A lot on a state or county road must be at least two hundred and fifty feet wide.
- The lot area is a requirement per dwelling unit, so a second unit doubles the land.
- A side yard on the street side of a corner lot must be at least seventy-five feet.
- An accessory building may not cover any of the required rear yard, may not exceed twenty-five feet in height there, and must stand at least ten feet from any lot line.
- No lot for a single-family detached dwelling may be narrower than forty feet at any point between the front line and where lot width is measured.
- Coverage counts main and accessory buildings together.
Residential Agriculture — One- and Two-Family Residences - The figures shown apply more than a mile from a business district. Within half a mile, a lot with central water and sewer needs at least sixteen thousand three hundred and thirty-five square feet and at least a hundred feet of width, with coverage up to twenty-five percent.
- Within a mile, a lot needs at least 43,560 square feet unserviced, thirty-two thousand six hundred and seventy with water or sewer, and twenty-one thousand seven hundred and eighty with both.
- Within a mile, coverage may reach twenty percent; a lot needs at least a hundred and twenty-five feet of width and yards of at least forty front, twenty a side with forty for the pair, and forty rear.
- Closer still, inside half a mile, an unserviced lot needs at least thirty-two thousand six hundred and seventy square feet, or twenty-seven thousand two hundred and twenty-four with either service.
- Within half a mile, yards must be at least thirty-five front, fifteen a side with thirty for the pair, and thirty-five rear.
- Distance runs from the nearest lot line to the nearest Crossroads, B-1, B-2 or B-3 district, or a Village of Montgomery or Village of Walden business district.
- A planned adult community, a single-family attached dwelling and the conversion of an existing house to multifamily each need a special use permit.
Multifamily - Nothing may be built here without both central water and central sewer. The land figure applies per dwelling unit, so a ten-unit building needs fifty thousand square feet.
- A multiple dwelling or a single-family attached dwelling needs a special use permit; a one-family or two-family house is permitted by right.
- A two-family residence may take the per-unit land requirement down to eighty-five percent of it.
- The side yards may total fifteen feet, so a building may sit ten feet from one line and five from the other.
- A side yard on the street side of a corner lot must be at least twenty-five feet.
- An accessory building may cover up to thirty-five percent of the required rear yard, stand up to twenty feet high there, and must be at least five feet from any lot line.
- Coverage counts main and accessory buildings together.
Mobile Home Court - A licensed mobile home court needs a special use permit, and the permit standard requires a site of not less than five acres. Land per dwelling unit falls to eighteen thousand square feet with central water or sewer and twelve thousand with both.
- Individual spaces must be at least two thousand square feet and thirty feet wide, and the spaces must average at least three thousand square feet and forty feet.
- Initial development must cover at least two acres and each later addition at least one.
- Interior roadways must be paved and at least twenty feet wide, with curbs or gutters and two access drives to the public street.
- All mobile homes and accessory structures must be at least thirty feet apart, and no trailer may be more than a hundred and fifty feet from a refuse collection point.
- Sewage disposal and water supply need State Health Department approval, and the site needs a development plan by a licensed professional engineer.
- Coverage counts main and accessory buildings together.
Mobile Home Park — Age-Restricted - This floating district is reachable only on a special use permit, and the figures shown size the overall site plan, not individual lots; the park may not be subdivided into lots at all.
- Land per dwelling unit falls to eighteen thousand square feet with central water or sewer and twelve thousand with both.
- Occupancy is restricted to age fifty-five and over, with at least one resident aged fifty-five or more in every unit and no occupant under nineteen.
- The owner must certify compliance to the Code Enforcement Officer before the first of June each year, on an attorney's or licensed engineer's inquiry made within the previous forty-five days.
- Open space the Planning Board requires must be fixed in a conservation easement, approved by the Municipal Attorney and recorded with the Orange County Clerk, before the first building permit.
- Coverage counts main and accessory buildings together.
Regional Commercial - A house is not permitted; the only dwellings are a unit over or behind a first-floor commercial use, on a special use permit, and a caretaker's or owner's unit on site plan approval.
- Except by special use permit of the Town Board, access from Maple Avenue is limited to agricultural or normal residential purposes, other than within a thousand feet of NYS Route 17K.
- No halving of the front yard is available here; the fifty feet stands.
- A side yard on the street side of a corner lot must be at least twenty-five feet.
- Agriculture and farm uses need at least three acres.
- An accessory building's setback from a lot line is the full district yard, not a reduced figure.
- Coverage counts main and accessory buildings together.
Community Commercial - The Planning Board may cut the front yard in half, to twenty-five feet, at site plan approval where no parking is proposed in the front yard and the reduction suits the area's rural character.
- The reduction is discretionary, not an entitlement; the fifty-foot front yard binds until the Board grants it.
- No house is permitted; the only dwelling is a caretaker's or owner's unit, and it needs a special use permit.
- A side yard on the street side of a corner lot must be at least twenty-five feet.
- Agriculture and farm uses need at least three acres.
- An accessory building's setback from a lot line is the full district yard, not a reduced figure.
- Coverage counts main and accessory buildings together.
Tourist Commercial - A one- or two-family house here is held to the two-acre agricultural standard, not the lot minimum shown. The Planning Board may cut the front yard in half, to twenty-five feet, where no parking is proposed in the front yard and the reduction suits the area's rural character.
- The front-yard reduction is discretionary, taken at site plan approval; the fifty-foot front yard binds until the Board grants it.
- A side yard on the street side of a corner lot must be at least twenty-five feet.
- Agriculture and farm uses need at least three acres.
- An accessory building's setback from a lot line is the full district yard, not a reduced figure.
- Coverage counts main and accessory buildings together.
Crossroads Commercial Overlay - This is an overlay: the figures shown apply only to uses the underlying district does not already permit. Where the underlying district permits a use, its own bulk requirements govern instead.
- The Planning Board may cut the front yard in half, to twenty-five feet, at site plan approval where no parking is proposed in the front yard and the reduction suits the area's rural character.
- The reduction is discretionary, not an entitlement; the fifty-foot front yard binds until the Board grants it.
- A side yard on the street side of a corner lot must be at least twenty-five feet.
- Agriculture and farm uses need at least three acres.
- An accessory building's setback from a lot line is the full district yard, not a reduced figure.
- Coverage counts main and accessory buildings together.
General Industry - Parcels fronting on Bracken Road take a sixty-foot front yard instead of seventy-five, and a side yard on the street side of a corner lot must be at least seventy-five feet.
- Composting, recycling, handling and recovery facilities and biomass gasification-to-energy facilities take their lot area and bulk from a separate table graded by intensity of use, at § 235-7.4.
- Except by special use permit of the Town Board, access from Maple Avenue is limited to agricultural or normal residential purposes, other than within a thousand feet of NYS Route 17K.
- No house is permitted; the only dwelling is a caretaker's or owner's unit on site plan approval.
- Agriculture and farm uses need at least three acres.
- An accessory building's setback from a lot line is the full district yard, not a reduced figure.
- Coverage counts main and accessory buildings together.
Airport Industry - The figures shown apply to industrial uses. A dwelling is held to the two-acre agricultural standard, and a single-family house needs a special use permit.
- Other uses, neither industrial nor residential, need at least twenty thousand square feet and a hundred and fifty feet of width, with up to thirty percent coverage and forty feet of height.
- Those uses need yards of at least fifty front, twenty to a side with forty for the pair, and thirty rear.
- A side yard on the street side of a corner lot must be at least fifty feet.
- A caretaker's or owner's dwelling unit is available on site plan approval.
- Agriculture and farm uses need at least three acres.
- Coverage counts main and accessory buildings together.
Tech Industry - No ordinary house is permitted; the only dwelling is a caretaker's or owner's unit on site plan approval, and any residential use allowed is held to the two-acre agricultural standard rather than the lot shown.
- A side yard on the street side of a corner lot must be at least fifty feet.
- Agriculture and farm uses need at least three acres.
- An accessory building's setback from a lot line is the full district yard, not a reduced figure.
- Coverage counts main and accessory buildings together.
Business Park - This is a floating district: land is in it only once the Town Board places it on a parcel. No dwelling of any kind is permitted, not even a caretaker's unit.
- No more than one building in four may be designed as a non-intensive warehouse.
- A side yard on the street side of a corner lot must be at least fifty feet.
- Agriculture and farm uses need at least three acres.
- An accessory building's setback from a lot line is the full district yard, not a reduced figure.
- Coverage counts main and accessory buildings together.
Short-term rentals
Short-term rentals allowed with local rules. Short-term rentals in the Town of Montgomery come under Chapter 186, Short-Term Rentals, created by Local Law No. 1 of 2026 and adopted 5-6-2026, and a permit or registration fee applies.
Conditions the code attaches:
- The fees are set in the town fee schedule by Resolution #47 of 2026.
- New York State's 2025 short-term rental registry separately requires every host statewide to register the unit, whatever the local law.
- Confirm with the Town of Montgomery at (845) 457-2640 before listing.
Good to know
- UtilityOrange & Rockland territory.
- Zoning codeTown of Montgomery Code, Chapter 235 (Zoning): Table of Dimensional Regulations as amended through L.L. No. 3-2025, and Table of Use Regulations.
- Building dept(845) 457-2640
- Last reviewed2026-09-15
Working out a budget? A standard-finish build here runs $211–$276/sq ft , and a conforming lot adds about $9,017 on top - see the full cost to build a house in Montgomery, or what an ADU costs here.
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Zoning figures for Town of Montgomery are compiled from the municipal code (last reviewed 2026-09-15) and provided for decision-support only - not legal, engineering, or architectural advice. Setback and dimensional standards often carry conditions and exceptions; verify with the building department at (845) 457-2640 before relying on any number. Source: the Offsite / Aldo zoning dataset.