Tiny Houses & Accessory Dwelling Units
The Petersburg Borough Assembly adopted amendments to the zoning code creating standards for tiny house dwellings, detached accessory dwelling units, and multiple residential buildings on one lot.
Tiny House Dwellings. A tiny house dwelling is a one-family dwelling unit on a permanent foundation that is 400 square feet or less in floor area, excluding lofts.
The Petersburg Borough recently adopted the 2018 IRC Appendix AQ: Tiny Houses standards to allow certain exceptions to the adopted building code for tiny houses. Tiny houses, constructed and inspected to the IRC standard, may be placed on a permanent foundation in any zoning district where single-family dwellings are allowed.
Tiny houses on trailers/wheels would not be considered a legal one-family dwelling and would be classified as a motor home or RV. This amendment only allows for tiny houses on permanent foundations. This is consistent with how the IRC building code is interpreted.
Please note tiny houses require a building permit and must meet borough building code standards, including insulation standards. If the tiny house is built off-site, the owner will need to provide documentation that the dwelling was inspected and approved by an ICC-certified inspector for building, plumbing, and electrical systems.
Please contact the borough building official for more information prior to constructing or purchasing a tiny house dwelling.
Detached Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU). Borough code already allows duplexes on single-family residential lots as a by-right principal use. In other words, most residential property owners already have the right to construct a second dwelling unit on their property (the exception being Rural Residential zoning), however the second dwelling had to be attached by a common wall or breezeway to the primary dwelling.
In an effort to increase flexibility of ADU’s but still maintain the character of our residential neighborhoods, the code was amended to establish “detached” ADU standards.
The standards require the accessory dwelling unit to meet adopted building codes, be a subordinate structure to the main house, be located on lots that are large enough to accommodate a second building while still meeting the lot requirements for the district (yard setbacks, maximum lot coverage, off-street parking, etc.) and not require a variance from the lot requirement standards. A building permit is required to construct an ADU.
Please contact the borough building official for more information prior to constructing or purchasing a detached ADU, or converting an existing structure to an ADU.
Multi-family Housing. The code amendment approved by the assembly allows for multiple one-family, two-family, or multi-family dwellings to be located on one lot.
The development requirements and lot standards for the district remain the same. This would provide property developers with more options to best meet market demand for housing on multi-family lots, for example constructing three or more cottage houses on one property.
Please contact the borough building official for more information regarding multi-family housing developments.
