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My wife and I are looking at a house on 1.3 acre property in durham zoned as RS20. I am trying to determine what would be possible if we wanted to build a garage.

The city website says accessory structures must go behind the house: https://durhamnc.gov/294/Accessory-Structures

Does anyone know how this is applied to larger lots? The house is set back to near the far side of the property (almost 200 feet) and the most practical place to put a garage would be forward of the house, to the side- set back from the road about 100 feet. There is also a creek on the property which limits options. Quick illustration of the lot:



It seems a little bizarre to me that the city would make a distinction about what is the front or back of the house when a lot is this size and wooded where a structure could be placed out of sight of the road or other properties.

Is there any restrictive covenant for the subdivision? That may be the controlling document outside city limits.

I'm in an 8 lot Wake County (not city) 8 lot subdivision. The original covenant (now long expired) specified setbacks and rules regarding out buildings. We built a detached garage in front of the house that complied with the covenant and was inspected by the county during original construction and when rebuilt on the same slab after hurricane Fran. Our covenant restrictions were tighter than the general Wake County R-40W setback which do not mention outbuildings for residential that I can find. I'm pretty sure that the covenant limited stables and barns to behind the house.

FYI I suspect the "behind the house" thing with cities is appearance motivated.

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Dick Rasmussen

FS 50 2018 Mustang GT

from my digging around for the rules for Wake Co and the shed I want to build, I was told that NO outbuilding could be built closer to the front property line than the primary house. Not sure what they are for Durham county...

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Rodney

'08 Bullitt mustang, CAM 7
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I am in Wake County/Raleigh, and like Rodney said, you cant build a garage that extends beyond the front line of the house. In your case, you may be able to get a variance since the lot is large an private. My Dad was able to do this with his garage. It extended beyond the front line of the house by 15 or 20 feet. That was on a 3 acre lot. By the way, that was a City rule, not county, even though they did not live in the city, the home was in the ETJ.

Also, beware of easements. I recently found out I have a 20 foot drainage easement on the back of my property (straddles the line), so my setback minimum is 10 feet instead of the 5 that is allowed for my zoning.

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92 Miata 1.9L naturally aspirated. SSM 21

Rodney,

Forget what I wrote in the previous version of this post. The Wake County Unified Development Code in Section 4-70 seems to cover this topic but I'm still confused. http://www.wakegov.com/planning/zoning/ ... inance.pdf

4-70-1 (F)



Our detached garage is more than 50 feet from the street but is also nearer the street than the main building. Actually since our lot is a "corner" the detached building is in front of the house from either street but still more than 50 feet.

Actually the front of our house is roughly 200 feet from the street and the detached garage is about 100 feet. Therefore it may mean that if the house is far enough back such that the other building can still be 50 feet from the street even though it is in front of the house then it is OK.

Our detached garage was built originally in 1986.

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Dick Rasmussen

FS 50 2018 Mustang GT