Tampa, FL Accessory Structures: ADU Rules (2026)

Sec. 27-132's 'Accessory dwelling unit' standard is the operative zoning rule: a 950-square-foot living-space ceiling applies to every ADU, and the unit may sit inside the single-family house with a separate entrance, inside a conforming accessory structure, or inside a nonconforming accessory structure consistent with Article VII. Geography narrows the rule further. Table 4-1's footnote 17 limits the ADU special use to specific mapped bands of the city, the area west of North Boulevard, south of W. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and east/north of the Hillsborough River; the area south of W.

Busch Boulevard and north of Hillsborough Avenue; the area south of Hillsborough Avenue, east of N. Armenia Avenue, west of the river and north of MLK; and the East Tampa Overlay District (Sec. 27-240), where it remains a special use. Outside those bands, the ADU is instead a use-by-right in the Tampa Heights Overlay District under Sec. 27-244. Because it is processed as a special use everywhere else, a property owner has to clear a discretionary zoning-administrator review before building, and the approval is tied to conditions that can later be re-examined (see the separate annual-review and owner-occupancy standards in the same section).