Abilene, TX Accessory Structures: Shed & Carport Rules (2026)

1 of the Abilene Land Development Code governs accessory buildings, which include storage sheds, detached garages and workshops. Sheds and other accessory buildings are allowed only in side and rear yards; none may extend beyond the front building line. A shed of 200 square feet or less does not require a building permit under subsection (a)(4), though it still has to meet every other applicable standard in the Code, including the Building Code itself. Once a shed exceeds 400 square feet, subsection (a)(5) requires a Site Plan if the property sits in a zoning district where a Site Plan applies to development.

Placement is tightly controlled: no wall of a detached accessory building may sit within 6 feet of another structure on the same lot, and no portion of it may come within 6 feet of a structure on the adjacent lot. Setbacks from the interior side or rear property line start at a 3-foot minimum for structures up to 10 feet tall (subsection (b)(3)a). Taller sheds must step back further: where no public alley runs behind the lot, the setback grows by 1 additional foot for every foot of height over 10 feet; where an alley exists, it grows by 1 foot for every 2 feet of height over 10 feet.

In no case can a shed be pushed back farther than what is required of the house itself. Table 2-13 caps total accessory-building square footage by district: in RS-6, RS-8 and RS-12 residential districts a shed cannot exceed 10 percent of the entire lot area, and in multifamily (MF) districts it is capped at half the square footage of the primary building. All accessory building coverage also counts toward the lot's overall maximum building coverage under Table 2-2 and Table 2-4.