Cabarrus County, NC Accessory Structures: Shed & Carport Rules (2026)

Cabarrus County's Development Ordinance regulates sheds and other accessory buildings under Chapter 7, Section 7-3, Item 1, the Performance Based Standards (PBS) rule for Accessory Buildings and Accessory Structures. It applies across the AO, CR, LDR, MDR, HDR, Office/Institutional, Limited Commercial, General Commercial, Limited Industrial and General Industrial districts. A shed or other accessory building up to 15 feet in height only has to meet the front and side setback lines that apply to the main house, but the rear setback is fixed at no less than five feet regardless of the underlying zoning district's normal rear yard.

Once an accessory building exceeds 15 feet in height, that break disappears: the structure must instead meet the full principal-building setbacks listed in Chapter 5 for its zoning district, which are typically deeper than the reduced accessory setbacks. Beyond setbacks, every accessory building remains subject to the county's other dimensional standards from Chapter 5, including impervious/impermeable surface coverage limits and structural coverage requirements that apply to the lot as a whole. A related PBS use in the same Item 1 covers accessory dwelling units built as part of an accessory structure; where that occurs, the owner must submit a notarized statement to the county confirming how much square footage is allotted to the dwelling portion versus the accessory building.

Antennae and solar panel arrays of up to 20 panels are treated as accessory buildings for setback purposes under Section 6-12, so they follow this same setback framework rather than a separate standard.