Salt Lake County, UT Accessory Structures: Shed & Carport Rules (2026)
Shed permit rules in Salt Lake County, UT, also referred to as storage shed, backyard shed, or accessory building regulations, set size limits, setbacks, and when a building permit is required.
Key Facts
- Size cap, lot under half an acre
- 800 square feet total for all accessory buildings
- Size cap, lot half acre or larger
- 1,200 square feet total for all accessory buildings
- Location
- Rear yard only, 6 feet away from the dwelling
- Side and rear setback
- 1 foot; 10 feet where rear abuts a neighbor's side yard
- Side yard facing a public street
- 20 feet
- Maximum height
- 20 feet, with one extra foot of setback per foot over 14
- Rear yard coverage
- 25 percent maximum for all accessory buildings
Summary
In every Salt Lake County R-1 single-family zone, a shed counts as an accessory building and is a permitted use up to 800 total square feet on lots under half an acre, or 1,200 square feet on lots of half an acre or more. It must sit in the rear yard, 6 feet from the dwelling, stay under 20 feet tall, and cover no more than 25 percent of the rear yard.
Permitted uses in the R-1 zones are as follows: Zone Permitted Uses All R-1 zones —Accessory uses and buildings customarily incidental to a permitted use provided the total square footage of all accessory buildings does not exceed eight hundred square feet on lots under one-half acre or one thousand two hundred square feet on lots one-half acre or larger; ... Zone Minimum Front Yard Minimum Side Yard (Interior) Minimum Side Yard (Facing a public street) Minimum Rear Yard ... Must be in the rear yard and 6 feet away from the dwelling 1 foot 20 feet 1 foot, except lots which rear upon the side yard of an adjacent lot, in which case the minimum setback shall be 10 feet from the adjoining side yard. ... No building which is accessory to a single-family dwelling shall exceed twenty feet in height. For each foot of height over fourteen feet, accessory buildings shall be set back from property lines an additional foot to allow a maximum height of twenty feet. ... No accessory building or group of accessory buildings shall cover more than twenty-five percent of the rear yard.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 49).
Full Breakdown
Chapter 19.14 of the Salt Lake County Code governs the R-1-3 through R-1-43 zones, and four of its sections control a backyard shed. Section 19.14.020 allows accessory buildings customarily incidental to a house as a permitted use, but caps the combined square footage of all accessory buildings on the lot at 800 square feet when the lot is under one-half acre and 1,200 square feet when the lot is one-half acre or larger. The cap counts the garage, workshop and shed together, so a second or third building shrinks what is left for the first. Under section 19.14.030, accessory buildings whose total passes those figures move into the conditional use list instead of being allowed outright.
Location comes from section 19.14.050(B). In all ten R-1 zones an accessory building must be in the rear yard and 6 feet away from the dwelling. The side yard setback is 1 foot on the interior side and 20 feet on a side facing a public street. The rear setback is 1 foot, with one exception: where the lot's rear line runs along the side yard of a neighbor's lot, the shed must stay 10 feet from that adjoining side yard. Compare the dwelling itself in subsection A, which needs 20 feet in the rear yard in R-1-3 through R-1-5 and 30 feet in R-1-6 through R-1-8 when there is no garage.
Height is set by section 19.14.060(B). No building accessory to a single-family dwelling can exceed 20 feet. Every foot of height above 14 feet adds one foot of setback from the property lines, so a taller shed trades yard space for height. The 30-foot and 35-foot limits in subsection A apply to main buildings only.
Section 19.14.070 adds a coverage test: all accessory buildings together cannot cover more than 25 percent of the rear yard. A lot can pass the 800 or 1,200 square foot cap and still fail this test when the rear yard is small. Section 19.14.080 points readers to the occupancy permit rule in section 19.76.020, the yard definition in section 19.04.560, and the reduced-yard rule for private garages and carports in section 19.76.140.
Violations & Fines
Chapter 19.14 prints no fine schedule of its own, so the consequences are zoning consequences. A shed or group of accessory buildings over 800 square feet on a lot under half an acre, or over 1,200 square feet on a lot of half an acre or more, is no longer a permitted use and falls into the conditional use list in section 19.14.030. A shed placed in the front yard, closer than 6 feet to the house, within 1 foot of a line, taller than 20 feet, or covering more than 25 percent of the rear yard does not meet sections 19.14.050 through 19.14.070.
Frequently Asked Questions
How big can a shed be in Salt Lake County's R-1 zones?
How far from the property line does a shed have to be?
How tall can a shed be?
Is there a limit on how much of the backyard a shed can cover?
Do these rules apply to all single-family zoning in the county?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Salt Lake County
How Salt Lake County compares: Shed Permit Requirements by City·Compare Salt Lake County to another location·View the Utah accessory structures overview
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