Omaha, NE Building Setbacks & Zoning: Lot Coverage Limits (2026)

Chapter 55's site development regulations summary at Sec. 55-68 sets two separate ceilings for every residential zoning district: 'maximum building coverage' (the footprint of structures) and 'maximum impervious coverage' (everything that sheds rather than absorbs rainwater). In the R1 single-family district, building coverage tops out at 25 percent of the lot and impervious coverage at 30 percent. The numbers scale with density: R2 sits at 30/40 percent, R3 at 35/45 percent, R4 at 40/50 percent, R5 at 50/60 percent, and the higher-density R6 through R8 districts run from 55/65 percent up to 70/80 percent. The AG agricultural district is the most restrictive at 5 percent building coverage and 10 percent impervious coverage, while the DR development reserve district allows 20/25 percent. A second table in the same section covers office, commercial and industrial districts, where impervious coverage climbs much higher, 65 percent in the LO limited office district up to 100 percent in the CBD central business district and DS downtown service district.

Section 55-22 defines 'impervious coverage' as 'the total horizontal area of all buildings, roofed or covered spaces, paved surface areas, walkways and driveways, and any other site improvements that decrease the ability of the surface of the site to absorb water, expressed as a percentage of site area,' and it explicitly excludes 'the surface water area of pools' from the count. Section 55-68 itself warns that its tables are only summaries: where a table figure conflicts with the operative text elsewhere in Chapter 55, the operative regulation controls, not the table. Site plan review under Sec. 55-882 can attach additional conditions to a project's coverage even within these caps.