Tazewell County, IL Building Setbacks & Zoning: Lot Coverage Limits (2026)

Section 157.131 LOT COVERAGE states in full: 'No more than 20% of the area of the lot shall be occupied by structures,' and it governs the Rural Residential (RR) District, the two-acre-minimum-lot district described earlier in the same subchapter at Sections 157.128 through 157.130. That 20 percent figure also appears as the Rural Residential entry in the county's district-by-district Bulk Chart at Section 157.073, which lists 'Maximum Lot Coverage %' as one column alongside minimum lot area, frontage, yard setbacks, and height for every zoning district.

The same chart shows the county's two agricultural districts, A-1 Agricultural Preservation and A-2 Agriculture, carry no lot-coverage percentage at all (listed as 'N/A'), reflecting that farm buildings on large agricultural tracts are not subject to a coverage cap the way residential and commercial lots are. The R-1 Single-Family Residential, R-2 Multi-Family Residential, C-1 Neighborhood Commercial, and C-2 General Commercial districts each carry a higher 30 percent maximum lot coverage figure in the same chart, while the I-1 Light Industrial and I-2 Heavy Industrial districts allow structures on 40 percent of a lot.

Because the Rural Residential district's cap is codified separately as its own numbered section (157.131), rather than only appearing inside the bulk chart, it is the one lot-coverage rule that can be quoted as a standalone provision rather than pulled from a table row. Any property owner proposing to exceed the applicable percentage, whichever district their parcel sits in, must seek relief through the Zoning Board of Appeals variance process under Sections 157.435 through 157.447. These bulk requirements were codified from the county's Prior Code (7 TCC 1-9(g)) and apply only within unincorporated Tazewell County.