Kennewick, WA Building Setbacks & Zoning: Setback Rules (2026)

KMC 18.12.010(A)(2), the Table of Residential Site Development Standards, sets Kennewick's yard requirements by zone: RS (5,500 to 8,000 sf lots) carries a 15-foot front/street setback, 20-foot garage setback, five-foot side yard, and 15-foot rear yard; the same 15-5-15 pattern applies in RL, RM, RH, RTP, and RMH. Only the Urban Mixed Use (UMU) district departs from the table, sending front setbacks to KMC Chapter 18.80's design standards while allowing a zero-foot side yard and a five-foot rear yard. The footnotes attached to the table give the measurement rules the bare numbers don't: street-facing setback lines are measured "from the back of the sidewalk" where one exists, or from the right-of-way line where there is none or inside the UMU district.

A side-entry garage facing a non-street property line may reduce its setback to 15 feet from the back of the sidewalk if the street-facing facade carries windows, modulation, and matching landscaping. Side yards run five feet from the nearest side property line, except single-family attached and zero-lot-line housing, which has no side setback on the shared or zero-lot-line wall (end units still keep a five-foot setback on the outward side). Rear yards are measured from the existing lot line or an abutting alley. Minimum lot widths range from 24 feet for RM/RH townhouse lots up to 50 feet for standard RS lots, and minimum lot sizes run from 3,500 square feet in RH to 8,000 square feet in RS, with a full one-acre minimum in the RTP district. Where no street frontage exists, the Planning Director sets the setback and frontage lines during site plan or plat review.