Sussex County, DE Building Setbacks & Zoning: Setback Rules (2026)

Sussex County Code § 115-25(C) sets the base yard table for the AR-1 and AR-2 Agricultural Residential Districts: standard lots need a 40-foot front yard (reduced to 30 feet where the frontage is a numbered highway shown on the county's General Highway Map), a 15-foot side yard and a 20-foot rear yard, on a minimum 100-foot-wide lot. Cluster development served by central sewer gets a reduced table of a 25-foot front yard, 10-foot side yard and 10-foot rear yard on a 60-foot-wide lot. Other zoning districts, such as GR General Residential or the HR High-Density Residential Districts, carry separate yard tables elsewhere in Chapter 115, so the controlling numbers depend on the parcel's zoning classification.

Article XXV's supplementary rules modify these baseline numbers. Section 115-182(B) requires at least a 15-foot front yard on the side street of any corner lot in any district. Section 115-182(C) lets an infill lot match the average setback of existing buildings within 300 feet on the same side of the street, but never reduces the front yard below 5 feet, and that averaging rule does not apply to cluster subdivisions, Coastal Area cluster subdivisions or residential planned communities. On the side and rear, § 115-183(D) allows any existing approved lot under 10,000 square feet to reduce its side setback to 5 feet and its rear setback by 5 feet, with no structure allowed closer than 5 feet to the lot line. The Director of Planning and Zoning can also administratively grant a setback variance of up to one foot for a $50 fee under § 115-181(E), without a full Board of Adjustment hearing.