Monroe Township (Gloucester County), NJ Building Setbacks & Zoning: Setback Rules (2026)

Section 175-152 of the Land Management chapter in the Code of the Township of Monroe (Gloucester County) sets the ground rules for every required yard. Subsection A prevents double counting: no yard or open space provided around one building to comply with the chapter counts as a yard or open space for any other building on the lot or on any other lot. Subsection B requires every part of a required yard to be open and unobstructed from its lowest level to the sky. The exception is the ordinary projections allowed by the State Uniform Construction Code, such as sills, belt courses, chimneys, flues, buttresses, ornamental features and eaves, and none of them can project more than 24 inches into the minimum required yards unless the chapter says otherwise. Unroofed entrance porches or terraces that do not rise above the floor level of the ground floor can extend into any yard, as long as the total area of all such porches in the yards stays within 1,000 square feet.

Other setback figures printed in the same chapter fill in the picture. Under § 175-89B, a detached accessory building goes in side and rear areas only, and on a corner lot it is set back from the side street to match the principal building's setback line for that street. In the R-40 District, § 175-157A(4) lets a proposed building's front yard shrink to the average alignment of existing buildings on the site and within 100 feet on each side in the same block, when that alignment is less than the district's front yard requirement. Stables and livestock shelters under § 175-160E sit no closer than 50 feet from any lot line and 100 feet from any street line, and seasonal agricultural employee housing needs 100 feet from a street and 50 feet from a property line.

In planned developments in the regional growth districts, § 175-161 prints a yard table for single-family detached lots: a 40-foot front setback, a side yard of 12 feet for one side and 20 feet for both, and a 25-foot rear yard, with corner lots carrying a 30-foot side yard adjacent to the nonfronting streets. Those setbacks are measured from the proposed right-of-way width of any public street shown on the State, County or Township Master Plan or Official Map. Conventional lots in the regional growth districts follow what § 175-161 calls the schedule of limitations.