Montgomery, AL Building Setbacks & Zoning: Setback Rules (2026)

Article I, Sec. 7 of the zoning ordinance (City Code App. C) requires every structure built or altered in Montgomery to sit on a lot that provides the yards specified for its district in Article VII, and it bars counting one building's required open space toward another structure's yard on the same lot. The actual figures are set district by district in the Article VII, Sec. 2 table. In the Very Low Density residential zones, an R-125 lot (20,000-square-foot minimum area, 125-foot minimum width) must carry a 50-foot front yard, a 40-foot rear yard, and side yards of 20 feet each, widening to 50 feet where a side yard abuts a street.

R-100 lots (14,000 square feet, 100-foot width) and R-85 lots (12,000 square feet, 85-foot width) both step down to a 35-foot front yard and 30-foot rear yard, with side yards of 12 feet and 10 feet respectively. An owner holding a smaller, already-recorded lot that predates the ordinance and has at least 25 feet of street frontage can use the sliding side-yard modification built into Sec. 7 instead of being barred from building outright. The administrative official, the city's zoning enforcement officer, checks these yard figures against the plat submitted with every building permit application, and a property owner who wants relief from a yard standard must apply to the nine-member board of adjustment for a variance under Article III.