Essex County has no county government, so setback minimums come from each town's zoning bylaw adopted under the Massachusetts Zoning Act. Front, side, and rear yard distances are set district by district.
Every Essex community fixes its own front, side, and rear setbacks in a dimensional table tied to zoning districts. Residential front yards run 15 to 30 feet; side and rear yards are smaller. The building commissioner enforces these limits at permit review. An owner who cannot meet a setback seeks a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals under MGL c.40A §10. State law requires the standards apply uniformly within each district.
A building or fence inside a required yard triggers a stop-work order, permit denial, and a demand to remove or relocate the structure.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
Swampscott, MA
Swampscott restricts commercial vehicle parking in residential districts through its Zoning By-Law. Commercial vehicles and equipment owned by service contra...
Essex County, MA
Light trespass, a neighbor's glare spilling onto your property, is controlled by town outdoor-lighting bylaws across Essex County, not by state law. Fixtures...
Essex County, MA
Massachusetts has no statewide dark-sky law, so night-sky protection in Essex County comes from town outdoor-lighting bylaws. Rowley, Rockport, and other com...
Essex County, MA
Parks in Essex County close at night. State conservation land follows a dawn-to-dusk rule under 302 CMR 12.03, and each town sets matching hours for its own ...
Essex County, MA
Massachusetts has no statewide juvenile curfew, and Essex County has no county code. A few towns keep local nighttime curfews, but the state's high court lim...
Essex County, MA
Commercial drone work anywhere in Essex County runs under the FAA's Part 107 rule. Massachusetts adds no county permit; operators hold a Remote Pilot Certifi...
See how Swampscott's setback rules rules stack up against other locations.
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