Wausau, WI Building Setbacks & Zoning: Setback Rules (2026)

30(7) prints a full density, intensity and bulk regulations table for the (SR-2) Single Family Residential-2 district, the zone covering most of the city's existing single-family neighborhoods. It sets a Minimum Front Setback of 25 feet, a Minimum Attached Garage Setback of 25 feet, a Minimum Porch Setback of 22 feet on front and side yards, a Minimum Street Side Setback of 30 feet on corner lots, a Minimum Side Setback of 10 feet and a Minimum Rear Setback of 30 feet. Accessory buildings follow a separate, tighter set of numbers in the same table: a detached residential accessory structure must sit even with or behind the principal structure on the front and corner side, keep 10 feet from an interior side line (3 feet if it sits in the rear half of the lot) and 5 feet from the rear line.

30 lets a front yard setback in the SR-2 district be averaged down to match the setbacks of neighboring lots on the same block, or increased the same way where neighboring homes sit well back from the minimum, with the Zoning Administrator excluding outlier lots from the calculation. 40 separately allows limited projections, such as cornices, eaves and uncovered entry steps, into an otherwise required setback without triggering a violation. 10, so a building permit application is checked against the full table, not the setback line alone.