Mobile, AL Building Setbacks & Zoning: Structure Height Limits (2026)

Sec. E of Mobile's Unified Development Code sets the dimensional standards table for the R-1, Single-Family Residential district, which is split into three sub-districts: R-1 Urban, R-1 Suburban, and R-1 Conservation. All three share the same 35-foot maximum building height, even though their other standards diverge sharply: R-1 Urban allows a 6,000-square-foot minimum lot with 50 percent maximum coverage and just a 5-foot minimum front yard, R-1 Suburban requires a larger 7,200-square-foot lot with tighter 35 percent coverage and a 25-foot front yard, and R-1 Conservation drops the lot-area minimum entirely in favor of a density cap of 6 dwelling units per acre and up to 75 percent coverage per individual dwelling lot.

Side and rear yard minimums run 5 feet in R-1 Urban and R-1 Conservation, with R-1 Suburban requiring a slightly deeper 8-foot rear yard. The definitions article, Sec. 64-8-2, spells out how height is measured: the vertical distance from grade to the highest finished roof surface for flat roofs, or to the average height of a pitched roof, with a separate stories-based measurement that applies only in the O-SH overlay and the Downtown Development District, neither of which covers standard R-1 lots. Because the 35-foot cap is written into the district's own dimensional standards table rather than a separate height section, any new single-family home, addition, or accessory structure counted toward building height in an R-1 district has to fit under that limit regardless of which R-1 sub-district applies.