Royal Oak, MI Building Setbacks & Zoning: Structure Height Limits (2026)

Section 770-21D(1) bars any building from being erected, converted, enlarged, reconstructed or structurally altered beyond the height limit established for its zone. Section 770-21D(2) defines how that height is measured: the distance from the average finished grade at the base of the front of the building to the mid-point of the roof surface on a pitched roof, or to the roofline on a flat roof, cross-referenced to the 'building height' definition and Figure 2 in § 770-8. In the One-Family Residential Zone, § 770-34D(4) sets that limit at 30 feet for a principal building; the Two-Family, Multiple-Family and business zones each carry their own limit set elsewhere in Chapter 770's zone-by-zone regulations.

Section 770-21D(3) allows specific rooftop features, elevator and stairway housings, tanks, ventilating fans, parapet and fire walls, skylights, towers, steeples, chimneys, smokestacks, water tanks, antennae, belfries, ornamental spires, flagpoles, and wind or solar energy systems, to rise above the district height limit, but only if they stay proportional to the principal building, are effectively screened, and are set back from the building edge by a distance equal to their own height or a greater distance the Zoning Administrator requires. No such rooftop structure can exceed the zone's height limit by more than 15 feet. Accessory buildings on a residential lot face a separate, lower limit of 13 feet, extendable to 15 feet with additional setback, under § 770-22A(7).