Schaumburg, IL Building Setbacks & Zoning: Structure Height Limits (2026)

Appendix B of Schaumburg's zoning chapter is the quick reference for maximum building height. In the residence districts the limit is 28 feet in R-1, R-4, R-6 and R-6C. R-7 uses a different test: 35 feet or 2½ stories, whichever is lower. The district sections repeat these numbers and add a nonresidential rule: in all five residence districts, a nonresidential building stops at 35 feet, except church towers and steeples, which can project up to 75 feet.

The business districts step up with intensity. B-1 stays at 28 feet, B-2 and B-4 are capped at 35 feet, B-3 at 50 feet and B-5 at 75 feet. In B-3 the village board, acting on the zoning board's recommendation, can approve a taller building as a mixed use planned unit development when the concept plan or comprehensive plan calls for it, weighing project design, amenities, traffic improvements and impact on the surrounding area. In B-5 the board can grant an increase as a variation, and where an adopted concept plan specifies a greater height, practical difficulty or particular hardship need not be shown. Both manufacturing districts, M-P and M-1, are capped at 45 feet.

Section 154.62(A) adds two special rules. Public and semipublic hospitals, institutions, schools and public utility and service buildings can rise to 60 feet where the district permits them, but each foot of height above 40 feet costs two feet of setback from the front, rear and side lot lines. On through lots 125 feet or less in depth, height can be set from grade on either street; on deeper lots the street allowing the greater height controls only to a depth of 100 feet.

Measurement matters as much as the number. Under § 154.27, building height runs from mean grade to the highest point of the building, including mechanical equipment, parapets, penthouses, spires and water towers, but excluding antennas and chimneys. Detached accessory structures are measured at the front from the top of the finished floor and cannot exceed 15 feet. Fixed sheds in side yards top out at 9 feet, and tree houses cannot exceed the residential height limit of their district.