Union, NY Building Setbacks & Zoning: Structure Height Limits (2026)

Section 300-20.5 and its Table 20-4 set the maximum building height for the six residential districts of the Consolidated Zoning Ordinance of the Town of Union, Village of Johnson City, and Village of Endicott: UMF, SMF, USF, SSF, UTF and RR, with columns in that order. Section 300-10.4 applies the ordinance throughout the Town and both Villages. Detached single-family houses top out at 35 feet in every one of the six districts. Single-family attached units are also 35 feet, with NA in RR. Two-family buildings are 35 feet everywhere except SSF, where the table prints NA. Multifamily buildings reach 45 feet in UMF and SMF and print NA in the other four. Nonresidential uses are 45 feet in UMF and 35 feet in the other five.

Accessory uses have their own row. It prints 18 feet in UMF, SMF, USF and UTF, 15 feet in SSF, and 25 feet in RR, the rural district. An accessory structure in a Suburban Single-Family district is therefore held lower than in any other residential district.

Height is measured under the definition in § 300-70.2: the vertical distance from the average elevation of the proposed finished grade at the front of the building to the highest point of the roof for flat or mansard roofs, and to the average height of pitched, gable, hip and gambrel roofs. For a pitched roof the measurement stops at the average height of the roof, not at the ridge.

Solar equipment has its own rule in the Town of Union outside the Villages of Endicott and Johnson City. Section 161-5 says the Town Code's height limitations do not apply to solar collectors built to that chapter, which can only extend two feet above a flat roof, or above the parapet wall if it is higher than two feet. Large-scale solar energy systems under § 161-6 cannot exceed 20 feet in height.