Every home improvement project has three starting points:
1. Finding out the zoning regulations assigned to your property and what they allow you to build;
2. What are your financing options for the type of improvement you'd like and you're allowed to build;
3. Evaluate if it's worth the project cost vs. how much it'll add to the value of your property or how much you and your family would benefit.

Zoning regulations are the government's tool to regulate what someone is allowed to build on their property. The local and state governments issue a great number of ordinances limiting the maximum number of families per acre to be permitted in the various residential districts. More common, however, are the ordinances that regulate density indirectly through the maximum size of the building which includes height, bulk, setbacks, lot coverage, and standards for residential uses, including open space and exposure, and urban design guidelines.

The justification for regulating density is similar to that for the regulation of height and coverage. Indirectly, the control of density may ensure adequate light and air, may eliminate congestion with its attendant fire and traffic hazards, and may contribute to the creation of a neighborhood of pleasing homogeneity. A more positive reason for controlling density is that such control permits adequate planning of community facilities and utilities based on the number of families per acre. Where density is regulated, it is often more possible to predict the future requirements for school facilities, sewer and water system capacities, and the many other facilities affected by population density.

Homeowners should know the maximum building size allowed on their property.

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Although the right to control density is securely held and is seldom questioned, certain standards of density have been questioned. How large a minimum lot area per family may a community require and still have its zoning ordinance sustained as reasonable by the courts? Bassett, in the last revision of his book, Zoning, published in 1940, states that density may be regulated by specifying the allowable number of families per acre of land.

"No prospect of trouble arises in reducing the allowable number to three or four families per acre. It is not difficult to show the court that such a regulation has a substantial relation to fire risk, light and sunlight, circulation of air, annoyance from noise, and danger of contagion. The substantial relation ceases, however, when unnecessarily large building plots are required. The question sometimes arises whether these density regulations can be used to preserve the surroundings of large estates by preventing the building of nearby houses on comparatively small tots. For instance, a regulation requiring two acres for each family might be a protection to surrounding large estates, but in case of a lawsuit, could the municipality show that a house for one family on two acres of land contributed to the safety and health of the community to a greater degree than such a house on one acre of land? Three families to the acre is safe. Beyond that is doubtful. Some point still beyond that is unlawful for the reason that there is no substantial relation between the regulation and the health and safety of the community." (italics ours)*

Despite this view expressed by one of the leading authorities in zoning, the courts have upheld regulations for densities lower than three families per acre. Courts in various states have upheld zoning regulations requiring minimum lot areas per family of one, two, and even three acres. Since the distinction between welfare and specious zoning is often hard to draw, a discussion of the relatively few court cases in which minimum lot size requirements of one-half acre or more have been upheld may reveal some basis for the distinction.

CityStructure Analysis calculates the maximum buildable area on your property.

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