Does Pennsylvania have a statewide accessory dwelling unit (ADU) law?

No. As of 2026, Pennsylvania has not enacted a statewide ADU law; several bills proposing a by-right statewide ADU standard have been introduced but not passed. Whether an ADU is allowed, and under what size and setback rules, depends entirely on the zoning ordinance of the specific municipality where the parcel sits.

Can Pennsylvania counties zone land directly?

No. Under the Municipalities Planning Code, zoning authority in Pennsylvania rests with municipalities — cities, boroughs, and townships — not counties. A county may adopt a comprehensive plan that municipalities must consider, but it cannot itself adopt or enforce a zoning ordinance over any parcel.

Why do zoning rules change so much between neighboring Pennsylvania municipalities?

Pennsylvania has more than 2,500 separate municipal governments, each administering its own zoning ordinance under the same statewide Municipalities Planning Code (Act 247 of 1968). The MPC sets the procedural framework, but each municipality still sets its own districts, densities, and use tables, so crossing a township or borough line can mean a materially different zoning code even within one contiguous metro area.

How do I find zoning and parcel information for a property in Pennsylvania?

Check Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access (PASDA), the state's geospatial clearinghouse, for county-contributed parcel boundaries, then confirm the applicable zoning district directly with the specific municipality's planning or zoning office, since Pennsylvania zoning is set locally rather than by the county or state.

Pennsylvania · state zoning reference · Parcel data · lookup only

Pennsylvania zoning: how it works and what you can build

Pennsylvania channels zoning power through a single statewide enabling statute, the Municipalities Planning Code, out to more than 2,500 separate boroughs, townships, and cities, producing one of the most fragmented local zoning landscapes in the country.

How zoning works in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is a Dillon's Rule state for zoning: municipalities have only the powers the state legislature grants them, and virtually all of that grant flows through a single statute, the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code (Act 247 of 1968). A municipality can adopt a home-rule charter, which broadens general self-governance, but home-rule status typically doesn't replace the MPC's zoning procedures — it mainly adds local flexibility on top of them. Because Pennsylvania has thousands of independent municipal governments rather than county-administered zoning as in many Sun Belt states, a developer can cross a township line and land in a completely different zoning code within the same metro area.

Counties in Pennsylvania have no independent zoning authority of their own; every zoning district and ordinance is adopted at the municipal level (city, borough, or township) under the MPC. Counties do prepare comprehensive plans, and municipalities are required to consider county plans when writing their own zoning, but the county cannot zone a parcel directly.

Pennsylvania has not enacted a statewide ADU mandate, a missing-middle preemption law, or statewide parking-minimum reform. Several bills proposing a statewide by-right ADU standard have been introduced in recent legislative sessions but had not been enacted as of 2026, so ADU and density policy remains fully municipal. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, the state's two largest cities, each maintain their own comprehensive zoning codes under the same underlying constitutional zoning-enabling authority, and both have undertaken significant zoning rewrites in the past two decades.

Who holds the zoning power

Land-use authority in Pennsylvania is delegated by statute, not assumed — these are the acts a zoning ordinance in Pennsylvania has to trace back to.

Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code Act of July 31, 1968, P.L. 805, No. 247 (53 P.S. §10101 et seq.): The single statewide enabling statute for municipal planning, zoning, subdivision, and land development regulation across Pennsylvania.

Major cities and their codes

The enabling act sets the ceiling; the municipal code is what a project is actually reviewed against. The 7 largest Pennsylvania jurisdictions and the codes they administer:

Pennsylvania — municipal zoning codes
City	Zoning code
Philadelphia	Philadelphia Zoning Code, Title 14 of the Philadelphia Code Comprehensively rewritten in 2012; uses a base-district-plus-overlay system with by-right and conditional pathways.
Pittsburgh	Pittsburgh Zoning Code, Title Nine of the Pittsburgh Code of Ordinances Adopted in 1998-99; includes specially planned and urban infill overlay districts.
Allentown	Allentown Zoning Ordinance Lehigh Valley anchor city with active downtown redevelopment incentive districts.
Erie	Erie Zoning Ordinance Waterfront redevelopment has driven recent zoning overlay updates near the Bayfront.
Reading	Reading Zoning Ordinance Dense, historically industrial city with significant adaptive-reuse activity.
Scranton	Scranton Zoning Ordinance Legacy industrial city with substantial older-building adaptive-reuse potential.
Bethlehem	Bethlehem Zoning Ordinance Former Bethlehem Steel site redevelopment has been a major recent zoning and planning focus.

Parcel & GIS data

Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access (PASDA), the state's official geospatial clearinghouse operated with Penn State University, hosts county-contributed parcel boundary data statewide, though coverage completeness and update frequency vary by county since parcels remain a locally maintained dataset.

Real parcel geometry is already loaded for Allentown and Pittsburgh — see the zoning-by-city section above for a live district-and-parcel lookup there. That is not the same as a cited feasibility report: Chicago is still the only jurisdiction with bulk standards, § citations and a generated massing scheme.

Zoning by city

The statute sets who may zone; the city's own code sets what you can build. One guide per Pennsylvania city below, explaining the district codes that appear on its zoning map — 62 district codes across Pennsylvania so far.

Pennsylvania zoning — common questions

Does Pennsylvania have a statewide accessory dwelling unit (ADU) law?: No. As of 2026, Pennsylvania has not enacted a statewide ADU law; several bills proposing a by-right statewide ADU standard have been introduced but not passed. Whether an ADU is allowed, and under what size and setback rules, depends entirely on the zoning ordinance of the specific municipality where the parcel sits.
Can Pennsylvania counties zone land directly?: No. Under the Municipalities Planning Code, zoning authority in Pennsylvania rests with municipalities — cities, boroughs, and townships — not counties. A county may adopt a comprehensive plan that municipalities must consider, but it cannot itself adopt or enforce a zoning ordinance over any parcel.
Why do zoning rules change so much between neighboring Pennsylvania municipalities?: Pennsylvania has more than 2,500 separate municipal governments, each administering its own zoning ordinance under the same statewide Municipalities Planning Code (Act 247 of 1968). The MPC sets the procedural framework, but each municipality still sets its own districts, densities, and use tables, so crossing a township or borough line can mean a materially different zoning code even within one contiguous metro area.
How do I find zoning and parcel information for a property in Pennsylvania?: Check Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access (PASDA), the state's geospatial clearinghouse, for county-contributed parcel boundaries, then confirm the applicable zoning district directly with the specific municipality's planning or zoning office, since Pennsylvania zoning is set locally rather than by the county or state.

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The parcel layer lands in the order demand does. Illinois went first because that's where the deals were; the next state is decided by who tells us what they're trying to underwrite. Tell us where you're building and what you wanted to run — you'll hear from us when Pennsylvania opens, and sooner if we need a test parcel.

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Want to see the finished shape of this work? Illinois is live at parcel level — Illinois zoning and the 53-district Chicago reference.

Pennsylvania zoning summaries on this page are provided for information, not legal advice. Confirm every project against the current adopted code for the jurisdiction and the statute as amended.