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Nassau County reports 13 ADU approvals since 2019; tiny-home rules revised
Summary
County planner reported 13 accessory dwelling units approved since 2019 and summarized August changes to the tiny-home ordinance that set 4–14 unit grouping limits, reduced shared outdoor-area requirements and removed a vehicle-storage rule.
Kalyn Thompson, the county’s principal housing planner, told the Nassau County Affordable Housing Advisory Committee on Sept. 23 that the county has approved 13 accessory dwelling units (ADUs) since 2019 and had two ADU applications pending in 2025.
Thompson said the county’s recent updates to the tiny-home ordinance (supplemental regulations to ordinance 28.24) include a minimum of four tiny homes per grouped development and a maximum of 14. She said the ordinance now requires a communal or shared outdoor living area sized at a minimum of 300 square feet per unit for the grouping (down from an earlier 800-square-foot-per-grouping metric) and that the rule requiring a separate principal shared/communal outdoor living area was removed. Thompson also said the requirement that tiny-home developments provide an area to store work vehicles and trailers was eliminated.
The changes are intended to clarify design standards and reduce some site constraints for tiny-home projects. Thompson said the ADU approvals “are going moderately well,” and provided the numeric approvals and the ordinance changes as county updates. She added that among the ADUs approved since 2019, five were described as mother-in-law dwelling units and three approvals occurred in 2025.
Committee members raised questions about whether ADUs are concentrated in particular parts of the county and whether any applications had been denied; Thompson said ADUs were “spread throughout” the county and that her spreadsheet reflected approved applications but did not show denials. A committee member said ADUs are unlikely to be a major affordable-housing solution on their own given the small number of approvals to date. Thompson and other staff also discussed financing as a barrier for tiny-home projects, with an applicant and staff both saying they encountered difficulty finding lenders willing to finance tiny-home developments.
Thompson noted Nassau County currently receives State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) funds but not CDBG or HOME, a limitation she said affects financing and programing choices. No formal action was taken; this agenda item was an informational update.
Committee members asked staff to continue outreach and to consider communications and landlord-matching strategies if the county seeks to expand ADU use for affordable housing.
