Bergen County

ADU Pass helps homeowners in Bergen County, New Jersey navigate the permit paperwork for building an accessory dwelling unit. We cover 66 cities and 99 ZIP codes in this county.

99 ZIP codes

66 Cities

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County ADU details

County ADU ordinance

Bergen County, NJ (956,000 residents - the most populous county in New Jersey) does not exercise direct land-use authority over its 70 municipalities. New Jersey is a strong municipal-zoning state under the Municipal Land Use Law (N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq.); each municipality (Hackensack, Paramus, Bergenfield, Englewood, Fort Lee, Fair Lawn, Garfield, Lodi, Lyndhurst, Ridgewood, Teaneck, Wyckoff, Mahwah) sets its own ADU rules. The Bergen County Planning Board reviews subdivisions referred from municipalities and county-road frontage development.

Code citations:

NJ Municipal Land Use Law (N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq.)

State-floor overlay: New Jersey has not enacted comprehensive statewide ADU preemption as of April 2026 (S 1422 / A 1495 of 2024 stalled in committee). Municipalities retain full authority.

Adopting body: Municipal planning boards / governing bodies

County assessor

The Bergen County property assessor / equalization office maintains parcel-level assessment records for all real property in Bergen County. ADU additions are typically captured as improvements to the host parcel via shared permit data with the building department. New Jersey property-assessment rules govern annual revaluation cycles, homestead or principal-residence caps where applicable, and the procedures for protesting an appraisal.

NameBergen County Assessor / Property Appraiser

Assessment policy: Improvement value for an ADU is added to the parcel record on the next regular revaluation cycle. Homestead / principal-residence caps where applicable shield the existing structure from rapid valuation increases but do not exempt new improvement value.

County overlays (3)

Bergen County administers flood-hazard, and (where mapped) coastal, wildland-fire, historic, and airport overlays that shape ADU project feasibility. The most consistent overlay across the county is FEMA NFIP floodplain regulation; other overlays apply to specific geographies inside the county.

FEMA NFIP Special Flood Hazard Areas in Bergen County — A new ADU in a mapped SFHA must be elevated to or above the Base Flood Elevation; cost impact on the project is often material.
Coastal / hurricane wind exposure — Confirm design wind speed and exposure category at the building department.
Historic districts and individually-listed historic resources

New Jersey state — ADU law and programs

State financing programs

New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA), an in-but-not-of agency under the Department of Community Affairs (DCA), does not operate an ADU-specific homeowner loan or grant product as of 2026-04-26. ADU construction or rehab can be financed through NJHMFA's first-mortgage and down-payment-assistance products when the underlying primary-residence transaction qualifies: the Statewide Down Payment Assistance Program (DPA) provides up to $15,000 in DPA varying by county, with the First Generation DPA Program adding $7,000 in forgivable assistance for qualified first-generation buyers. NJHMFA's 100% Financing Program and Police and Firemen's Retirement System (PFRS) Mortgage Program are similar non-ADU-specific homeowner instruments. The federal Homeowner Assistance Fund administered by NJHMFA (NJERMA portal) provides delinquency-relief funding rather than ADU financing.

State housing programs

New Jersey's principal state-level ADU-touching program is the 2024 Mount Laurel reform (P.L.2024 c.2, the Affordable Housing Reform Act, signed 2024-03-20), which restructures the affordable-housing-obligation calculation and explicitly allows income-restricted ADUs to count toward a municipality's Round 4 Mount Laurel obligations. This is a financial incentive: a municipality that adopts an ADU-permissive ordinance and tracks income-restricted ADUs can offset its obligation calculation, reducing net new affordable-unit production demand. The Department of Community Affairs (DCA) administers the affordable-housing-obligation calculation; the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH, currently dormant) historically held that role. New Jersey does not operate a statewide pre-approved ADU plan catalog, statewide impact-fee waiver statute, or per-ADU rebate. The Aging in Place Council and DCA's Universal Design / accessibility-enhancement programs occasionally touch ADU-style 'in-law suite' projects.

Federal (United States) — ADU-relevant rules and programs

Federal ADU law

The United States has no federal statute that directly regulates accessory dwelling unit entitlement or design. Land-use authority over ADUs resides with states and local governments under the traditional police power. Federal engagement is limited to financing (Fannie/Freddie/FHA/VA/USDA), flood insurance (FEMA/NFIP), and discretionary housing programs (HUD), which are recorded in sibling sections of this file.

Federal financing programs

Federal housing-finance agencies and GSEs set nationwide underwriting rules that govern whether an ADU can be financed, appraised, and counted toward mortgage qualifying income. The relevant actors are Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA (HUD), VA, and USDA Rural Development.

Federal tax credits

There is no ADU-specific federal tax credit. ADUs may incidentally qualify for existing federal energy-efficiency and clean-energy tax credits when the ADU construction includes qualifying measures.

Federal housing programs

HUD administers several discretionary programs that can fund ADU-related activity at the grantee's election, but none is an ADU-specific program.