ADU Pass
Albany County
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Albany County, Wyoming navigate the permit paperwork for building an accessory dwelling unit. We cover 4 cities and 9 ZIP codes in this county.
Map
County ADU details
County ADU ordinance
Albany County, Wyoming administers the Albany County Land Use Regulations in unincorporated areas, adopted under Wyo. Stat. Sec. 18-5-201 et seq. The regulations include zoning districts that govern permitted uses, lot size, and setbacks. Accessory dwelling units are addressed primarily as accessory buildings or guest houses with district-specific size and occupancy rules. Within incorporated municipalities (Laramie, Rock River, Centennial unincorporated), the city's own zoning code governs.
County permitting (unincorporated parcels)
Albany County Planning Department reviews zoning and the Albany County Building Department administers building permits and inspections in unincorporated areas. Wyoming has no statewide residential building code; Albany County adopts the IRC/IBC by reference through its building department. A new ADU on an unincorporated parcel proceeds through (1) zoning verification and any conditional-use permit, (2) building permit and inspections, (3) Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) review for septic on parcels not on public sewer, (4) floodplain review where applicable.
Process overview: Workflow on an unincorporated Albany County parcel: (1) confirm zoning district allowance; (2) zoning permit and any conditional-use approval; (3) building permit through Albany County Building Department under adopted IRC; (4) WY DEQ small wastewater system permit if not on public sewer; (5) floodplain review if in SFHA; (6) construction with county inspections.
Impact fees: Albany County does not levy impact fees on residential construction in unincorporated areas.
County assessor
The Albany County Assessor appraises all real property in the county on an annual cycle under Wyoming Department of Revenue oversight. Wyoming assesses residential property at 9.5% of fair market value (Wyo. Stat. Sec. 39-13-103). An ADU is captured as an improvement to the host parcel and added at the next reassessment.
Assessment policy: Wyoming property tax operates on an annual valuation cycle. Residential property is assessed at 9.5% of fair market value (Wyo. Stat. Sec. 39-13-103). Wyoming has no statewide property tax cap analogous to California's Prop 13, but enacted property-tax relief in recent legislative sessions (most notably the long-term homeowner exemption under Wyo. Stat. Sec. 39-13-105). An ADU is added to the parcel's improvement value at the next assessment cycle.
County overlays (1)
Albany County's principal county-level overlay is FEMA-mapped Special Flood Hazard Areas administered through the Albany County floodplain administrator under the county's NFIP-participating ordinance. Wildland-urban interface (WUI) hazard mapping at the county level is informational rather than regulatory in Wyoming.
Wyoming state — ADU law and programs
State HOA preemption
Wyoming has the lightest-touch HOA statutory regime in the country: no comprehensive HOA Act, no community-association act, no UCIOA adoption. CC&Rs run with the land and are enforceable as contracts; ADU restrictions buried in CC&Rs are presumptively enforceable. Combined with the absence of state ADU preemption, Wyoming's regime is local-zoning + private-CC&R, with both gates needing to be open.
State financing programs
Wyoming's state housing finance vehicle is the Wyoming Community Development Authority (WCDA), located in Casper. WCDA's mission is to assist Wyoming citizens in attaining quality affordable housing; it is funded by selling tax-exempt mortgage revenue bonds rather than by state appropriation (WCDA receives no state funding). WCDA does NOT publish a dedicated consumer ADU loan, but its existing single-family programs (the Single-Family Mortgage Purchase Program, Home$tretch 0% down-payment-assistance loan, and the Mortgage Credit Certificate program) can be combined with FHA 203(k) or Fannie Mae HomeStyle Renovation overlays to finance an ADU buildout at acquisition. WCDA also administers the LIHTC, National Housing Trust Fund, HOME, CDBG, and HOME-ARP programs for affordable rental development; some of these channels fund developer-side ADU-bearing infill but are not consumer-facing. Local-level financing in Jackson/Teton County via the Teton County Housing Authority is the most ADU-focused public-financing pathway in the state, but it is local, not statewide.
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.