Can I build a barn?

The Accessory Building Regulations treat barns as an exception to the ordinary accessory building limits.

**The general rule.** An accessory building not exceeding one storey or 14 feet in height may occupy no more than 25 percent of the required rear yard.

**The barn exception.** Barns may be permitted **of any size**, provided they are:

- At least **25 feet** from the property line
- At least **50 feet** from any dwelling

So the rear yard percentage does not cap a barn, but the distances do.

**Two things that still apply.**

**Total lot coverage.** All structures together may not exceed **25 percent of the total square footage of the lot**, under any circumstances. On a typical lot here, that is the real constraint on a large building.

**Approvals.** Architectural Committee approval in writing before commencing, plus a Township zoning permit, plus a Clare County building permit for anything over 144 square feet.

**But consider what a barn is for.** The covenants prohibit raising, breeding or keeping animals, livestock or poultry, and Freeman Township states plainly that **no farm animals may be kept in a platted subdivision**. All nine Lake of the Pines subdivisions are platted.

So a barn here is a storage building. It cannot house livestock.

**A barn may never be lived in**, like any accessory building.

*Source: Accessory Building Regulations (6/8/2025), item 2; Zoning Ordinance No. 8, Section 4.23.*