El Paso | Parking, Setbacks and Height

El Paso Parking, Setbacks and Height: Appendix B Yards, Appendix C Parking and Reductions

Two tables in Title 20 of the El Paso Municipal Code shape the footprint of a project. Appendix B sets the yards (the open space required between a building and each lot line) and the height limit for each use in each district. Appendix C sets the parking spaces for each use. Chapters 20.12 and 20.14 add the rules for measuring them and the ways to reduce them. The El Paso overview gives the short version.

Yards for a House, by District

A yard, under Section 20.02.1160, is the part of a lot "between a building and the adjoining lot lines, unoccupied and unobstructed by any portion of a structure from the ground upward to the sky." The table gives the single-family dwelling rows of Appendix B, in feet. A side street yard is the side yard of a corner lot that faces a street.

Source: El Paso Municipal Code, Title 20, Appendix B, single-family dwelling rows. * The cell adds: "except that a 20' driveway must be provided."

The totals are a second test. Section 20.12.020 says that "where calculation of cumulative yard setbacks is permitted, all the individual minimum yard requirements (front, rear and side) as well as the minimum cumulative requirements must be satisfied." In R-1, a 30-foot front and a 30-foot rear yard add up to 60 feet, short of the 100-foot total, so one of them must be deeper. In R-4, a 10-foot front yard means the rear yard must be at least 35 feet to reach the 45-foot total. The starred front yards also require a 20-foot driveway.

Duplexes use the same yards as houses in R-4 and R-5. For apartments and townhouses, Appendix B uses its own rows, with a zero front yard in A-2, A-3, A-4, A-O and A-3/O; the three or more homes page lists them. Small lot homes under Section 20.10.625 use 15 feet in front, 10 in the rear and 5 on the sides.

What May Sit in a Yard

Section 20.12.040 lists the parts of a building that may reach into a required yard:

• Front yard. On a dwelling or apartment site, an unenclosed porch, carport or entranceway patio of not more than 150 square feet may extend up to ten feet into it. Chimney backs, bay windows, eaves and cornices may extend 30 inches, and the eaves and cornices of the main building up to four feet.
• Side and rear yards. Sills, eaves, window air conditioners, bay windows and similar features may project 24 inches into a side yard and 30 inches into a rear yard. Open fire escapes and outside stairways may project three and one-half feet.
• Rear porches and terraces. An open, unenclosed porch of up to 180 square feet may extend twelve feet into a required rear yard. A ground-level terrace of up to 150 square feet may project five feet, at least two feet from the lot line.
• Older carports. For homes that existed on or before August 1, 1979, a carport may extend three feet into a side yard behind a masonry wall at least five feet high, and five feet into a side street yard, and it may not be enclosed.

Where forty percent or more of a block frontage already holds two or more buildings, Section 20.12.040 sets the front yard for a new building from its neighbors. If the deepest front yard is no more than ten feet deeper than the shallowest, the front yard is their average; otherwise it is a line between the nearest corners of the buildings on each side within one hundred feet. The rule never requires a front yard deeper than the district requires.

Corner lots carry a vision triangle under Section 20.12.060: the area formed by the two property lines and a diagonal joining points twenty feet from their meeting. Inside it no building, fence or wall may stand more than three feet above the centerline of the nearest street, and no parked vehicle may rise above that height. The traffic engineer may grant a written modification.

Height and Lot Coverage

Section 20.02.156 defines the height of a building as "the vertical distance measured from the mean elevation of the top of the street curb, within the lot limits, to the highest point of the structure," leaving out chimneys, air conditioners, elevator equipment, antennas and similar parts. On a lot that rises above the street, the height is measured from the curb, so the rise of the ground is included in the measurement.

Appendix B sets 35 feet for a house in R-1 to A-M except A-O, 45 feet for apartments in every A district and in C-1 and C-2, and 45 feet for townhouses in A-O. In A-O a house or duplex may be as tall as "the distance between the centerline of abutting street and face of the building abutting that street." Some rows let a building go higher with deeper yards. The A-3 townhouse row allows more than 35 feet "if an additional setback of two (2) feet for each one (1) foot of height in excess of thirty-five (35) feet is provided." The "other permitted uses" rows of R-4 and R-5 carry the same rule, but print "increase the height about thirty-five (35) feet," where the A-3 row says "exceed."

Section 20.12.030 adds one limit and two allowances. No building may shade a licensed solar heating or power system that supplies ten percent or more of a neighbor's energy; public and semipublic buildings, hospitals and schools may reach 100 feet, and churches 75 feet, with one foot of added setback for each foot of extra height; and chimneys, spires and similar features may exceed limits with the building official's approval.

Lot coverage, under Section 20.02.154, is "the percentage of a lot that can be covered by a structure or structures or any part thereof, excluding roof overhang." Among the residential rows of Appendix B, the A-O townhouse row uses it: "lot coverage not to exceed 50%." Section 20.10.035 caps an ADU lot designated for on-site ponding at fifty percent, paving included. Most A district rows set an open space minimum instead, such as fifty percent for an interior lot in A-1.

Accessory buildings have their own limits under Section 20.10.030: one story or fifteen feet, in a rear yard or a side yard that keeps the required side setback, sixty feet from the front lot line, and five feet from the main building, and five feet from the property line where a garage opens onto an alley. An accessory building closer than five feet to the main building counts as part of the main building.

Parking Spaces by Use

Appendix C, the Table of Parking Requirements and Standards, sets the minimum for each use. Section 20.14.020 applies it to new development, to additions that exceed fifty percent of the original floor area, and to a change of use. Required parking must sit on the same lot as the use it serves unless the chapter allows otherwise.

Source: El Paso Municipal Code, Title 20, Appendix C, rows 13.02, 13.09, 13.12, 13.16, 13.235, 13.30, 13.31 and 13.315, as amended by Ord. No. 019815, § 6, November 18, 2025. The table has no row for an accessory dwelling unit.

Section 20.14.050 rounds any fraction of 0.5 or more up to the next whole space and lets motorcycle spaces replace up to five percent of required car spaces, three motorcycle spaces for each car space. Section 20.14.040 sets a standard space at nine feet by eighteen feet with six feet eight inches of clear height, and permits tandem spaces "not more than two spaces in a row" for single-family and two-family homes. Paving must be asphalt, brick, concrete or pavers unless the gravel rules apply: for homes, gravel is allowed for required parking at least twenty feet from the front property line, or where on-site ponding or a permanent desilting basin serves it.

Downtown is outside the table. Section 20.14.050(D) says "off-street parking regulations shall not apply to properties in the Improvement District No. 3," whose boundaries include all property under the Downtown 2015 Plan.

Ways to Reduce Parking

Section 20.14.070 gives three routes, and the infill rules give a fourth:

• Older buildings, by special permit. City Council may grant up to a one hundred percent reduction for the rehabilitation, alteration or expansion of an existing structure in "an older neighborhood of the city that has been legally subdivided and developed for at least thirty years," when the parking cannot fit on the lot and no vacant land within three hundred feet can hold it.
• New buildings in redevelopment areas, by special permit. Up to one hundred percent for new construction downtown, in South El Paso (south of Paisano Drive between Santa Fe and Cotton Streets), or in another redevelopment area or transit oriented development corridor that Council approves.
• Small reductions by staff. The zoning administrator may approve up to ten percent for an existing building whose use changes, with letters from abutting owners who do not object and a recommendation from the traffic engineer.
• Infill developments. Section 20.10.280 cuts minimum parking "by fifty percent for any use within a designated infill development where on-street parking is available," and allows up to one hundred percent with a parking reduction impact study.

A special permit request needs a site plan of the property and all properties within three hundred feet, a parking reduction impact study unless the city engineer waives it, proof of ownership, a current tax certificate, and a letter from the Director of Sun Metro showing the main entrance is within one thousand feet of a mass transit route. A reduction "shall be particular to the use for which it was granted," and a change of use that changes the parking need ends it.

Where to Go Next

Related on VanPlex: the El Paso overview, building codes from duplex to fourplex, and SB 15 small lots.

Frequently Asked Questions

Official sources (checked October 2026)