Raynham · Raynham Center · North Raynham

Raynham’s ADU bylaw exists, but it isn’t in the published code

Raynham adopted an ADU bylaw at the Special Town Meeting of 14 January 2025 and the Attorney General approved it on 12 August 2025. It is not codified. Article 6 on eCode360 ends at Sec. 350-6.15; there is no Sec. 350-6.16 to find. An official looking it up will not find an ADU section at all — and will reach for the accessory buildings section instead.

The adopted bylaw says accessory dwelling unit. In Raynham Center people say in-law apartment, and a detached one is a backyard apartment. The Attorney General deleted the provision that would have stopped you having an ADU alongside an existing in-law unit.

Adopted and approved · Absent from the published code

Sec. 350-6.16 Accessory Dwelling Units — not codified as of 31 August 2026. Article 6 on eCode360 ends at Sec. 350-6.15.

eCode360 Article 6 index, checked 2026-08-31, against AG MLU case 11701

This is the most consequential kind of gap. The bylaw is in force — adopted 14 January 2025, approved by the Attorney General 12 August 2025 in case 11701 — but it is invisible to anyone reading the code. What they will find and use instead is Sec. 350-6.3 Accessory buildings and uses, which was never written for a dwelling and which imposes conditions an ADU does not owe. Walking into the Raynham building department without the adopted Article 2 text in hand means the conversation starts from the wrong section.

Nine provisions the Attorney General struck out

Case 11701 partially approved the article and disapproved and deleted nine separate provisions. Every one of them ran against a protected-use ADU, and every deletion runs in your favour:

Single-family limits: The single-family references in Sec. 350-6.16(A), (B) and (J) — deleted. An ADU is not confined to single-family lots.AG MLU case 11701
Multi-family ban: The multi-family prohibition in (A) — deleted.AG MLU case 11701
Minimum parking: The minimum of one parking requirement in (F) — deleted.AG MLU case 11701
Manufactured homes: The manufactured home park limitation in Sec. 350-10.1 and the manufactured home ADU ban in (K) — both deleted.AG MLU case 11701
In-law coexistence ban: The provision in (L) barring an ADU alongside an existing in-law apartment — deleted.AG MLU case 11701
Two-bedroom maximum: The two-bedroom cap in (M) — deleted.AG MLU case 11701
Permanent foundation: The permanent foundation requirement in (Q) — deleted.AG MLU case 11701
Storey limit: The one-and-a-half-storey limitation — deleted.AG MLU case 11701

Nine deletions from one article is the most on our list by a wide margin. It is a fair signal that the bylaw as drafted was written against the state regulation rather than around it, and it is why the adopted-and-amended text matters so much more here than the published one.

What that leaves you

With the parking minimum, the two-bedroom cap, the storey limit and the foundation requirement all deleted, what governs is largely 760 CMR 71.00 itself:

Permission: As of right on a lot in a district permitting single-family, and — the deletions matter here — not confined to single-family lots.760 CMR 71.03; AG case 11701
Size: 900 sq ft or half the principal dwelling’s gross floor area, whichever is smaller.760 CMR 71.02
Bedrooms: No local cap survives. The practical limit is what your septic design flow carries.AG case 11701 (M) deleted
Parking: No local minimum survives. State ceiling is one additional space, zero within half a mile of a transit station.AG case 11701 (F) deleted; 760 CMR 71.03(2)(b)
Height and storeys: No local storey limit survives. Standards may not be stricter than those for a principal dwelling.AG case 11701; 760 CMR 71.03(3)(b)(2)

Work your size number on the ADU size calculator. The state definition at 760 CMR 71.02 governs the size of a protected-use ADU, and a local definition cannot shrink a state entitlement. We compute the half-GFA figure on the state definition and carry the local number alongside it, because a local official may well reach for the local one.

The section you will be handed instead

Because Sec. 350-6.16 is not in the code, Sec. 350-6.3 Accessory buildings and uses is what a Raynham official will reach for. It was drafted for garages and sheds, not dwellings, and applying it to an ADU imports conditions the adopted ADU bylaw does not contain and the state regulation does not permit.

Sec. 350-6.3 — the section reached for in the absence of a codified Sec. 350-6.16

The fix is not an argument, it is a document. Bring the adopted Article 2 text and the AG decision letter to the first conversation. We do that as a matter of course on a Raynham file.

Working on an older house

Raynham’s nonconforming relief is straightforward and useful: a change that does not increase the nonconforming nature of a single- or two-family structure is exempt. That is the route for an attached or over-the-garage unit on a house that already sits closer to a line than today’s table would allow, provided the addition does not push further into the deficient yard.

Art. 6.2

Septic is the real constraint here

With the local bedroom cap deleted and the parking minimum gone, zoning is not what limits a Raynham ADU. Title 5 is. Design flow is tested on the bedroom count of the whole property, so the question is whether your existing system carries the added bedroom — and much of Raynham is on private septic.

310 CMR 15.000

That is the number that decides the project, and it is what we go and establish. Planning ranges are in our cost guide.

We will tell you whether it works before you spend anything

Southcoast Building is an approved Feasibility Study Provider under the Massachusetts Housing Partnership ADU Incentive Program. A licensed builder walks your property, reads your parcel against the bylaw, checks the septic and the grading, and tells you whether an ADU works here and roughly what it would cost. Thirteen of our studies have been approved by MHP to date.

Request your free study

$0 to you under the MHP ADU Incentive Program · One study per property · Michael Bicho · (508) 269-2131

Where these figures come from

Town of Raynham Zoning Bylaw, Chapter 350 — Sec. 350-6.16 Accessory Dwelling Units, adopted at the Special Town Meeting of 14 January 2025 and not codified as of 31 August 2026 (eCode360 Article 6 ends at Sec. 350-6.15). Also Sec. 350-6.3 (accessory buildings), Sec. 350-10.1 (manufactured home parks) and Art. 6.2 (nonconforming).
Massachusetts Attorney General, Municipal Law Unit, case 11701, Art. 2, partially approved 12 August 2025 — nine provisions disapproved and deleted, listed above.
760 CMR 71.00 — §71.02 size and definitions, §71.03(2)(b) parking, §71.03(3)(b)(2) dimensional relief.
310 CMR 15.000 (Title 5) for the design-flow and bedroom-count test.

Zoning changes, and a building inspector’s reading of it is the one that governs your permit. Nothing here is a determination about your property. It is what the adopted text and the Attorney General’s decisions say as of 8 September 2026.