Birmingham, Alabama Zoning Map
Zoning, overlays and hazards on every parcel — and an answer to what the code actually lets you build. Read from the city's adopted ordinance, not a third-party vendor.
What's in the Birmingham dataset
Every field below is available for any Birmingham parcel, on the map and through the AI.
Zoning
- District code & full name
- Category & ordinance article
- Parcel boundary & APN
- All 45 districts mapped
Use classes, resolved
- Permitted by right
- Conditional or by appeal
- Read per zoning district
Building controls
- Max building height (ft)
- Max coverage
- Min front yard (ft)
- Min lot area (sq ft)
Overlays, hazards & AI
- Flood hazard & environmental layers
- Ask the AI about any parcel
- Answers cited to ordinance section
What can you build in Birmingham's largest districts?
Setback, height, lot and coverage standards. 4 districts shown; all 45 are in the app.
Single-Family District
- Min lot area
- 15000
- Min lot width
- 90
- Front yard
- 40
- Side yards
- —
- Rear yard
- 40
- Max coverage
- —
- Max height
- 35 ft
Agricultural District
- Min lot area
- 43560 (1 acre) per family
- Min lot width
- 100
- Front yard
- 40
- Side yards
- 15 each side (two required)
- Rear yard
- 40
- Max coverage
- —
- Max height
- 35 ft
Neighborhood Business District
- Min lot area
- Single-family dwellings: 5000, Two-family dwellings: 2500, Attached and semi-attached dwellings: 1800
- Min lot width
- 50 when the lot is used solely for dwelling purposes
- Front yard
- None, except where the frontage between two intersecting streets is partly in an "E" or "R" district, in which case that district's front yard requirement applies
- Side yards
- None, except 5 on the side of a lot abutting a dwelling district
- Rear yard
- None, except 20 on the rear of a lot abutting a dwelling district
- Max coverage
- —
- Max height
- 35, or the height of an abutting residential district, whichever is least restrictive ft
Health and Institutional District
- Min lot area
- None
- Min lot width
- 50
- Front yard
- 25
- Side yards
- 10
- Rear yard
- 20
- Max coverage
- —
- Max height
- 120 when 500 or more feet from a dwelling district, 45 when within 500 feet of a dwelling district, unless a master plan has been approved ft
Dimensional standards for all 45 Birmingham districts
Plus permitted use classes, overlays and hazard layers per parcel.
Birmingham, Alabama Zoning Districts: What Do They Mean?
Zoning districts are areas regulated by specific laws that determine land use, building types, and development rules. Each district below shows its zone type and which uses it permits.
| Zone Code | Category | Permitted Uses | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
A-1 A-1 Agricultural District | Agricultural |
| Standards & uses → |
A-2 A-2 Agricultural District | Agricultural |
| Standards & uses → |
AG AG Agriculture District | Agricultural |
| Standards & uses → |
B-1 B-1 Neighborhood Business District | Commercial |
| Standards & uses → |
Showing 4 of 45 districts
Start from what you're trying to build
Each one runs against the live Birmingham dataset and returns the districts, standards and approvals involved.
How is Birmingham zoned?
Birmingham is unusual among US cities: two complete sets of zoning districts are in force at the same time. The current set, Title 1 of the Birmingham Zoning Ordinance, establishes 21 districts — the AG agriculture district, the D-1 through D-5 dwelling districts, the C-1 and C-2 commercial districts, I-1 through I-4 for industry, the four mixed-use districts MU-L, MU-M, MU-H and MU-D, the UN urban neighborhood district, and the special HID, HZD, MXD and PRD districts.
Alongside them, 24 legacy Title 2 districts still govern every parcel the city has not yet rezoned: E-1 and R-1 through R-8 for residential land, B-1 through B-6 and O&I for business, M-1 through M-4 for industry, and A-1 and A-2 for agriculture. These are not repealed. Birmingham converts its map neighborhood by neighborhood through Community Rezoning Plans, so which set applies to a given parcel depends on whether that neighborhood has been through the process yet.
The two sets are bridged by an equivalency table in Title 1, which pairs each legacy symbol with its current counterpart — D-1 with E-1 and R-1, D-2 with R-2, and so on down to I-4 with M-4 — and applies the current chapter's development standards to legacy parcels through that pairing. This matters in practice: most third-party zoning datasets list only the older Title 2 symbols, so a lookup that stops there will miss the standards that actually apply.
Our district data for Birmingham is read from the city's own adopted ordinance rather than from a commercial data vendor, which has no Alabama coverage at all.
Birmingham zoning: frequently asked questions
How many zoning districts does Birmingham have?
45 in total, and both groups are live. Title 1, the current code, establishes 21 base districts. Title 2 carries 24 legacy districts that still govern land the city has not yet rezoned. A parcel falls under one set or the other depending on whether its neighborhood has been through a Community Rezoning Plan.
Why does my parcel show an R-4 or B-2 zone when the city's district list doesn't mention them?
Those are Title 2 legacy symbols. They are still valid designations, not errors and not repealed. Title 1 prints an equivalency table pairing each legacy symbol with its current counterpart and applies the current development standards through that pairing, so the legacy label and the modern standards work together.
What is the difference between the D districts and the R districts in Birmingham?
The D districts (D-1 to D-5) are Birmingham's current dwelling districts under Title 1. The R districts (R-1 to R-8) are the legacy residential districts under Title 2. They are two generations of the same idea, linked by the ordinance's equivalency table — for example D-1 corresponds to the older E-1 and R-1 designations.
Does Birmingham allow multifamily housing?
Yes. Under the current code, D-4 is a medium-density residential district and D-5 is a multiple dwelling district; the mixed-use districts also permit residential above other uses. On the legacy side, R-5, R-6 and R-7 are multiple dwelling districts. What a specific parcel allows depends on its district and on the permitted-use table that governs it.
Where do these zoning figures come from?
From the City of Birmingham's own adopted zoning ordinance, read section by section, with each district's numbers traced back to the page that states them. Commercial zoning data vendors carry no Alabama coverage, so nothing here is a vendor estimate.
Alabama zoning maps
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Zoning data is pre-development intelligence, not legal advice. Verify with the Birmingham planning department before acquisition or design.