Some communities really care about the way their old buildings look, and others just want to make sure that property values don’t drop in the neighborhoods that have been around for ages. What gets me is that these requirements keep changing every few years as each town scrambles to protect whatever architectural style it thinks makes it special. Most homeowners have no clue about any of these restrictions when they buy their place, and some residents only find out when they open their mailbox and see a violation letter from the township.
Maybe you have old siding that’s falling apart, or maybe you just want to give your home a fresh new look. Either way, these requirements can get messy fast. Townships like Princeton and Glen Ridge have extremely strict standards for any properties in their historic districts. Then you have places like Short Hills, where you have an architectural review board that looks at each and every application on a case-by-case basis. The especially tough part is that these requirements are so different between townships that the exact same siding project could get approved in one town and completely shot down just a few miles away across the municipal line.
Let’s find out which New Jersey townships have restrictions on vinyl siding for front facades!
Towns That Ban Vinyl Siding
A handful of townships in New Jersey actually have these historic districts where you’re not allowed to put vinyl siding on the front of your house. Princeton, Morristown and Summit are probably the most famous ones. But you’ll find others scattered around the state. These towns set up historic commissions way back in the day (we’re talking a few decades ago) specifically to protect the architectural heritage in their communities.
The boundaries of these districts can be pretty unexpected for lots of homeowners who move into the area. The districts usually include the downtown areas and also the neighborhoods that were built before 1940 or so. The historic district in Princeton includes every one of the streets around Nassau Street, and then it actually extends quite a bit into the residential areas where you’ll find those beautiful Victorian and Colonial homes. Morristown’s historic zone is similar – it covers most of the downtown core area, and it goes a few blocks out into the surrounding residential streets.
Most of these restrictions trace back to the 1970s and 1980s, when local governments started paying attention to what was happening in their downtowns. Developers were demolishing historic buildings at an alarming rate, and communities realized they had to act fast if they wanted to preserve what made their towns special. The historic commissions emerged from this movement, and they now have the power to review every exterior change that homeowners want to make to properties in designated districts. These commissions have put together detailed guidelines on which materials are acceptable and which ones aren’t allowed at all. Everything revolves around keeping the homes looking right for the era when they were built.
Lots of homeowners buy a house without realizing any of this. It’s completely natural to believe that you’ll be able to update your siding whenever you feel like it – it’s your house! But then you go to apply for a permit, and you find out your property is located in a historic district. The town says that no vinyl siding is allowed on any part of the house that faces the street.
The townships themselves will argue that these restrictions actually help maintain property values across the board. Their position is that when you have matching architectural styles throughout a neighborhood, it makes the whole area more desirable to buyers. And there’s some data to back this up – historic districts do usually hold their value better than other areas over time. The authentic, traditional look does attract buyers who want that classic architecture and are willing to pay a premium for it.
Still, the whole thing frustrates plenty of homeowners, especially when they feel blindsided by the restrictions. Real estate agents don’t always make a point of mentioning these restrictions during the sale process, and so new owners suddenly find themselves facing much higher renovation costs than they had budgeted for.
Local Boards That Rule Your Renovations
Some townships don’t actually have official historic districts. Even so, they’ve still got plenty of control over what homeowners can and can’t do to their properties. Towns like Short Hills and Millburn have set up architectural review boards that get to approve or reject your renovation plans based on their standards. These boards have this power because the township passed local ordinances years ago that gave them the authority to make these decisions.
Living in one of these areas means you’ll have to present your plans at a board meeting before making any changes to your home’s exterior. The board members are going to look at every little detail about the materials you want to use. They care about the texture and the way that light hits the surface. They’ll check out the profile and the shadow lines to see if the vinyl siding would wind up looking too flat or fake compared to real wood or fiber cement. Color is a big deal, too, since cheaper vinyl tends to fade in weird patches after a couple of years in the sun.
The approval process is frustratingly subjective, and it changes all the time based on who’s making the decisions. One board will happily approve vinyl siding with a deep wood grain texture, and then 12 months later, a very different group of members will turn down the exact same material. The makeup of the board at any particular time determines everything.
What makes this whole situation hard to navigate is that most boards won’t actually write “no vinyl allowed” anywhere in their official guidelines. But everyone in the community knows that they don’t want vinyl on any homes. Instead of banning it outright, they’ll just continue finding different reasons to reject any application that includes vinyl until the homeowners finally get the message about what they actually want. They might say the color isn’t quite right or they’ll claim that the texture doesn’t match the rest of the neighborhood’s look.
The makeup of these boards has tremendous power over these decisions. As new members come on board and longtime members step down, the unofficial position on vinyl siding can change dramatically from one year to the next.
Rules for the Front and Back
Most New Jersey townships have pretty particular requirements for vinyl siding, and the requirements usually only apply to the front of your house. The back and sides of your property can usually have whatever siding material you want to install. This actually makes sense from a planning perspective. The front facade is what contributes to the neighborhood’s street appeal and character. But the back of your house faces your private yard, where appearance matters far less.
Every township defines “front facade” differently, and it can get confusing fast. Some municipalities say it’s just the wall with your front door on it – pretty simple. Others include any part of your house visible from the street, and casts a much wider net. Corner lots are where this gets expensive because you could have two or three sides that all count as front surfaces. You could easily blow up your renovation budget for exterior updates.
Plenty of homeowners have come up with pretty creative workarounds when they’re working with local building codes and want to manage their renovation budgets. One strategy that seems to work well is to put the better materials where the township actually cares about them. Fiber cement or wood siding goes on the front of the house, where everyone can see it, then any additions or work on the back can be done with standard vinyl siding for way less money. A contractor told me about one homeowner who spent $30,000 on beautiful stone veneer for the front and sides that face the street. That exact same person did their whole back addition in vinyl for just $8,000 total.
Your existing landscaping might actually affect how the local requirements get applied to your property. A few townships will factor in mature trees or privacy fences when they review street visibility. A side wall that’s completely blocked by a thick row of evergreens that have been there for years might not qualify as street-visible anymore, according to the building inspector. But don’t try to plant new trees just to skirt the siding requirements. Most planning boards review properties as if all the landscaping were invisible anyway. Different townships also have different methods to measure and determine what counts as visible from the street. Some places have inspectors stand at the curb and document what they can see with photographs. Other municipalities have their inspectors walk along the entire property line to check what portions of siding are visible from different angles and vantage points. A handful of townships have gone as far as to write exact distances and sight line requirements directly into their building codes, and that at least removes any ambiguity about what’s allowed.
How to Get Your Township Approval
Front siding replacement in these townships is a whole different ballgame than what you’re used to elsewhere. The paperwork alone can be overwhelming – detailed architectural drawings, physical material samples and the works. Gone are the days of just describing your plans and calling it a day. And the application fees are all over the map. One township might charge you $50, while the township next door wants $300 for the same review.
My advice is always to meet with the building officials before submitting anything formal. These face-to-face conversations are worth your time because every township has its own unofficial preferences that won’t show up in any written guidelines. The building official in one area might strongly prefer traditional cedar shakes, and the official in the other town only wants to see fiber cement products that mimic wood grain. Knowing what they like ahead of time lets you adjust your application and save yourself from expensive rejections.
The approval timeline is where patience gets tested. Your neighbor’s township might rubber-stamp an application in two weeks flat. You could be waiting three months for the exact same type of project approval. There’s no rhyme or reason to it, and trying to predict which townships move fast is impossible.
A trick that works well is to document similar projects in your own neighborhood. Take photos of houses nearby that already have the materials you want to use – if the township has approved those materials before, they’ll have a hard time saying no to you. It’s basic, but it works well.
Local contractors who are in these areas all the time are absolute goldmines of information. They’ve navigated these waters a few times, and they know just which townships are sticklers for certain details and which ones are more flexible. Some homeowners go a step further and hire permit expeditors who do nothing but shepherd applications through the approval process. If your application does get denied, you can appeal. But be prepared to add a few more weeks or months to your project timeline.
What Happens When You Break the Rules
Once a complaint gets filed with the township, they usually get a warning letter. Not responding to that warning means the next step is a stop-work order, and all construction has to stop right away. The township will start hitting you with fines each day. Every township sets its own penalty amounts, and the bills add up fast – we’re talking about serious money here.
The regulations around existing vinyl siding are very different from one township to another. Some townships will grandfather in the vinyl siding that was installed before today’s requirements took effect. Other townships take a different strategy completely – they don’t care about the installation date. If it violates today’s codes and they find out about it, you’ll have to remove it – it’s an expensive problem that can blindside homeowners who had no idea they were out of compliance.
This whole situation can turn into a serious problem when selling your house. Potential buyers might walk away from the deal once they discover the compliance problems, or they might demand a big price reduction to compensate for the problem they’d be inheriting. Experienced buyers and their agents will specifically check for these kinds of violations during the due diligence process. Enforcement varies by the town you’re in. Some places will chase down every violation they can find, and others won’t do anything unless the house looks completely wrong for the area.
Economic conditions actually have a big effect on how strictly townships enforce their regulations. When the economy takes a hit, townships have to make tough decisions about where to spend their already limited budgets and siding violations usually fall pretty far down on the list of priorities.
The financial consequences of non-compliance are brutal when your only option is tearing down and replacing every bit of siding. After you add up the removal work, disposal fees and the new installation, homeowners face bills that are reaching tens of thousands of dollars.
Contact Our Team Today to Start Your Project
The tough part about township regulations is that they change much more frequently, and the method your neighbor came up with 5 years ago probably won’t work anymore. Township boards are always updating their standards, and state laws are constantly shifting around. Every now and again, a new board member comes in with a very different way of interpreting the codes that are already on the books – and that’s why you want to start your research as early as possible, particularly if you’re in the market for a home in a township that has these kinds of restrictions.
The best advice is actually pretty simple – even though a lot of homeowners skip it – just pick up the phone and have a conversation with somebody at your township’s building department. No amount of online research or neighborhood gossip can compare to the most up-to-date information directly from the staff who are actually responsible for approving your permits.
Now, as far as smart decisions about your home’s exterior, the right contractor can make a tremendous difference – especially one who understands what you want to achieve and what your township will allow. For more than 30 years, our family at Magnolia Home Remodeling Group has been helping New Jersey homeowners to work through these exact situations, and we’ve learned how to turn complex regulatory requirements into beautiful home improvements that get approved. We work with cedar shakes, fiber cement and any other material that your township has on its approved list, and we know how to design facades that look great as they still meet all the code requirements.
You can check out our project gallery to see the work we’ve done for other homeowners who had to work through their own township regulations, download our free planning guide or just give us a call for a no-obligation consultation about your siding project. We have flexible financing available for qualified New Jersey homeowners, and our team stays current with the township requirements all across the state – so you get to focus on choosing the perfect look for your home as we take care of all the paperwork and compliance details!
