City vs County Zoning

[Kristopher Seibold]

Hey bigger pockets community! You’ve been a great support for my early real estate journey. Thank you! This will be my first thread started.

I am doing my due diligence on a duplex built in 1885, major remodel in 1967. The parcel is just over 1 acre, the duplex about 1500 sqft.

Somewhere along the way there has been at least 1 addition to the property. The county records show it as a duplex with a land use code 5200 (two family platted lot), but zoning use code (1 family det 30000), property class code R (no number ie R1 or R2). However, according to the city’s website zoning map, this parcel is zoned U-1 (single family). It looks like there were actually 2 additions, the first extended out to add 2 bedrooms/1 bathroom, which turned it into a duplex. The second addition is much smaller, maybe 150 sqft to push out the kitchen in the original part of the house.

Based on the City records not showing this property as multi family zoning, and the fact that the county records show no permits I’m assuming these additions were not permitted. However, the county records DO show this property as a duplex. I’m not sure which source I need to focus on during due diligence... city or county.

3 questions:

 - Which zoning/plan would override the other, city zoning or county zoning? I assume it would be the city?

- If permits were not pulled (illegal duplex) and the city zoning map is correct (single family zoning) would this be an uphill battle to get this legal?

- How can I best explore the potential to build an additional unit on the 1 acre? Would I need to pursue a rezoning above 2-family, or would it be better to pursue dividing the parcel into two lots and build on that?

Thank you for your time.