What survives in the Cheyenne code

The rest of § 5.7.3 is intact, and it is not permissive:

• One ADU per detached one-unit dwelling lot.
• ADUs are prohibited on lots with multi-dwelling, attached or semi-attached dwellings.
• A recorded “Notice of ADU Regulations” must be filed with the Laramie County register.
• The ADU is capped at 40% of the principal dwelling or 1,200 square feet, whichever controls; basement apartments are exempt from the size cap.
• One additional off-street parking space.

The ordinance also reclassified “flat-over-flat” duplexes as Accessory Dwellings rather than Semi-attached Dwellings, which changes which rules they fall under.

The covenant question this creates

This is the part a Cheyenne board is likely to be asked about, and the answer is structural rather than discretionary.

Zoning and covenants are two separate permissions, and both have to be satisfied. Wyoming law on this is settled and was restated by the Supreme Court in Schroth v. Kirk, 2025 WY 24, ¶ 31: “Although Teton County may have authorized some of these activities, that approval does not override or excuse a violation of the Covenants.” A city permit is not a covenant waiver.

So where a Cheyenne subdivision’s declaration prohibits accessory dwellings, prohibits more than one dwelling per lot, restricts lots to single-family residential use, or imposes its own owner-occupancy requirement, the February 2026 ordinance does not touch any of it. Wyoming has no statute limiting what a covenant may say on the subject — the only covenant-preemption section in the entire Wyoming code, W.S. § 34-1-501, is about home-based child care.

And the county has already said it will not enforce either way

Laramie County adopted a 306-page replacement of its land use regulations on August 5, 2025, and it says three separate times that covenants are not the county’s business. Section 1-1-104(c):

“Laramie County shall neither be a party to, nor enforce or intervene with any recorded or unrecorded private easement, private covenant, or private agreement made between or amongst members of the public or business entities for their benefit.”³

And section 5-4-108 supplies the rule of priority:

“These regulations are not intended to repeal, abrogate, or impair any existing easements, covenants, or deed restrictions. However, where these regulations and other regulations, easements, covenants, or deed restrictions conflict or overlap, whichever imposes the more stringent restrictions shall prevail.”

Stricter-of-the-two is the operative principle, and it runs in the direction of the covenant whenever the covenant is tighter than the code.

What changed, in one sentence

Before February 2026, a Cheyenne owner wanting an ADU had to satisfy both the city’s owner-occupancy rule and any covenant. Now the city’s rule is gone and the covenant is the only one left — which means the question moves from the planning counter to the recorded declaration, and to whichever body the declaration puts in charge of answering it.

The state-law backdrop

Wyoming enacted nothing on accessory dwelling units in 2024, 2025 or 2026. The phrase “accessory dwelling” appears in zero enrolled acts across all three sessions. The one housing-permitting act that did pass, the Fast Track Permits Act (HB0002, chapter 42 of the 2026 session laws), puts local governments on a 10-day completeness and 30-day decision clock with deemed approval — and it too runs against local government, not against architectural review committees.