#accessory-dwelling-units

#accessory-dwelling-units

A crane rumbled into a neighborhood in Holbrook earlier this year carrying a factory-made house, complete with windows, doors, a bedroom, and a kitchen. Workers guided the box onto a concrete foundation in the backyard of a small single-family home with white siding. Within a few weeks, there was a pitched roof, kitchen appliances, and running water. And now a lot that previously held just one house has two.

Nashville, one of the fastest-growing Sun Belt cities over the past decade, has been working to address the housing affordability issues that accompanied its massive economic development. Confronted with a shortage of nearly 90,000 homes, the Nashville Metro Council made its most significant move since 2018 to shape the city's future. It passed two groundbreaking and controversial zoning measures, overcoming strong opposition to clear their final hurdle and become law. With the adoption of these laws, Nashville joins a growing list of cities and states working to eliminate decades of restrictive zoning covenants and regulations.

An effort is underway to rewrite the county's ordinance for accessory dwelling units to allow owners to sell the units as condos in unincorporated areas, a policy shift made possible by a new state law looking to boost homeownership through ADUs. If adopted, San Diego County would be the second county in California, after San Francisco, to opt into an ADU sales program under the 2023 law known as Assembly Bill 1033.

"This would be an opportunity to establish a program where if there are (short-term rentals) that are operating without a license, they have to come into compliance, they have to pay the (transient occupancy tax) revenue for the past two years I believe they have been operating," Swanson said.

South Shore residents are up in arms over a proposed demolition of a two-family home that could be redeveloped into five multifamily homes under new City of Yes zoning regulations. Community leaders contend that a roughly 10,000-square-foot corner-lot property on Uncas Avenue and Alborn Road is being sized up for at least fivehomes.

City of Yes passed at the end of last year, promising to create more than 80,000 new homes over 15 years, in part by legalizing the creation of apartments in people's backyards or basements of people's single- and two-family homes. (The move proved controversial, unsurprisingly.) In July, the Department of Buildings released preliminary specs for constructing these sorts of units, some of which were pretty universal - only one ADU could be constructed for every single- or two-family home; maximum size is 800 square feet -

For Aislyn and Ali Benjamin, an ADU, a small secondary home on an existing lot, was the most practical way into homeownership. They live near Danville, California - a small city just over an hour east of San Francisco - where the median home sale price was $1.8 million in August, according to Realtor.com. Wanting to stay near their jobs and avoid long-term renting, they built a 1,200-square-foot unit in the backyard of Ali's parents' home in San Ramon, a city next to Danville.

The replacement of car spaces with ADUs in infamously parking-strapped Koreatown is made possible by Senate Bill 1211, which passed last year. Under that law, local agencies are not required to replace parking spaces for tenants if the spaces are demolished by owners and property managers to make way for ADUs in an effort to increase housing density. To show their opposition to the removal, tenants of the apartment building, at 5th and Kingsley, set up a peaceful protest using a long white plastic table and outdoor chairs to occupy some parking spaces.

"We're excited to offer financial incentives and design tools to support their development City-wide,"

San Jose has marked a significant milestone by becoming the first city in California to approve the sale of an accessory dwelling unit as a condominium. This achievement opens new pathways for homeownership and addresses the pressing need for more housing options in the region. The inaugural unit at 410 Josefa Street, near Diridon Station, stands as a model for future developments, already occupied by tenants and ready for market.

The new ordinance allows accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, to be up to 1,200 square feet and 25 feet tall, regardless of attachment type. Rooftop decks are permitted with additional height allowances for safety railings.

"I interviewed 10 people who built accessory dwelling units, or ADUs. Many of them did so because moving to a new or bigger home wasn't an option..."

Prefab accessory dwelling units (ADUs) offer a less disruptive building experience and come in various designs and price ranges, appealing to diverse homeowners.