Can ADU's help solve the housing crisis?

Aug. 20—As the city of Norman grapples with a limited supply of housing units, some experts have pointed to zoning changes to allow detached dwellings on residential lots as an affordable answer.

Strong Towns officials, along with some City Council members and local builders, have touted accessory dwelling units (ADUs) as a shortcut to increase apartments and boost diversity in neighborhoods. The council contracted with Strong Towns in November to study the community's zoning needs as it relates to housing, transportation, business districts and other land use issues.

The Transcript reached out to policymakers and residential construction professionals for their insight into these structures and the zoning changes to allow them.

Charles Marohn, president of Strong Towns, told the council and other city officials to consider the state of California's policy, enacted by its Legislature, to make it lawful for any resident to install them.

While California handed the right to expand housing on residential lots with light-handed setback requirements on properties, other cities like Plano, Texas and Richardson, Texas are more cautious about those setbacks and issues like on-street parking and alleys.

Plano's policymakers worried more dwelling units, whether added onto the house or built in the backyard, would increase traffic and parked cars, said Richardson, Texas City Councilor Dorian Bahr.

Bahr, owner of Dorian Development, is a board member of the National Association of Remodeling Industry and builds in cities across the Midwest. He said staff at Richardson are examining Plano's policy and others in major cities to consider a zoning allowance.

"I think they calculated about 1,000 homes after they did all their research," Bahr recalled. "In a backyard, you still have the requirement of setbacks. If you're going to put in a tiny home or an ADU, you have these stipulations that are going to warrant whatever size it's going to be."

Plano's population is 288,253, more than double Norman's 128,097. According to a Plano city staff report, it estimated 10-15% of single-family lots could "accommodate a backyard cottage."

"Due to changes in neighborhood and home design trends that have occurred over time, development patterns are more supportive of cottages in east and central Plano," the report stated. It also noted that newer homes left less room on the lot for detached structures.

Bahr said, as in Norman, parking is a frequent complaint in Richardson.

"How much more traffic and how many more cars would be placed on property, because people already complain daily about all the cars parked out in front of a home off street," Bahr said. "It's hard to drive down the street without having cars on both sides."

The size of a lot is also an issue. Many homes are "close together" he said, "like 10-15 feet between each home in some of these neighborhoods, unless you have a larger property."

Larger lots and larger homes can mean "two or three families" live there, as is the case in Bahr's neighborhood. The owners poured a driveway and a two-car concrete pad on the property to allow for parking.

"The space above the garage, they're using that as a rental but it's not a separate unit," he said. "It's part of the house, but they bought the house because it was large."

In large homes, leased to multiple families, it can mean "everyone has a car," which can add several cars on the property.

"That's the biggest concern, I think, that I hear from cities and it's a concern for us," he said.

California builder and owner of Inspired ADUs, Carrie Shores Diller, said those concerns have not kept up with the results she has witnessed.

Diller said a study on the Pacific Northwest prior to California's law indicated parking was not a significant impact on neighborhoods. And crime went down.

"A lot of times it's an aging parent moving in or it's a property sharing resources," Diller said. "So, maybe there aren't necessarily adding additional cars."

In the beginning, "everyone was really afraid of the impact of these cottages," Diller recalled. "But what's been really positive is it's meant more eyes on the street ... crime went down because there were more people watching."

Diller said most of the units she builds are for an aging parent or a "boomerang kid" who can't afford the housing prices in the family's city.

The state Legislature legalized the dwelling units to tackle its affordable housing crisis, which also let cities decide to "relax" zoning ordinances, Diller recalled.

"The state of California created what they call the 'State Exempt ADU' which allows everyone to have an 800-square-foot ADU, 4 feet from the rear and side setbacks 16 feet tall, regardless of lot coverage, floor area ratio, and design review cannot be required," Diller said. "Local municipalities can relax those, but they can't make them more strict, so they can reduce the setbacks to 3 feet and allow buildings to be taller."

Pushback to these allowances in other cities sometimes comes down to a resistance to change, she said.

"I think people are just nervous about the impact," Diller said. "Are there going to be privacy concerns with people looking over the yard? At least in our standard houses, a lot of garages are pushed to the back. So the language of having something the backyard was kind of already established. California has just started getting into two-story ADUs...which you have to do responsibly to respect privacy."

Norman builder, Richard McKown said it's a change that's possible if residents rethink the waste of space and environmental pollutant front yard lawns have become.

McKown, who co-owns Ideal Homes, spoke about ADUs during a town hall on affordable housing last October.

"The front yard is the most irrigated crop in America," McKown said. "It's four times the size of the corn crop and it's useless. Not only is it a useless waste of water resources, it's the biggest source of pollution."

In addition to reducing the requirements to build further back from sidewalks, McKown suggested certain areas of the city could be more easily planned for cottages, including those older neighborhoods in the front yard where there are no sidewalks.

"If you don't have a sidewalk, you now have the ability to build," he said. "Brining the house to the street, reducing the speed at which cars travel, making more of a conversational distance between the front door and the sidewalk is really the most transformational thing we could do."

Mindy Wood covers City Hall news and notable lawsuits for The Transcript. Reach her at mwood@normantranscript.com or 405-416-4420.