Riemer Admits ADU Error and Responds

Even if a reply on twitter isn’t quite the same as a publicly-funded email blast, this is the first time I’ve seen Hans correct the record, so that’s a positive step. Except the inaccurate 133 number has been bandied about and propagated a lot, including by Hans at his own forum on ADUs, if memory serves, and without correction by either Casey Anderson or Lisa Govoni from Planning at the meeting.

Additionally, Hans continues to underestimate the number of ADUs. As Andy Harney points out, the number on the county website arbitrarily excludes many ADUs given a different classification but that are ADUs. While 473 is over 3.5 times the figure given by Hans, the 1268 identified by Harney is over 9.5 times Hans’s inaccurate numbers.

I don’t why Hans ended up inadvertently using incredibly outdated information – there were far more than 133 ADUs even in 2012. But the existence of nearly 10 times more ADUs than he claims exists would seem to be an important difference to many, though reasonable people can disagree on this as on so many issues.

Moreover, I have had both detractors and supporters of ADUs point out that the count excludes many illegal or unregistered ADUs. As a result, the legal ADU count greatly underestimates the number of ADUs in reality. The unknown true number is well off from Hans’s erroneous representation.

ADU supporters hope that Hans’s legislation will make it easier to legalize illegal units. While perhaps so in some cases, I’d hope that units that, say, don’t meet the fire code would not be legalized. Either way, the presence of many illegal units reinforces the truth of claims regarding the total inability or unwillingness of the County to enforce its laws.

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