{"id":12096,"date":"2019-03-26T07:00:48","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T11:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=12096"},"modified":"2019-03-25T19:58:05","modified_gmt":"2019-03-25T23:58:05","slug":"improving-the-accessory-dwelling-units-adu-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=12096","title":{"rendered":"Improving the Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Councilmember Hans Riemer\u2019s proposal to greatly ease restrictions<\/a> on accessory dwelling units (ADUs) has a lot of flaws<\/a>, as I have<\/a> detailed in previous posts<\/a>. The presentation of inaccurate information<\/a> also undermines confidence<\/a> that it has been well thought out. The county’s very poor enforcement of existing housing law further reduces trust. Moreover, recent legislation designed to promote ADU construction is just now going into effect<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, two easy fixes to Hans\u2019s proposal can assure that it will better accomplish his stated goals of increasing smart-growth oriented affordable housing and minimize any negative effects on the county finances and residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fix #1: Locate ADUs Near\nTransit<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The county wants to promote transit-oriented growth so let\u2019s limit ADUs to within a three-quarters mile radius of Metro, MARC, and future Purple Line stations. As one can rarely walk directly in a straight line to transit from a single-family neighborhood, a three-quarter mile radius is really greater in terms of travel distance and provides a very generous zone. (This would include my Metro-walkable single-family neighborhood.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bus network is also largely oriented towards these nodes,\nso people living in these areas will have maximal public transit access. Transit\naccessibility will also likely reduce the share of ADU residents who have cars,\nor at least a second car. This simple fix will assure that we continue to\npromote growth where smart growthers claim to want it\u2014away from car dependent\nneighborhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fix #2: Reduce, Rather\nthan Increase, ADU Size<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Hans\u2019s zoning text amendment (ZTA) proposes to allow ADUs larger\nthan the current 1200 square foot maximum up to the one-half of the size of main\nhome. This is a disastrous idea as it encourages the construction of larger,\nand therefore less affordable units. It also incentivizes the construction of\nbigger homes, which also runs counter to the idea of smart growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Hans has repeatedly spoken about his ZTA in terms of\npromoting \u201ccottages\u201d and as part of the \u201ctiny house movement,\u201d the legislation\nruns directly counter to this idea. According to\nThe Tiny Life<\/a>, a publication promoting tiny homes, tiny homes have a\nmaximum of 400 square feet, and the average tiny home has just 186 square feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 1200 square feet, Montgomery\u2019s current limit is already\nthree times the maximum size for a tiny home and over six times the average tiny\nhome size. (Scouring the web, the most\ngenerous maximum<\/a> for a tiny home was 600 but this was on a builders\u2019 website\nand is still only one-half of what the county already permits.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of increasing the size limit and encouraging the\nconstruction of less affordable ADUs, we should be reducing it to 750 square\nfeet. This smaller size would assure that new ADUs would be truly fit within\nthe affordable, smaller home ideal, instead of large second homes or apartments\nout of the range of people struggling to find housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, it will minimize any negative impacts on neighborhoods\nand the county. Smaller homes mean it\u2019s less likely that schools will face as\nsubstantial an additional burden as if we amp up the home size instead. Fewer\npeople also usually means fewer cars. Existing units larger than 750 square\nfeet would be grandfathered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The smaller size also reduces any additional hardscape, especially\nimportant since the chance of the county adopting more meaningful storm water\ncontrol standards is about nil. Smaller homes cut down the added burden on\nexisting aging infrastructure not to mention on dumping water into neighboring basements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bottom Line: Make this an Affordable Housing Bill<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

These changes to Hans\u2019s ZTA would turn it from a bill that\nundermines affordable housing by incentivizing big into one that would encourage\nthe building of smaller, more affordable units in transit-accessible areas. It would\nretain the proposed elimination on the construction of an ADU in close\nproximity to another one, allowing for substantially more construction in zones\nnear transit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As bill proponents claim loudly that they are promoting\nsmall development and favor smart growth, adopting these amendments to gather community\nsupport ought to be easy. A special exception process could be included to accommodate\nunusual circumstances that require more space or location away from transit.\nBut any such process should require real scrutiny and difficulty in order to keep\nthe focus on affordable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bottom line is that adopting these changes would turn the bill into one truly focused on transit-oriented affordable housing and a genuine win for Hans. On the other hand, if self-proclaimed proponents of affordable housing continue to argue for larger rather than smaller units, it will reveal plainly that they are simply interested in promoting development rather than affordable and that this is really an effort to undermine recently adopted zoning codes and Master Plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Councilmember Hans Riemer\u2019s proposal to greatly ease restrictions on accessory dwelling units (ADUs) has a lot of flaws, as I have detailed in previous posts. The presentation of inaccurate information also undermines confidence that it has been well thought out. The county’s very poor enforcement of existing housing law further reduces trust. Moreover, recent legislation … Continue reading Improving the Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) Bill<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1054],"tags":[2277,2274,1513],"class_list":["post-12096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-development","tag-accessible-dwelling-units","tag-adus","tag-hans-riemer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-396","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12096"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12100,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12096\/revisions\/12100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}