>…To some San Diegans, the ADU Bonus Program must feel like a scam. But not because it didn’t work – on the contrary, it’s the closest thing YIMBYs have discovered to an infinite housing glitch.
>In 2016, California passed legislation legalizing accessory dwelling units (ADUs) statewide. For those who live happy, normal lives and don’t think about zoning all day, ADUs are small residential units that share a parcel with a primary residence, typically a single-family home. They may occupy unused attics or basements, or new detached structures in the backyard. Depending on where you are in the country, these may also be called granny flats, mother-in-law units, or casitas.
>Before 2017, the number of ADUs permitted each year in California was a rounding error. Conversely, in the seven years since the state adopted this framework, local jurisdictions have permitted approximately 110,000 ADUs, of which an estimated 70,000 have been built. High on the program’s early success, legislators passed AB 671 in 2019 directing local governments to encourage the production of deed-restricted affordable ADUs.
>…The premise of the ADU Bonus Program, adopted in 2020, was simple. In addition to the single ADU you can build in every lot pursuant to state law, San Diego granted property owners the right to build two additional ADUs, so long as one is let out at rents affordable to households earning either 120 percent (for 15 years) or 80 percent (for 10 years) of the area median income. **In a Transit Priority Area – i.e. within a half-mile of a major transit stop – you can do this an unlimited number of times, as long as you have the space.**
>The typical ADU Bonus Program project looks like what planners probably had in mind: an extra two to four cottages in a backyard. In this way, the program has effectively revived the bungalow court, a beloved Southern California typology in which a dozen or so one-story detached units together front a shared courtyard. **Thanks to rules allowing stacked ADUs up to the height limit, many simply look like small apartment buildings—or as they have been dubbed by opponents, ‘granny towers.’**
>….**Yet wily local developers quickly zeroed in on the true meaning of unlimited. At least one application in the Encanto neighborhood proposed to build 148 homes using the ADU Bonus Program. According to a recent report led by UT-Austin planning professor Jake Wegmann, at least a half-dozen more 100-unit-plus ADU Bonus Program projects are in the pipeline.** The report does not say whether these will be Ready Player One-style Mobile Home Stacks.
>The ADU Bonus Program has also generated controversy to the extent that it has opened up single-family zones to new multifamily development, often for the first time since zoning was adopted. Earlier this year, a developer applied to add 10 ADUs to the backyard of a single-family home at the end of a Clairemont cul-de-sac where the median home price is over seven figures. Neighbors are throwing a fit, but as things stand, the city has no basis to deny the project.
>
pham_nguyen on
Building extra homes, at 50% affordable housing as well? That’s impressive.
AMagicalKittyCat on
Shit we accidently allowed too many poor people access to affordable housing, quick we gotta remove it!
3 Comments
Some excerpts:
>…To some San Diegans, the ADU Bonus Program must feel like a scam. But not because it didn’t work – on the contrary, it’s the closest thing YIMBYs have discovered to an infinite housing glitch.
>In 2016, California passed legislation legalizing accessory dwelling units (ADUs) statewide. For those who live happy, normal lives and don’t think about zoning all day, ADUs are small residential units that share a parcel with a primary residence, typically a single-family home. They may occupy unused attics or basements, or new detached structures in the backyard. Depending on where you are in the country, these may also be called granny flats, mother-in-law units, or casitas.
>Before 2017, the number of ADUs permitted each year in California was a rounding error. Conversely, in the seven years since the state adopted this framework, local jurisdictions have permitted approximately 110,000 ADUs, of which an estimated 70,000 have been built. High on the program’s early success, legislators passed AB 671 in 2019 directing local governments to encourage the production of deed-restricted affordable ADUs.
>…The premise of the ADU Bonus Program, adopted in 2020, was simple. In addition to the single ADU you can build in every lot pursuant to state law, San Diego granted property owners the right to build two additional ADUs, so long as one is let out at rents affordable to households earning either 120 percent (for 15 years) or 80 percent (for 10 years) of the area median income. **In a Transit Priority Area – i.e. within a half-mile of a major transit stop – you can do this an unlimited number of times, as long as you have the space.**
>The typical ADU Bonus Program project looks like what planners probably had in mind: an extra two to four cottages in a backyard. In this way, the program has effectively revived the bungalow court, a beloved Southern California typology in which a dozen or so one-story detached units together front a shared courtyard. **Thanks to rules allowing stacked ADUs up to the height limit, many simply look like small apartment buildings—or as they have been dubbed by opponents, ‘granny towers.’**
>….**Yet wily local developers quickly zeroed in on the true meaning of unlimited. At least one application in the Encanto neighborhood proposed to build 148 homes using the ADU Bonus Program. According to a recent report led by UT-Austin planning professor Jake Wegmann, at least a half-dozen more 100-unit-plus ADU Bonus Program projects are in the pipeline.** The report does not say whether these will be Ready Player One-style Mobile Home Stacks.
>The ADU Bonus Program has also generated controversy to the extent that it has opened up single-family zones to new multifamily development, often for the first time since zoning was adopted. Earlier this year, a developer applied to add 10 ADUs to the backyard of a single-family home at the end of a Clairemont cul-de-sac where the median home price is over seven figures. Neighbors are throwing a fit, but as things stand, the city has no basis to deny the project.
>
Building extra homes, at 50% affordable housing as well? That’s impressive.
Shit we accidently allowed too many poor people access to affordable housing, quick we gotta remove it!