Jessica Cejnar Andrews / Friday, June 23, 2023 @ 5:03 p.m. / Infrastructure, Local Government
Crescent City Councilors Discuss ADU Ordinance As A Possible Solution To Alleviate The Housing Crisis
Photo: Joiedevivre123321 via Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons License.
Previously:
• Del Norte, Crescent City Need Enough Land to Accommodate 575 Housing Units Through 2030
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Though they acknowledged that their control over this area is limited, most Crescent City councilors favored an accessory dwelling unit ordinance that expands the area’s supply of affordable housing rather than furthers the proliferation of vacation rentals.
As he and his colleagues digested the draft ordinance City Attorney Martha Rice brought to them Tuesday, Mayor Pro Tem Blake Inscore said an ADU may be one of the few options that allows him and his wife to stay in Del Norte County when he retires.
“We’ve been completely priced out of, not just purchasing a home, there’s nothing we’re going to be able to afford to even rent in this community, which is unfortunate,” said Inscore, who, as pastor of First Baptist Church, lives in a home owned by the church. “Could we, under the right circumstances, reorient our life in retirement in an 850 square-foot ADU on somebody’s property? Probably, and that might be something that’s affordable that allows us to remain in this community.”
Inscore and his colleagues asked Rice to bring further information back to them on rental terms for ADUs as well as water and sewer connection fees.
These are two of the few areas within the new ADU ordinance the city has control over, the city attorney said.
“The majority of the draft accessory dwelling unit ordinance contains mandatory provisions,” Rice wrote in her staff report. “The statewide exemption ADUs must be allowed even without an ordinance if they comply with state law. The City Council has a very limited amount of discretion when determining regulations for ADUs even when it approves a local ordinance.”
The Del Norte County Board of Supervisors has not yet discussed an ADU ordinance, according to Rice.
Rice said she began developing an ADU ordinance at least two years ago. She brought it to the Planning Commission for input, but after California lawmakers made several changes to ADU regulations, she gave Planning Commissioners a refresher, which included letting them know where they had discretion, before taking it before City Councilors.
An accessory dwelling unit is an independent unit that is on the same lot as a primary dwelling unit. It can be attached or detached from the primary unit as well as a converted use of an existing space.
Attached ADUs must have a maximum size that’s 50 percent of the primary dwelling up to 1,200 square feet. A 0-1 bedroom ADU must have at least 850 square feet.
A detached ADU are allowed a maximum square feet of 1,200 square feet and must be 5 feet from any other building.
There are statewide exemptions for four types of ADUs, which require mandatory approval. The first type include an ADU that’s within a proposed single-family home or in a converted space of an existing single-family home or accessory structure. The second type goes with a single-family dwelling but is detached and is new construction and be 800 square feet or less.
There are also statewide exemptions for ADUs attached to multifamily dwelling units and junior ADUs, which are no more than 500 square feet and must be within an existing home. According to Rice, the owner of a junior ADU is required to live either in the primary home or the ADU.
Accessory dwelling units are allowed in all zones except for the Coastal Zone either outright or through a conditional use permit, Rice said. The city can’t impose any parking requirements, including the replacement of off-street parking, and developers aren’t required to put in sidewalk, curb and gutter improvements.
“ADUs cannot be denied due to existing non-conforming conditions such as non-conforming zoning conditions, building code violations or unpermitted structures,” Rice said. “However, that’s only if they do not threaten public health and safety and are not affected by the construction of the ADU.”
According to Rice, local government has control over the rental term of an ADU that doesn’t fall under state exemptions. The city can impose a 30-plus day rental term or leave that up to the owner, she said.
Councilors can also decide if they want separate sewer and water connections, though if someone is converting their garage to an ADU, for example, the city can’t require a separate connection unless the single-family dwelling is new, Rice said.
Rice’s statement that a connection fee for an ADU must be proportionate began a Council discussion over what that meant and who pays it.
Inscore said he’d want to charge a utility connection fee if the ADU is going to be on a separate meter, but he’d want clarification on whether the city can charge for the physical work necessary to bring that service online.
City Manager Eric Wier said there’s a cost, not only to hook a home to a sewer line that hookup fees pay for. They also pay for capacity.
“If you, say, built a separate detached structure and plumbed it onto your existing meter, that’s still taking capacity within the system — the tanks, the line sizes, all of those are figured into that capacity charge,” he said. “It still is an additional usage on the (wastewater) treatment plant, even.”
The cost to connect a home to the city’s sewer system is $9,682, Wier said. Connecting a home to the water system is $2,700, plus the monthly charges of using the system. He noted that the City Council is discussing whether or not to waive the hookup fees, not the monthly charges.
But how that’s charged depends on how that ADU is connected to the sewer and water systems, Rice said. She pointed out that the city doesn’t charge an additional connection fee if someone added a bedroom to their home.
Councilwoman Kelly Schellong said she thought it would be important to determine if the ADU was going to be used as a vacation rental versus a long-term rental.
But the city attorney pointed out they’re both dwelling units.
“In our current structure, I don’t think we would have a way to charge differently between (them),” Rice said.
Rice, pointing out that Crescent City is concluding a water rate study and is expected to begin a sewer rate study soon, said those studies could also include information about the system’s capacity and connection fees.
For James Quick, a resident who’s considering adding an 850-square-foot ADU to his property, he said he wouldn’t mind a separate connection charge for water and sewer.
“That’s the lifetime of that building,” Quick said.
Tamera Leighton, who lives in the Coastal Zone, urged councilors to contribute to the housing stock, not to vacation rentals in the community.
“Finding affordable housing in Crescent City is a real challenge for folks who need it,” she said.
Rice noted that if the City Council does impose a long-term occupancy requirement on ADUs, it doesn’t have to be permanent. The Council could set a 30-plus day occupancy requirement until the city’s regional housing needs allocation is met.
Councilor Jason Greenough, an advocate of “allowing property owners more leeway rather than imposing” regulations, pointed out that even if an ADU was a vacation rental, the city would still benefit from the lodging tax.
“The people are going to be getting a benefit even if we don’t regulate that portion of this,” Greenough said, referring to a potential occupancy requirement. “And we do have some large projects potentially coming down the pipe. This alone is not going to fix our housing problem. This in conjunction with maybe some larger projects will get pretty close.”
According to Crescent City’s 6th Cycle Housing Element, the city is planning for at least 189 living units between 2022 and 2030.
In November, Bob Brown, of SHN Consulting, told councilors that his company had created a draft ordinance regulating ADUs for the city’s consideration in 2021, but the state kept changing the regulations.
Brown urged the City Council to approve an ordinance, stating that otherwise it would be “required to accept the state’s requirement.”
Outside Crescent City limits, Del Norte County will need to accommodate a projected 386 units, according to its 6th Cycle Housing Element. More than 40 percent of those units will need to accommodate low-income individuals and families.
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