ADUs (A.K.A Accessory Dwelling Units or known as mother-in-law cottages) are growing in popularity in Seattle, thanks to a new pilot program that now makes them legal in the city limits.
“What was once a pilot program has turned into a citywide push.
By Nancy Chaney
Special to The Seattle Times
ERIKA SCHULTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Sean McClintock is putting the finishing touches on his backyard cottage, seen behind his small main house.
Disappointed that the city didn’t allow construction of second homes on single-family lots in their neighborhood at that time, Lalley and Rude watched and waited.
Then, in late 2009, the Seattle City Council adopted legislation allowing smaller second homes, so-called “backyard cottages,” to be built citywide.
With a design by architect Craig Anderson and contractor Haack Brothers Construction, Lalley and Rude immediately set about bulldozing the old detached garage behind Lalley’s home and building a backyard cottage.
Anderson worked within the law’s size restrictions to design a two-bedroom, one-level home with vaulted ceilings that lend a feeling of spaciousness. Rude moved into the cottage last year.
“I love it. I love that I was able to create it myself,” Rude said of her home. “It’s just a little small.”
“It’s a beautiful home,” said Lalley, of the cottage that sits in back of her original 1934 house, which she’s owned for nearly 38 years. The two houses share similar architecture and matching paint colors.
“It just kind of flows,” Lalley said of the two homes together. “It doesn’t stand out like a sore thumb.”
Pilot program takes off
Seeking to promote both affordable housing and a gentle, scarcely visible increase in density in single-family neighborhoods, the City Council in 2006 decided to allow what are officially called “detached accessory dwelling units” in a limited part of the city.
This pilot program in Southeast Seattle allowed backyard cottages only east of Interstate 5 and south of Interstate 90. The program proved satisfactory to the City Council and it made construction of backyard cottages legal throughout the city in December 2009.
“Council hoped to create a new affordable-housing option, but to also give homeowners an opportunity to supplement their income or allow a parent or relative to move back home,” said Councilmember Sally Clark, who led the push for the new law.
Now, nearly two years in, she said, “We’re clearly meeting those goals.”
The city’s backyard-cottage legislation includes a number of restrictions: Cottages can be no larger than 800 square feet, including any garage or storage area, and the property owner must live in either the main house or cottage.
The lot must be in a single-family residence zone and be at least 4,000 square feet in size. As is required for all single-family houses in Seattle, the total area of built structures can cover no more than 35 percent of the lot, and at least one off-street parking place must be available to the occupants of the original home, plus at least one more dedicated for the cottage residents.
Basements are allowed, and any area at least 4 feet below grade doesn’t count toward the 800-square-foot size limit.
Additional restrictions apply and to assist homeowners in considering construction of a backyard cottage, the city of Seattle, the city’s Planning Commission, and the Department of Planning and Development have published a 54-page “Guide to Building a Backyard Cottage.” The document is available online atwww.seattle.govand search for “Backyard cottages: overview.”
While the technical term for a backyard cottage is detached accessory dwelling unit, or DADU, its attached counterpart is widely known as a mother-in-law apartment, and technically called an accessory dwelling unit or ADU.
ADUs have been allowed in Seattle since 1994, and to be legal, they must conform to certain requirements including being attached to or within the main house.
Before current regulations, families and homeowners built mother-in-law apartments and backyard cottages for the same reasons the City Council promoted the current backyard-cottage legislation: to allow extended families to stay together and to create affordable housing.
Converting a garage
Architect Sheri Newbold owns a home in Seattle’s Greenwood neighborhood and was an early supporter of the backyard-cottage legislation. She and her boyfriend are in the process of converting a 1950s detached garage into a backyard cottage.
“On a tight budget,” Newbold said, explaining that she designed the cottage herself, and that her boyfriend has provided much of the muscle for their ongoing, primarily do-it-yourself project.
“I designed it with accessibility in mind,” she said of the cottage, meaning wider doorways and a flat entry, among other features.
“The cottage will be completely open inside,” she said, “so someone with limited mobility can move through it easily without barriers.” Newbold can foresee a time when an aging parent might live in the cottage to be close to family.
She also wanted to build a backyard cottage because she believes in creating more population density in the city and because she likes the potential for rental income a cottage provides.
In other words, Newbold’s plans for her cottage fall right in line with those the city intended.”
Seattle Times desk editor Bill Kossen contributed to this report.
Read the whole article here.
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