Bradenton
Manatee County staff are going back to the drawing board to craft new Accessory Dwellings Unit (ADU) guidelines after the Board of County Commissioners said their presentation left them with too many questions.
The changes are meant to create cheaper housing options throughout the county, but critics and commissioners say it could “devastate” existing communities. The debate lasted for hours during a meeting earlier this month, and invited a slew of public comment.
According to the vast majority of residents who showed up, the secondary units would only cause headaches in terms of parking, noise and neighborhood sewer capacity.
“ADUs have a place, but not in my backyard,” said Sarasota realtor Marnie Matarese.
What is an ADU?
The concept of ADUs is something the county has been building toward for some time. They are defined as “attached or detached residential dwelling units with cooking and bathroom facilities,” and are “subordinate and separate from the primary residence.”
The push to incorporate ADUs in the county’s Land Development Code would replace a form of secondary structure that is already allowed today. In unincorporated parts of the Manatee, residents are currently allowed to build guest houses.
Guest houses are not allowed to feature bathrooms or kitchens, and are meant to accommodate friends or family during a short visit. Commissioner Carol Whitmore noted that most people don’t use them that way, though.
Staff noted that the biggest downside of guest houses is their square footage restriction — or the lack thereof.
According to county code, guest houses can be pretty large. As long as it fits on the lot and meets setback requirements, a guest house can be built to be just one square foot smaller than the the primary residence.
How big should an ADU be?
ADUs on the other hand are more restrictive in terms of size. The county hoped to approve a code amendment that would allow for an ADU to be 80 percent of the size of a primary dwelling or 1,000 square feet, whichever happens to be smaller.
By county staff’s proposal, any primary residence 1,250 square feet or more would be entitled to an ADU of up to 1,000 square feet. Some commissioners said 1,000 square feet was too high of a maximum size.
“I think the size should be smaller, maybe 600 to 700 square feet,” Whitmore said.
According to county staff, ADUs can be built as structures that are either attached to the primary residence and have their own entrance, above a garage or as freestanding buildings in the backyard.
But Commissioner Misty Servia, who represents a part of the county where residents been especially critical of the issue, said the adoption of ADUs to the county code could transform neighborhoods that buyers believed would remain made up of single-family units.
“We’ve got to protect what we have before we start doing other things with other ideas,” said Servia.
“When people buy into single-family neighborhoods, they know what they’re getting, so you’ve got to be careful when you change it,” Commissioner Betsy Benac added.
Officials weigh the pros and cons
Residents of the Whitfield-Ballentine and Bayshore Gardens neighborhoods urged commissioners to consider exempting their neighborhoods from the county code amendment. Sarasota County took a similar route, by not allowing ADUs within subdivisions created before 2003.
Assistant County Attorney Sarah Schenk warned board members that if they were to pass the amendment in a broad form, it may render some structures in those neighborhoods as nonconforming.
Commissioner Vanessa Baugh saw potential for ADU homes to alleviate some housing stock issues, and suggested that the board find compromise with concerned neighbors.
“This is a situation that could be very helpful to some families in Manatee County, and I don’t want to hinder the families that really could use this,” she said. “We need to be a little bit open to this.”
Whitmore said she could see a trend of homeowners hopping on this train to capitalize on rental income. Such a move, she said would turn regular homes into duplexes.
A ‘drastic’ change to neighborhood character
Josh Dan, who gave the ADU presentation, tried to put the concern in perspective, noting that only 87 guest houses have been approved in the past 10 years, compared to the 2,900 single-family homes that the board has approved in the past year. It’s not a cheap venture either, he explained. It costs about $130 per square foot to build in Manatee County.
But one after another, residents lined up to voice their disapproval of the proposed code amendment. Servia’s 7-member District 4 Citizens Coalition On Growth committee also submitted a letter to the board.
“This ordinance will drastically change the character of single-family neighborhoods to 2-family neighborhoods, similar to duplexes,” they wrote in a June 19 letter.
One of the most popular concerns was the county’s inability to regulate homeowners who may decide to turn an ADU into a short-term rental. State law precludes commissioners from doing so.
Neighbors claimed that Airbnb rentals in their neighborhood already contribute unwanted traffic and noise, and predicted the adoption of ADU rules into the code would only make matters worse.
“While conditions were put into the ordinance, over time these will be abused, and what you’re going to have is uncontrolled rentals,” said Whitfield resident Robert Wise.
Critics also objected to county staff’s controversial decision to remove any parking space requirement if the ADU is located within half a mile of a bus stop. ADUs should be forced to include parking spaces, they argued, to prevent front yards from turning into parking lots.
‘A step in the right direction’
While the larger crowd spoke against ADUs, others saw the ways it could solve problems. Max Brandow, the government affairs director for the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee, sent a letter supporting the amendment.
“We believe ADUs can be an excellent way to provide affordable housing in Manatee County,” he wrote. “No, ADUs won’t completely solve the affordable housing issue, but it is a step in the right direction.”
One Whitfield neighbor, John Hettler, said he supported ADUs, as well, and had considered it as an option to house his 82-year-old father.
“I understand the concern of 1,000 square feet, but question if that would really be the typical size,” Hettler said.
The mandatory setback requirements would prevent many Whitfield residents from building an ADU that large. Building and Development Services Director John Barnott pointed out that 1,000 square-foot ADUs would “fit nicely” in the larger lots found in other parts of the county.
Big questions remain
The biggest question mark around the ADU proposal was how Code Enforcement would regulate these properties. The department is already undermanned, and the addition of ADUs raised the question of how officers could access the smaller unit for regulation.
According to Code Enforcement Chief Jeff Bowman, his officers aren’t allowed to enter anyone’s yard and are prohibited from turning to creative solutions like drones to inspect property.
Commissioners agreed that they weren’t comfortable moving forward with the amendment as written. Servia proposed a pilot program featuring smaller ADUs — around 400 to 500 square feet — that would include parking spots.
“I think this ordinance is dead on arrival at this point,” said Commissioner Stephen Jonsson. “We obviously need to do a lot more work.”
The board voted to have staff rework the ordinance following a work session and more input from commissioners.