Richmond wants to make it easier to add accessory dwelling units

By the end of the month it could get a lot easier to build a carriage house, granny flat, or in-law suite in Virginia’s capital. Two weeks ago, Richmond’s Department of Planning and Development Review released their proposed ordinance to liberalize the city’s permitting of accessory dwelling units. Whereas adding a supplemental housing unit today can be an onerous, expensive, and often impossible task, come August such additions could be by-right.

Richmond’s move mirrors several other cities and states which have relaxed regulations barring such smaller units and added tens of thousands of new homes to their housing stock.

Straightforward standards

Should the city council not make any changes to the proposal, Richmonders could soon be able to build ADUs in any residential zone that allows single-family housing. Since the city abolished mandatory parking minimums a few months ago, any new basement apartment or backyard cottage will be equally exempt from the arduous requirement to provide on-site parking.

Historic district standards will still apply; however, ADUs that result from new construction will only have to appear aesthetically coherent and need not source old bricks or unusually shaped or sized windows to conform. ADUs themselves will be limited to one story in height, but any floors above or below them do not count towards that limit, so units built over a garage or in a basement, for example, are completely in compliance.

ADUs have long been technically legal in Richmond; however, the need for endless waivers, permits, and a vote by City Council has meant that very few have actually been added to the city’s housing stock. The simplicity of the proposed rules gives Stewart Schwartz — the president of the Partnership for Smarter Growth — hope that new supplemental homes will finally get built in Richmond’s dense, walkable neighborhoods this time around.

“In an urban environment we need to prioritize housing for people over parking for cars,” he said. “Ideally the standards [for ADUs] should be flexible enough that if you meet them you do not need a special use permit. We don’t want to encourage further leapfrog development of farms and forests in far out places that have high transportation costs.”

Richmond’s recently formed Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY) movement is also cheering the proposed changes to streamline standards and move approvals for ADUs from needing a vote of the full City Council to simply requiring planning department staff approval.

🏘️ ADUs add new homes in existing neighborhoods.
📜 Building one today requires City Council approval.
✂️ Let's cut the red tape and move to staff approval.
✅ Sign the petition. Support by-right ADUs.https://t.co/u3d3BISf41

— RVA YIMBY (@RVA_YIMBY) July 5, 2023

The proposed ADU ordinance even has the support of Councilmember Katherine Jordan of the 2nd District who represents The Fan, the VCU campus, and Scott’s Addition — key areas of the city with high demand for smaller housing units to support seniors as well as students.

“Allowing ADUs by-right in residential areas of our City is a proven strategy for expanding both affordable housing options, and helping homeowners supplement their incomes, withstand increasing costs of living, and age in place,” she said in an email. “I believe the draft achieves those goals, while incorporating community feedback about the desire to ensure ADUs fit into the fabric of neighborhoods.”

Short-term rental, long-term controversy

Of the three zoning changes administration officials teased last year — eliminating mandatory parking minimums, revising short-term rental regulations, and permitting ADUs by-right, the latter proved by far the least controversial. The proposal to loosen Richmond’s short-term rental owner-occupancy requirement which mandates hosts live in the units they offer on sites like Airbnb at least 185 days each year has, in contrast, unleashed a maelstrom of opposition.

At a recent informational meeting Councilmember Jordan hosted for her constituents, comments approving of streamlining ADU standards quickly turned to questions about how the ordinance could interplay with the administration’s push to make it easier to own and operate short-term rentals.

Planning director Kevin Vonck explained his department’s desire to approve the new ADU ordinance first since that proposal received overwhelming support from Richmond residents during his team’s extensive outreach process. Several attendees, however, called for an outright ban on ADUs being used for short-term rentals so that the new units boost the city’s housing stock and don’t just become tourist accommodations.

In response to such constituent concerns Councilmember Jordan has requested that the ADU ordinance be pushed back to the Planning Commission’s September meeting so that Richmond residents will be able to consider the administration’s short-term rental proposal (anticipated to be introduced on July 24) before a vote on ADUs.

“Residents overwhelmingly support ADUs, but not if it results in a proliferation of short-term rentals,” Jordan said. “This is a proposal that has broad support, furthers our housing goals, and incorporates community feedback. That said, I would like to see the short-term rental vote happen first to ensure we’re adding long term housing opportunities, not just opening the door for even more short-term rentals.”

Should her request to postpone the ADU proposal not be accommodated, the policy change will come before the Planning Commission on the 17th and the full city council on the 24th.

If short-term rentals are ruled out as possible uses for ADUs, they could make a small but meaningful difference towards addressing the Richmond region’s housing shortage. Such smaller, supplemental housing units aren’t frequently called “granny flats” or “in-law suites” for nothing, according to Joh Gehlbach of the Richmond Association of Realtors.

“In our current market, we are seeing seniors age in place in overlarge homes where they are not using all four bedrooms and all three bathrooms,” they explained. “Seniors are just sitting in the housing stock that would be starter homes for younger generations.”

Many older Americans today would gladly leave huge houses in favor of smaller, affordable units, but currently carriage houses and backyard cottages are few and far between. It doesn’t have to stay that way.

“ADUs are not a silver bullet for the housing crisis, but they are low hanging fruit,” Gehlbach explained. “We are seeing a real shift to multigenerational living, and ADUs could play a role in helping aging consumers downsize and support changing consumer preferences towards grandparents, parents, and kids comfortably living on the same parcel.”