ADUS may offer affordable housing option
Concept of these accessory dwelling units is catching on
The two buildings going up on a corner on Linden Lane in Princeton, New Jersey, are part of an experiment. They share a 0.19-acre single-family lot but are entirely separate, except for a shared carport between them.
The larger, a 2,300-squarefoot, four-bedroom house, is listed for $1.295 million. The other one, a 1,400-square-foot, two-bedroom home, is what’s known as an accessory dwelling unit, or ADU. It is listed, on its own, for $849,000, a rarity in an affluent town where the median sale price hovers around $1 million.
“You tell someone that $800,000 is affordable, and they will look at you like you’re crazy,” said the builder, Daniel Barsky, an owner of R.B. Homes. “But in Princeton, it’s affordable, particularly for new construction.”
Barsky and his father, Roman Barsky, are the first builders to take full advantage of Princeton’s relatively new ADU ordinance, one of the most progressive in the region, to create what amounts to affordable housing there. But while this community of roughly 30,000 residents is ahead of the curve, it is not alone: The concept is beginning to catch on elsewhere in the New York metro area. Connecticut passed a law this year allowing ADUS in all single-family zones, and a coalition in New York is working to build support for similar legislation.
ADUS — defined as accessories to an existing home, either as an attached apartment or as a smaller, detached dwelling — are typically rental units. But Princeton has gone a step further in allowing them to be sold separately from the primary residence as condominiums. The town’s ordinance was shaped in part by a lawsuit filed by Marina Rubina, a political activist and the architect who designed the project on Linden Lane.
“We really are the guinea pig” in the New York metro area, said Mia Sacks, a Princeton councilwoman and an advocate of the new ordinance.
Proponents of ADUS say they are a smart way to supply the so-called missing middle price range of housing. They can also generate rental income for
seniors struggling to afford to stay in their homes, and make communities more economically and racially inclusive. That makes them highly suitable for Princeton, where “our zoning has made us a gated community,” Sacks said.
But how well they will fit in remains to be seen. The Linden Lane project is raising a lot of eyebrows. Derek Bridger, the zoning officer, said he has fielded a number of calls from residents wanting to know how it is possible to build two homes on a single lot.
“People were kind of startled by it,” Bridger said, but “the current council is very proactive in trying to establish new housing opportunities. There’s no land left, so it’s challenging.”
The rise of the ADU
Earlier forms of the ADU, known as granny flats or in-law apartments, were relatively common before World War II. But postwar suburban zoning created barriers to such housing in favor of single-family homes. Now ADUS are
again rising in popularity in high-growth, highcost areas like Seattle; Los Angeles; Austin, Texas; and Portland, Oregon, as policymakers loosen zoning constraints to encourage their development.
From a social equity standpoint, ADUS can provide a housing option in neighborhoods that might not otherwise be accessible to lower-income households or people who want to age in place, said Phil Abramson, founder and chief executive of Topology, a professional planning firm in Newark.
But there can be considerable tension around the idea of making a second dwelling a permitted use in a single-family neighborhood, he said: “Then the question is, are we taking away the single-family zoning?”
What’s in the works
In Maplewood, New Jersey, officials found that residents were receptive to the idea of ADUS when an ordinance was proposed last year. The first version
allowed only seniors to create or live in an ADU, said Dean Dafis, deputy mayor. But after social justice advocates objected, saying the opportunity should be open to all, the ordinance was amended.
“We were surprised; we thought this was going to be controversial,” Dafis said. “And then we were sort of blindsided by the interest.”
Connecticut’s new law permits ADUS in all single-family zones as of right — meaning no public hearing or special permit is required to build them. While many Connecticut towns already allowed accessory apartments, Desegregate Connecticut, the housing coalition that proposed the legislation, found that the restrictions varied widely and were often onerous. The new law removes some of the barriers but also includes an opt-out provision: Municipalities may choose not to comply if their zoning commissions and municipal legislative bodies vote accordingly before January 2023.
The legislation proposed in New York would legalize ADUS statewide. It calls for the creation of a lending program to help low- and moderate-income homeowners secure financing to add an ADU or bring an existing unit up to code.
The legislation is still being tweaked, to address concerns around the size of units, parking and other issues, said state Sen. Peter Harckham, a lead sponsor.
In Princeton, council members are already talking about revisiting the terms of their ordinance. Sacks said the ADU on Linden Lane designed by Rubina, while legal under the ordinance, is “larger and more expensive than is ideal for what we would like to accomplish.”
Aging in place
The AARP is a big supporter of ADUS.
“We know from our surveys that well over three-quarters of people over 50 want to age in place at home in their community, but less than half think they will be able to,” said
Danielle Arigoni, director of the AARP’S Livable Communities program. “They don’t see viable housing solutions when they look around them. ADUS are a really elegant solution to diversifying the choices that people have in housing.”
Of course, the cost of building ADUS is another matter. The Federal Housing Finance Agency is weighing updates to its policies to make it easier to finance the construction of ADUS.
At a recent listening session held by the agency, Mike Hernandez, vice president of engagement and impact for Fannie Mae, the mortgage financing giant, said it was working with lenders to lower the cost of mortgages for homes with ADUS; was helping homeowners pay for the construction of ADUS using Homestyle Renovation loans; and was testing the use of cash-out refinancing to pay off second mortgages and construction loans used to finance the building of ADUS.