Board of Alders approves ordinance to let owner-occupants add apartments to homes

NEW HAVEN — City residents with homes a little larger than they need, as well as those in search of affordable apartments, may eventually see more options under newly-approved legislation that makes it easier for owneroccupants to convert attics, basements or garages to “accessory dwelling units.”

The owners of single-, two- and three-family houses who live on-site now will be able to create accessory dwelling units, sometimes called “in-law apartments,” as of right, without first going before the Board of Zoning Appeals — and without having to add parking spaces.

The Board of Alders recently unanimously approved the zoning text amendment ordinance, originally recommended by the city’s Affordable Housing Task Force and approved by the City Plan Commission in late July. It did so after also approving a last-minute amendment proposed by East Rock Alder Charles Decker, D-9, limiting ADUs to owneroccupied buildings.

The original legislation would have allowed ADUs in buildings inhabited by members of the owners’ extended families. Under the approved ordinance, the property owner may live either in the principal dwelling or the ADU, said Decker, the Legislation Committee chairman, who presented the ordinance.

The change, which Decker said “will level the playing field,” also reduces the minimum lot size in residential zones across the city to 4,000 square feet.

“We will never solve (the city’s) affordable housing crisis if the only new units that are being built are in luxury high-rise developments downtown or luxury condos in East Rock,” Decker said.

Steve Fontana, the city’s deputy director of economic development, noted in late July that at that time there were 791 units of market-rate multifamily housing under construction in the city.

Alder Eli Sabin, D-1, was the only alder who opposed the amendment requiring owner-occupancy, which aimed to make it harder for “megalandlords” to take advantage of the change, saying he thought increasing affordable housing in the city “was more important than those concerns.”

Sabin, who pointed out that studies show that 40 percent of residents “are ‘rent-burdened,’” said he thought the requirement that a member of the owner’s family live in one of the units “is sufficient” to ward off mega-landlords..

Board of Alders Majority Leader Richard Furlow, D-27, said the new ordinance would allow residents to add apartments in their homes “without going through the excessive measures” of going to the City Plan Commission or the BZA.

Alder Kimberly Edwards, D-19, agreed.

“We need this ordinance,” she said.

City Plan Director Aicha Woods said after the vote that she was “very happy” to see the alders approve the change.

Woods said she was “not concerned” about the amendment requiring owner occupancy, calling it a small change. “We were trying to keep some flexibility in there” by allowing family members of owners to be the occupants, she said.

The change is important because “it helps to preserve homeownership” by allowing homeowners who might have a little too much house at this point in their lives to add some additional income that might help keep them in their house longer.

It also “keeps local dollars invested in local properties,” Woods said.

She said she does not expect to see any “overnight impact” from people wanting to create ADUs in their houses.

An “inclusionary zoning” proposal that would require that affordable housing be embedded in new market-rate housing proposals and substantial rehabs in the city’s core — and offer incentives to help make it happen — is expected to come before the Board of Alders this fall.

John Boyd, whose Princeton, N.J.-based company evaluates locations for many of the nation’s corporations has said a criteria that companies use in assessing where to locate their businesses is adequate housing for workers.