ADUs. By-Right. Right Here. Right Now.
Fairhaven has the chance to make a small, smart bet. We should take it.
Regular readers of StrongHaven know I’m a big fan of encouraging the growth of accessory dwelling units (ADUs, aka in-laws) as an initial step toward thickening and strengthening our neighborhoods. Over a year ago I put forth a proposal for how to support ADU growth in town. The first step of this proposal was to remove zoning restrictions that make it unnecessarily difficult to build this type of housing.
Thanks to the work of our last planner, Paul DiGiuseppe, and our Planning Board, this first step is up for a vote at Town Meeting tomorrow! Here’s what’s being proposed:
In other words, the Planning Board is proposing that we make ADUs by-right and reducing the minimum lot size for them! They’re also allowing for ADUs to be built in basements, attics, and garages, which are some of the easiest and most common places to build them. Thanks to a state law passed in 2020 to encourage this kind of housing production, this zoning change will only need a majority (as opposed to the usual 2/3) to pass Town Meeting. Despite what opponents insist, it doesn’t change any of the building codes or existing zoning for neighborhoods. It won’t usher in an era of cramped backyard tenements. What it will do is allow homeowners to create housing in a way that thickens our neighborhoods for the benefit of all.
Why Can’t We Bee Friends
I’ve had a lot of conversations with neighbors about this proposal, as well as the idea of thickening our neighborhoods in general. And there are perfectly smart and reasonable people who oppose this loosening of the ADU regs. In the spirit of community and civic debate, I’ll refrain from throwing the “bee” word at them and instead attempt to address a few of their more reasonable concerns as best I can.
One argument that I’ve heard for maintaining the status quo is that requiring homeowners to pursue a special permit for ADUs provides an important safeguard for protecting neighbors against undesirable changes to the neighborhood. Applicants for special permits have to notify abutters of their plans and hold a public hearing, allowing neighbors to give input on how the homeowner plans to update their property. While on its face the requirement for this added process seems reasonable, in practice what it does is make the process for creating ADUs much more lengthy and expensive. In addition to the fees required, the additional burden of completing the required paperwork for special permits adds thousands of dollars of cost, without any guarantee that the homeowner will receive approval.
Note that the special permit process is not the place where the town ensures that the plans for the ADU comply with existing zoning, building, and health regs— those are the purview of the building inspector and other town departments.
Doesn’t the Town Already Approve ADUs Anyway?
Another argument I’ve heard is that the ZBA has approved nearly all of the ADU applications that have come before it in recent years. As I understand it, the logic here is that this high approval rate means that the system works— the applicant pays their fees, waits their turn, and makes some tweaks based on whatever comes up at the hearing. Special permit in hand, they can move forward with the process. But while I’m glad the ZBA isn’t preventing this housing from being built, the fact that all the ADUs eventually get approved probably means this additional hurdle isn’t adding enough value to justify keeping it in place.
In recent years a growing number of states, cities, and towns have legalized ADUs using the same approach our Planning Board is proposing. Here in Massachusetts, the towns of Arlington, Lexington and Newton have all removed restrictions on ADUs to make them by-right. The sky didn’t fall! Last I checked, these towns have not become squalid hellholes.
Bee the Change
As far as the many reasons why we should all be supporting the Planning Board’s ADU proposal, take your pick based on what it is you care about:
Do you want the town to have more revenue that can be used to pay our firefighters, police and teachers? ADUs contribute additional annual revenue without the significant long-term maintenance costs that new cul-de-sacs, greenfield development, or other gimmicks put on the town. This is forever revenue in the form of an increased tax base.
Do you want to live in a diverse community that has people at all stages of life from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds? Integrating different housing types into our existing neighborhoods encourages healthy demographic diversity without concentrating people with low-incomes all in one place.
Perhaps fighting climate change or conserving green space are your passion? Climate activist groups like the Sierra Club support the removal of restrictions on ADUs! Encouraging new housing to be created where housing already exists spares undeveloped green space from sprawl. Likewise, thickening our neighborhoods makes them more livable, walkable, and bikable, reducing car-dependence and its associated contributions to climate change and pollution.
Maybe you don’t buy all that tree-huggy stuff but you do believe in FREEDOM! Freedom for property owners to update their own properties as they see fit. If you want to build an apartment for Vovó to live in the basement, as long as it complies with all the applicable codes, that’s your business! Why should Wall-Street financed developers from Boston and New York be the only ones who are allowed to build things these days! Last I checked, the grandfathered multifamily houses on Green Street haven’t turned my neighborhood into the Combat Zone.
Maybe, like me, you know that the quality of life in our town will actually improve with more neighbors and more thickening. The more neighbors we have in our existing neighborhoods, the more viable different types of businesses become. Sick of drive-thru’s being the only new businesses in town? Stop feeding the stroad by preventing the natural growth of our existing neighborhoods.
If enough people move in, your town may finally get that Trader Joe’s store you’ve been hoping for. — Daniel Herriges and Charles Marohn, Escaping the Housing Trap
Don’t Pull Up the Ladder
Regardless of where you live now, chances are either you or your recent ancestors relied on starter housing to get a foothold toward a better life. Prohibitions on creating this type of housing locally are a relatively recent phenomenon. It’s worth remembering that most of the beautiful neighborhoods that many in our town would prefer to freeze in time were created by many hands, through a process of trial and error and small bets. This process of growing neighborhoods was subsequently outlawed by those who believed the future lay in creating exclusive bedroom communities designed to make it easy for people (mostly men) to commute by car into the city. I don’t think this is still the vision that the opponents of ADUs and other forms of incremental housing endorse. Most of them are just afraid of loss— that any loosening of restrictions will mean a deterioration of their neighborhoods. All the more reason, then, to proceed humbly, our eyes wide open.
Let’s pass this proposal and see what happens. We know it’s not going to have an outsized impact in either direction in the near term, which means, just as other places have done, we can observe how it’s working and tweak it to make it work better in the future. In the recent past, the approach has been “let’s wait to hire a consultant and draft a lengthy plan to overhaul everything.” That’s how we got our last two Master Plans, both of which advocated thickening our existing neighborhoods. While these plans sleep soundly in their binders, our existing neighborhoods remain encased in amber while drive-thrus continue to be proliferate along the stroads. Large bets on permanent, inflexible solutions gave us the suburban experiment and its accompanying issues related to quality of life and municipal insolvency. The Planning Board is presenting us with a proposal that’s safe to try and that has a good chance of making Fairhaven stronger. For the sake of all of those who would benefit in our community, let’s not miss this chance to move forward. Our ancestors will be proud!