With no Lowell City Council meeting last Tuesday due to the every-other-week summer schedule, there’s not much new to report this Sunday. When the Council returns to action this coming Tuesday, it will resume the public hearing on Accessory Dwelling Units that was continued when the 10pm meeting deadline was reached two weeks ago.
We need to remember that ADU's would only be allowed to be built on owner-occupied single-family properties. This would preclude many ADUs from happening in parts of South Lowell and Lower Centralville. These dense neighborhoods tend to have lower incomes than our more wealthy suburban neighborhoods. Since ADU construction is market rate I'm going go out on a limb and predict most ADUs will be built in our leafy outer neighborhoods. If each district can only have 5 built per year, presumably on different streets, your concern about parking is overstated. Moreover, trying to limit ADUs to certain neighborhoods could be seen as discriminatory to lower income homeowners. C Drinkwater made a great point a couple weeks ago saying "show me horror stories about ADUs in other communities" - they can't be found.
We need to remember that ADU's would only be allowed to be built on owner-occupied single-family properties. This would preclude many ADUs from happening in parts of South Lowell and Lower Centralville. These dense neighborhoods tend to have lower incomes than our more wealthy suburban neighborhoods. Since ADU construction is market rate I'm going go out on a limb and predict most ADUs will be built in our leafy outer neighborhoods. If each district can only have 5 built per year, presumably on different streets, your concern about parking is overstated. Moreover, trying to limit ADUs to certain neighborhoods could be seen as discriminatory to lower income homeowners. C Drinkwater made a great point a couple weeks ago saying "show me horror stories about ADUs in other communities" - they can't be found.
Great report