PHOTO: Design for detached accessory dwelling unit. Courtesy NewtonADU
Maura Healey signed the biggest housing bond bill in Massachusetts history in August to address the state’s housing shortage crisis, and that bill included a mandate for communities to allow accessory dwelling units.
And now Newton has to ensure its zoning ordinance complies with that new state law.
ADUs are typically either an in-law apartment added to a house or a separate smaller structure apart from the house (like a guest house).
Newton has allowed ADUs since 1987, but they’ve been allowed with special permitting. Newton has its own restrictions and allowances for them, but the new state law will supersede that as of Feb. 1.
At its most recent meeting, the Zoning and Planning Committee had planned to iron out the differences between state and local mandates on ADUs, but members instead opted to hold off until their next meeting so that the Planning Department can have more time to present their recommendations.
“We’re not proposing anything beyond what is required,” Deputy Planning Director Jennifer Caira said. “We just applied it across the board.”
Planning staff will meet again with the committee in January, and the committee is expected to hold a public hearing on ADU zoning as well, before the City Council codifies it.
The new state law requires communities to allow ADUs by-right (not needing special permitting) in all areas zoned for single-family homes.
Newton already allows ADUs—up to 1,000 square feet of floor space for additions and 900 square feet of floor space for detached guest houses—in the city’s single-family and multifamily zoned areas.
With the new state law, Newton’s Planning Department is recommending the City Council remove the city’s requirement that the owner live on-site wherever there is an ADU. The state law prohibits that requirement.
There are also rules about how ADU size and area are calculated as well as certain design restrictions in the city zoning code that aren’t allowed by the new state law.
Committee Chair Lisle Baker said he’d like to get to the ADU at their first meeting in January. The choice comes down to whether the city wants to align all ADU zoning with the state law or just ADUs of a certain size, as the law requires, while maintaining local restrictions where allowed.
“Whether we do anything or not, the statute and regulations will be in effect as of Feb. 2,” Caira emphasized.