After months of deliberations and a new state law taking effect, Newton’s Zoning and Planning Committee has approved an accessory dwelling unit ordinance for the city.

ADUs have been allowed in Newton since the 1980s, but not many have been built. And the city had no choice but to revise its ADU ordinance after Gov. Maura Healey signed the biggest housing bill in the state’s history a few months ago, with that law—which took effect Feb. 2—prohibiting certain zoning restrictions for ADUs.

For a couple of months now, the Zoning and Planning Committee has debated whether or not to stick with state mandated updates to Newton’s ADU rules or go beyond that, with even more allowances, as suggested with a series of amendments proposed by Susan Albright. At a subsequent public hearing, many residents expressed support for those amendments and an eagerness for ADUs in general.

The result is an ordinance, approved Monday night by a vote of 5 to 1 (Chair Lisle Baker was the lone “no” vote, and Albright and Councilor Vicki Danberg abstained) that keeps some factors as the state requires them but increases allowances in other ways.

To summarize, with the proposed ordinance:

• allows new internal ADUs of up to 1,000 square feet by-right and existing converted ADUs of up to 1,200 square feet by-right.
• allows new detached ADUs of up to 1,000 square feet by-right and existing converted ADUs of up to 1,200 square feet by-right.
• allows detached ADUs of up to 1,500 square feet of floor space with a special permit.
• has no screening requirement, but a need for screening can be determined by special permit.
• has no owner occupancy requirements for existing converted ADUs.
• has no owner occupancy requirements for internal ADUs or detached ADUs with less than 1,000 square feet of floor space and allows the permitting authority to impose owner occupancy requirements on larger ADUs if deemed appropriate.
• allows historic carriage house conversions and removes the 15-foot buffer that used to be imposed with them.

The ADU ordinance will now head to the full City Council for a vote.

Internal vs. detached

An internal ADU is an addition to a larger home, existing as a home itself. Many call it an “in-law apartment” because traditionally, that’s where you move the parents-in-law who might come to live with you.

The proposed ordinance sets the by-right (no special permit required) floor space limit at 1,000 square feet. This is an increase from the city’s existing 900-square-foot limit.

The existing home in which the ADU is being added must have a Certificate of Occupancy at least four years old at the time of ADU application in order to go up to 1,200 feet with the ADU, to prevent people from building multi-family homes and calling part of them ADUs to build them by-right.

Newer homes are allowed internal ADUs of up to 1,000 square feet, and a special permit would be needed to increase that to 1,200 square feet.

It should be noted that these internal ADUs must be part of the main home already, so building an addition to a house for an ADU would require a special permit.

A detached ADU, in contrast to the internal kind, is like a guest house, but with people living in it permanently.

The proposed ordinance allows a detached ADU of up to 1,000 square feet by-right, with up to 1,200 square feet allowed with a special permit on lots with existing homes (at least four years old, like with internal ADUs) and 1,000 square feet where the main home is new.

Existing structures converted into detached ADUs (garages, carriage houses and the like) may be up to 1,200 square feet. That structure must be at least four years old, based when the final permits were signed for it.

And those existing structures will still have to conform to dimensional requirements—height, setbacks, floor area ratios—laid out in the city’s zoning ordinance their zoning districts.

To screen or not to screen

To both open up ADU opportunities for more properties and address a concern about noise and privacy, Albright proposed changing the language of the ordinance to allow detached 1,200 square ADUs feet by-right for existing structures if proper screening is installed. And “screening” refers to a dense planting of shrubbery or trees that create a wall between the ADU and the property line.

The screening of shrubs or trees would have to be at least 3.5 feet tall.

Alternately, screening can be a fence or a wall at least six feet tall and with no more of it 50 percent open.

“This is language that we actually proposed a couple of years ago, when we were previously looking at ADUs and talking about whether or not to reduce the setbacks,” Deputy Planning Director Jen Caira said at Monday’s meeting. “We had put forward some language around screening if those setbacks were reduced.”

Some on the committee said they were concerned with allowing any detached ADU more than 900 square feet without screening, but the Planning Department’s Zachery LeMel cautioned against blanket requirements when properties vary so much.

“The adjacent property might have a fence, and then there might be a five-foot kind of nothing between where this space is and the ADU is, and you’re requiring them to put plantings that are just going to fit,” LeMel said. “Or you’re requiring them to put a fence next to another fence.”

LeMel added that since people living in ADUs also want privacy, the property owners would likely put up screening when appropriate.

Since it’s impossible to articulate all the scenarios in which a screening mandate would be appropriate or overkill, the committee decided to leave screening as a consideration for special permitting and not include it specifically in the ordinance.

Design standards and carriage houses

The city’s design standards for by-right ADUs must go, according to the new state law. So, no more having to build an ADU that matches the aesthetic of the main home on the lot or neighborhood.

Instead, design review will be part of the special permit process for ADUs that go beyond by-right features. The committee didn’t want to get into architecture requirements, so the new language states that the Council can require the ADU “complement” the main home on the lot.

“I think this is broad enough to really be thinking about how the ADU fits in with the principal dwelling, but not tying the Council’s hands in having to require the same architectural style for the ADU, which is often not typical,” Caira explained.

The proposed ordinance allows property owners to convert historic carriage houses in historic districts into ADUs and removes the 15-foot requirement between the existing historic carriage house and neighboring homes. This is aimed at increasing the potential for historic carriage house conversions.

“They still would have to go to the Historical Commission to be deemed historically significant, and then any changes to the exterior would have to be reviewed by either the Newton Historical Commission if its outside a district or a local historical commission if it’s within a district,” Caira said.

Owner occupancy

The city’s current ordinance requires owner occupancy, meaning the property owner must either live in the main home or the ADU. The new state law prohibits owner occupancy requirements for by-right ADUs, so the city’s ordinance must change.

The debate for that focused on what size to use as a threshold for owner occupancy requirement for new construction. The committee landed on ADUs between 1,000 and 1,200 square feet.

Councilor Julia Malakie said that whether an ADU is new or existing, the potential for trouble is still there.

“The idea of owner occupancy, to me, is that the person who owns the property kind of has skin in the game,” she said. “If the people they’re renting to are totally obnoxious, it’s their problem too. It’s not just the neighbors’ problem.”

Councilor Rena Getz suggested the owner occupancy requirement be added as a consideration, not a standard requirement, for the Land Use Committee to consider imposing during a special permit process. That makes it a case-by-case thing.

You can watch the entire Zoning and Planning Committee meeting on NewTV’s Youtube channel.