Last week, the ACC Commission voted to allow tiny homes in Athens but decided to keep a ban on kitchens in accessory dwelling units (ADUs) out of concern that habitable ADUs would harm the character of single-family neighborhoods.
Tiny Homes
Commissioners voted unanimously to remove a limitation requiring homes to have at least 1,000 square feet of floor area, thereby allowing small cottages and tiny homes in Athens for the first time in several decades. The new rules allow for homes to be as small as the builder wants as long as they meet all the requirements of the international property maintenance code.
The tiny home proposal was one of six recommendations made by the local committee of the Georgia Initiative for Community Housing (GICH). It’s intended to help alleviate the shortage of more affordable housing types in Athens and hopefully contribute in some small way to bringing down the cost of living.
Accessory dwelling units
The tiny home proposal was not controversial and passed with little discussion. The same cannot be said of another recommendation from the GICH committee to allow accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in single-family neighborhoods, including garage apartments and detached “in-law suites.” These small structures are currently legal, as long as they do not have fully functional kitchens that would make them suitable for long-term habitation.
Last month, a large group of homeowners spoke out in bitter opposition to ADUs, with some claiming that single-family neighborhoods across Athens would be “destroyed” if these small dwellings were allowed to have kitchens. Many of the same homeowners also attended Tuesday’s meeting, when they again spoke in opposition.
“It’s time for you to stop the assault on homeowners and our quality of life,” said Michael McLendon, president of the Princeton Mill Homeowners Association.
“You cannot want to be responsible for dissolving single-family neighborhoods,” Ross Watson, Athens homeowner, told commissioners. “Your name will be across this whole country, I can guarantee you that.”
While some did oppose the measure, the vast majority of speakers on Tuesday were in favor of ADUs. These supporters tend to view accessory dwellings as a relatively painless way to improve housing affordability by adding some additional housing density. While some homeowners may oppose them, one backyard cottage in a neighborhood would likely not cause the same kind of traffic, noise or outrage as a large apartment complex, for example.
While those opposed to ADUs make them sound like an unprecedented, existential threat, Athens is not the first community in Georgia to consider allowing accessory dwelling units. In fact, Roswell, Savannah and Columbus have all already legalized ADUs, as has Gainesville, FL, Knoxville, TN and many other places. Before the vote, Mayor Kelly Girtz tried to reassure commissioners that ADUs, if allowed, would not suddenly spring up everywhere across Athens, causing dramatic changes to neighborhood character.
“We’ve got hundreds of case studies across the United States of communities that have accessory dwelling units,” Girtz said before giving one example. “Gainesville legalized accessory dwelling units in 2020…In six years, Gainesville, a very similar community, saw 42 building permits for accessory dwelling units. The lesson is that it’s not going to be the most widely-used tool [but] it’s a tool…which we need, given that we are verifiably, numerically in a housing crisis.”
Commissioners debate and vote
Nevertheless, most commissioners were not thrilled with the idea of allowing backyard cottages and other small dwellings in single-family neighborhoods. Even Commissioner Melissa Link, who is in favor of the idea, felt it was best to send the ordinance back to the planning commission for further refinement. Specifically, she wanted the ordinance to limit ADUs to one bedroom in existing neighborhoods and to require that the owner of the property live on-site. Furthermore, she wanted to require at least one parking space for each ADU in areas that are parking constrained.
“The last thing I want to see is the student housing profiteers take advantage,” Link said. “[But] we’ve got to accommodate our families, our working class community, our lower-income community. I believe in housing options…[These] are the kind of opportunities that can provide affordable housing in our existing neighborhoods without disrupting the neighborhood.”
Commissioner Carol Myers agreed and seconded Link’s motion. “We do need to look at this more carefully. We do need to add some guardrails,” she said.
Yet, most other commissioners were not willing to continue discussing the ordinance. Instead of sending it back to the planning commission, Commissioner Mike Hamby proposed denying ADUs completely out of fear of the impacts they could have on single-family neighborhoods.
“I think there’s a lot of things at play here which we haven’t thought about the consequences of,” Hamby said. “We haven’t thought about the neighborhoods. I don’t want to say the sky is falling, because it may not, but I don’t want to set us up for that.”
The final vote on blocking the ordinance was 7-3, with Link, Myers and Commissioner Patrick Davenport as the only three voting in favor of ADUs.
Even Commissioner Ovita Thornton, who served on the GICH committee and helped to develop this recommendation, voted against it. She expressed doubt that ADUs would actually improve Athens’ housing situation even as she admitted that she intended to build an ADU in her own backyard “with or without a stove,” implying that she might violate Athens’ zoning code willfully.
Beyond ADUs and tiny houses, four recommendations from the GICH committee remain to be considered: allowing townhomes, reducing minimum street frontage requirements, allowing smaller lots to encourage the construction of “starter homes” and eliminating or reducing minimum parking requirements for new construction.
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