Property owners looking to add accessory dwelling units in Springfield can expect an expedited process thanks to the city’s ready-build plans.
SPRINGFIELD, Ore. – The City of Springfield will be offering pre-approved plans for accessory dwelling units, helping to expedite the building process while looking to provide more housing in the city.
Someone applying for the plans would still need to buy the materials and do the building or find someone to construct the building. The city would still need to review the actual building site itself. But as City of Springfield Planning Manager Mark Rust said, this makes the entire process much more efficient for those interested applicants.
“So people can bring, if they want to use these plans, they’re already pre-approved,” Rust said. “They don’t have to go through the process of finding another building plan set, and then these move through the process much more smoothly to get a building permit to promote more housing.”
The city is offering pre-approved plans for property owners interested in adding an ADU to their property.
Having ready build plans for ADU’s has been an idea for a while, but Springfield is making that thought a reality.
“The state themselves are exploring this idea of creating a library of pre-approved plans,” Rust said. “But that hasn’t happened yet. So the city thought it was important to do it at our local level to promote housing here in Springfield.”
Property owners looking to take advantage of these new plans can also expect to save some money along the way.
“Some really rough numbers are, that we’ve heard just getting plans to build a house is typically two to 10 percent of a project budget,” Rust said. “So again, so this is a pre-approved plan set that’ll help immediately save that amount of a cost of a project.”
Offering pre-approved plans for ADU’s offers an opportunity for more housing, plus an expedited building process for interested property owners.
Another benefit of these ready build plans is that people looking to build an ADU can expect better customer service from the city.
“What maybe used to take six to eight weeks could now be reduced to just a small fraction of that,” Rust said. “So time in a lot of cases can make or break a project. And with the economy the way it is and interest rates and that sort of thing, people want to move quick when they are ready to make something happen. So having this available will help expedite that and the timelines for sure.”
Julie Sonam is a real estate agent who lives in Springfield. She said she sees the benefits of this form of housing coming to her city, rather than multiple high-rise apartment buildings.
“There’s this nice, small community feel,” she said. “We have a really good thing going here, and I think having — providing housing for one more person is still housing for one more person. So if 100 people build an ADU, that’s 100 more people. And we still maintain the community feel.”
Sonam said in addition to providing more housing for people who need it, these ADU’s can also be beneficial for homeowners who add them.
“I have buyers often say to me, ‘We only want to look at properties that have a mother-in-law suite, or an ADU where we could have an AirBNB, or our son who’s in college can live, or my husband’s mother can live,’” she said. “It’s a very desired thing. And so I think resale on properties with ADU’s is high.”
But outside of owners and renters, businesses in town stand to gain something from more housing as well.
“Even here at the city we’ve tried to hire people that have a hard time finding housing here in the community,” Rust said. “So other businesses around the community, I know the hospital is attracting nurses and doctors and things like that, are needing to have housing and affordable housing that they can move into and that’s ready to occupy. So again, just looking at ways to incentivize more housing units, get them open and available.”
Springfield residents interested in building an ADU on their property can already begin applying.