Ithaca Common Council is considering a new ordinance to ease restrictions on building accessory dwelling units (ADUs) as part of its effort to address the city’s housing crisis through increasing housing supply. Currently, the city’s zoning ordinance includes significant hurdles for residents that want to construct ADUs, including an owner occupancy requirement and a stipulation that detached ADUs must meet double the minimum lot area requirement.
During a recent council meeting, staff members presented the proposed changes to ADU regulations, highlighting the potential benefits of ADUs for increasing housing stock and providing financial relief for homeowners. According to Environmental Landscape Planner Nikkie Cerra, “ADUs are smaller secondary units located on a lot with a primary dwelling…They can be attached, like a basement or garage conversion, or detached, like a carriage house.”
Ithaca’s Deputy Director of Planning, Megan Wilson, provided the Common Council with insight into the city’s current regulations, stating, “Our zoning ordinance does not specifically define an ADU.” Wilson added, “To receive a special permit, the unit must be less than 33% of the footprint of the building and the property must be owner-occupied” She noted that these barriers often deter residents from building an ADU on their property.
The proposed ordinance aims to eliminate the owner-occupancy requirement and reduce the minimum lot area requirement, making it more feasible for residents to build ADUs. “We want to remove barriers that are in place now,” Wilson said. “Opening up ADUs to all residential properties, regardless of ownership status, could significantly increase our housing stock.”
According to Cerra, “Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington all started with owner occupancy and then quickly realized that enough ADU’s were not being developed.”
Second Ward Alderperson Ducson Nguyen spoke in favor of eliminating the owner occupancy requirement, saying,“There are other cities and communities that started with owner occupancy requirements and then later repealed them because they realized that not enough ADU’s were getting built.” He added, “I’m supportive of reducing barriers to doing that, especially when it’s something that for the most part is pretty non controversial.”
Mayor Robert Cantelmo has underscored the urgency of the housing crisis in Ithaca and the need for innovative solutions like ADUs. “This is a crucial step in addressing our housing shortage and ensuring we provide more options for residents.”
However, there are also concerns about the impact of ADUs on gentrification and affordability. Alderperson Phoebe Brown raised concerns about the likelihood of ADUs not being made available at affordable prices.
“They are not going to be charging affordable prices [because] they have to get back what they [spent to build the ADU],” Brown said. She added, “[ADU’s] are going to help people who probably can afford housing anywhere.” According to Brown, claiming that ADU’s would help low-income Ithacans access affordable housing is equivalent to “false advertising.”
Alderperson Pierre Saint-Perez expressed a cautious approach, emphasizing the need for guardrails to protect against unintended consequences. “We must ensure that our ADU policy does not lead to the gentrification of our neighborhoods,” he said. “I’m concerned about the potential for landlords to take advantage of this without providing affordable housing.”
Alderperson Tiffany Kumar highlighted the importance of designing a policy that benefits the most at-risk and marginalized communities. “We need to be very purposeful in how we implement this policy to ensure it benefits those who need it most,” Kumar said.
As the council continues to debate the proposed ordinance, Mayor Cantelmo emphasized the importance of community input and further research. “We need to ensure that our ADU policy is well-informed and considers the needs and concerns of all our residents,” he said.
The council plans to conduct additional research and gather input from the community before making a final decision on the ordinance. The goal is to create a policy that increases housing availability while protecting against gentrification and ensuring affordability.
In response to the concerns around affordability, Wilson said “ADU’s are often small, but that does not mean they are affordable. They can be expensive to construct.” Wilson continued saying that “a lot of ADU development will cater to middle incomes or even above,” but that it does add more housing units to the market at a missing middle price point.
According to Wilson, “There are other ways to get some more affordability for ADU’s, and we’ll look at other communities to see how they’re doing that.”
Regarding the issue of affordability, Third Ward Alderperson David Shapiro asked if it was possible to incentivize residents to build ADU’s and make them available at affordable prices through providing them with tax breaks. “With all the tax abatements and all the housing development funds and things like that, I wondered if homeowners or property owners can have those same kinds of benefits afforded to them if they were willing to build an affordable accessory dwelling unit?”
Several members of the Common Council expressed interest in extending tax incentives to residents who build ADU’s. However, Mayor Cantelmo said that before Ithaca can provide tax incentives, the New York State Legislature must pass legislation that authorizes municipalities to provide such tax incentives — which is unlikely to happen anytime soon.