ADU’s in tight cities

Thames Street, the best-known retail strip in Newport. (Photo by Kenneth C. Zirkel)

Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

Tight little Newport, R.I.  and many other places, seek to address the housing shortage and cost by encouraging the construction of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) on owner-occupied residential property. This housing is generally supposed to be primarily for elderly and/or disabled people,  and in The City by the Sea would  be limited to one-bedroom and studio units of no more than 900 square feet and two-bedroom units at 1,200 square feet.

Certainly creating more space for the elderly, the fastest-growing part of the population, is a fine idea! Rhode Island is ranked as eleventh among the states in its percentage of people 65 and over.   We’ll see if many much younger people end up living in the ADU’s, whatever the laws. Meanwhile, using them for short-term rentals – a temptation in mega summer resort city Newport – is banned. All this will be tough to monitor.

Then there’s the always tricky parking issue. While the new rules say that no additional parking would be required for a new ADU,  currently required parking removed as part of building an ADU would have to be replaced.

I’ll be curious to see if many people without cars move into the ADU’s, opting to rely on bikes, Uber and Lyft, and public transit instead. Maybe many of them will be young adults.

In any event, increasing the supply of housing is essential, but tough. Too many people oppose greater density, even as the population swells. They want wide-open spaces in their neighborhoods.