After hearing the proposal, council has voted to get a new draft of the rules and regulations of Accessory Dwelling Units. ADUs are secondary housing units that share a lot with the larger primary home.
Council says they have received thousands of comments all having mixed feelings on the subject.
The current draft proposes to allow all single-family homes in allowed zoning districts to add a guest home as an option.
However, each home must meet certain requirements, requirements that council members don't agree with or need more elaborating. Some of them are the property size must be at least nine-thousand square feet.
"Nine thousand is probably a little bit too big," said Council Member Kathleen Taylor. "I don't know what the right one is, but based on the planning commission recommendations, what I've heard from public comment, maybe somewhere around six or seven thousand."
Other requirements are there must be no dimensional setbacks, one additional parking space is allowed, and only one ADU per lot.
Sierra Nevada Realtors supports them saying they could increase property value and allow better living opportunities for families.
"There's parents who are renting back to their adult children who are still trying to find a career, and then there's adults who are moving back in to take care of their aging parents, and sometimes aging parents are moving back in with their adult children."
Other commenters argue while it may increase the homeowner's value, it could decrease their neighbor's.
Council Member Brandi Anderson says a woman shared a picture of her neighbor's ADU with her. She looks at the photo and says, "How could A neighbor build this tall thing right next to B neighbor with a short house? Impacting the yard, impacting this and that."
The proposal also had no restrictions for using ADUs as short-term rentals. Mayor Hillary Schieve says that needs to change as short-term rentals tend be a problem in many cities.
She explains, "Because it's not regulated people tend to use them for other things like parties and those kinds of things."
Once the new draft has incorporated the feedback it will then make its way to planning commission's meeting this summer.
