Redwood City mulls putting the clamps on second-story granny units

In the grip of a Bay Area-wide housing crisis, Redwood City officials are trying to walk the line between some residents who want to build second-story granny units and others worried about losing their privacy and neighborhood character.

Unlike cities that ban such second-story units altogether, Redwood City is among those that have allowed them but is now considering restrictions in response to growing complaints.

The second guessing isn’t sitting well with housing advocates and other members of the community who see granny units — formally called accessory dwelling units (ADUs) — as a less-expensive and easier way to build housing. They say any restrictions that discourage construction of units are irresponsible given the region’s dire shortage of housing.

On Monday night, the City Council is scheduled to vote on measures that would limit the size and height of second-story accessory dwelling units while providing incentives for construction of single-story units.

The city updated its accessory dwelling unit ordinance twice in recent years — once in 2015 and again in 2017 — to entice residents to build more granny units to boost the housing stock.

And, it worked.

More accessory dwelling units were built in 2017 than during the prior four years combined. Over the past two and a half years alone, more than 120 units have been built, including about 20 above garages.

But that has triggered has triggered objections — much of it directed against units built above garages — by residents in older neighborhoods with single-story homes. They have requested a ban on all second-story ADUs above garages.

Many cities between San Francisco and San Jose have prohibited second-story ADUs, including Burlingame, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Santa Clara and Daly City. Redwood City staff, however, has deemed an outright ban in conflict with California’s statewide ADU regulations.

In Redwood City, detached single-story ADUs are limited to 14 feet tall while second-story units

atop garages can reach up to 28 feet above the ground. The current ordinance does not include any restrictions to protect neighbors’ privacy.

Instead of an outright ban, city staff has proposed reducing the height of accessory dwelling units atop garages to 20 feet above ground, prohibiting second-story decks and roof decks, and requiring opaque windows that look out onto neighbors.

Although the maximum size of an ADU above a detached garage would remain at 700 square feet, the new measures would also restrict the portion of the unit above the garage to 280 square feet. The remaining square footage would have to be built on the ground floor, creating a split-level ADU, according to a staff report.

To encourage property owners and developers to build single-story ADUs, staff has also proposed amendments that would make it easier to produce them, including allowing a unit to be built closer to property lines, cover more than half of a rear lot and replace a detached garage.

At a June 18 meeting, the city’s planning commission voted 4-2 to endorse the staff recommendations.

Commissioner Michael Smith, who voted against the recommendations, said he supported the privacy elements but not the square footage restriction, which he felt was too restrictive.

Instead, he favors an ADU ordinance like Belmont’s, which allows for varying heights of granny units based on roof designs, neighborhood density and the distance from property lines.

“Redwood City can be a leader in this situation,” Smith said. “We can face this as a difficult decision, we can move forward and provide this much-needed housing that many in the community are asking for.”

Nearly two dozen residents spoke for and against the proposed restrictions at the June 18 meeting.

Alex Melendrez, an organizer for the Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County, called implementing ADU limitations during a growing housing crisis a “step backward.”

“With these height limits on ADUs, you limit the possibility and the hope that many of our neighbors and friends have of finding a home in the city that they’re already contributing to,” Melendrez said.

Erik Wolsheimer, a Redwood City resident who lives next door to a property owner who recently submitted an application to build a two-story, 24-foot tall, 1,400-square-foot accessory dwelling unit behind the property owner’s 1800-square-foot home, had a different perspective.

Wolsheimer said he understood that ADUs can serve as a way to fight the region’s housing crisis. But a second-story unit towering over his yard made him concerned for the privacy of his three children.

“When a neighbor plans to build a balcony with a direct view over our neighboring property, there’s a concern that we are solving the wrong problem here,” he said.

The planning commission asked staff to consider implementing a sliding scale to allow increases in height or square footage for second-story ADUs atop garages depending on the lot size, distance from property lines or neighborhood density.

The council could decide Monday whether to support a more lenient approach or stick with the proposed height and square footage limits.

State lawmakers currently are considering multiple measures related to ADUs including one that would ban California’s 50,000 homeowners associations from restricting new in-law units in their communities and another that would speed up local approval processes. Depending on the outcome of those statewide bills, Redwood City may likely be required to update its ADU ordinance again in the very near future.

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