City of Tacoma's attempt to re-write ADU regulations moves forward after public hearing.

The city of Tacoma has been in the process of re-writing their regulation on ADUs (Adjacent Dwelling Units), and DADUs (Detached Adjacent Dwelling Unit) since 2018. This month they finally opened up the process for public hearing and testimony in front of the city council. The main sticking point seemed to be the "Occupancy requirement", which was preventing a lot of people from building ADU's on their property. It requires the occupant to live in the main building and limits the amount of people who can co-habitat the ADUs. One man said that he wanted to build a small two bedroom apartment above his garage and rent out the main house, but the occupancy requirement dis-allowed him from doing so. There seemed to be over welling support to change to amend the current regulations, but there was some discontent voiced. One woman made the point that by freeing up the regulations surrounding ADUs we would see an increase in population density in areas where people had specifically chosen to live in single family homes. All in all, it is the opinion of this author that there should be less regulation surrounding private property and by allowing people to build ADU's your allowing people to obtain a second source of income, ultimately it would help in the fight against housing scarcity, and possibly be a tool in solving the home-less problem that has plagued the area for years

. On March 5th the city will conduct it's first reading of the newly written ordinance. The second reading will be held on the 19th. Both will be open to the public. If you want to find out more click on the link below.

https://www.cityoftacoma.org/cms/one.aspx?portalId=169&pageId=156044