Major changes to Charlotte’s development rules, adopted last year and designed to boost housing density across the city, are showing early success in one unexpected place — backyards.
Compact, adaptable residences are redefining the concept of family living, turning ordinary residential lots into vibrant, multigenerational compounds.
“A few years ago, nobody asked me for a backhouse, and now I have three clients currently that are only looking at houses with ADUs,” says Mary Helen Davis, a Realtor with Helen Adams Realty.
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Auxiliary dwelling units got a boost from Charlotte’s unified development ordinance, which took effect in 2023 and eased some rules about where garage apartments and smaller housing units can be built. The standards in the UDO for ADUs are intended to make them easier to build than they were before the ordinance went into effect, says Alyson Craig, Charlotte director of planning, design and development.
“ADUs provide an opportunity to increase housing supply and increase housing options, including those needs for multigenerational housing,” Craig says.
The needs are as varied as the solutions. One buyer wants space for adult children who are visiting. Another intends to have an aging parent move into the unit, while a third wants more guest space for visiting family.
Where buyers used to be concerned about the number of bedrooms a house has, they now want separate quarters for extended family and friends.
“People want family close, but they don’t want to be on top of each other,” she says.
Multigenerational living has grown steadily in the U.S. since the 1970s, with the share of such households more than doubling from 7% in 1971 to 18% in 2021. Part of the change is from overall population growth of foreign-born Asian, Black and Hispanic Americans who are more likely to live with multiple generations.
The pandemic drove more families into the same house. Young adults moved back home, and some older adults decided they would prefer to age with their adult children rather than live alone or in a retirement home. Now more than 26% of Americans live in a household with three or more generations, according to Pew Research.
Realtor Jill Miller, with builder partners Kevin Jones and Andrew DeSorbo, started a business last October focused on building ADUs, also known affectionately as granny flats. The name Aduela is a clever take on the Spanish word for grandmother.
Aduela offers turnkey services for design and building ADUs at Charlotte-area homes. Most residential properties in Mecklenburg County allow for ADUs if they have the required space and don’t face specific neighborhood restrictions.
“People are spending more time in their home and they realize having separate, lovely usable space is healthy. It’s also a function of Charlotte being a wonderfully growing city and we have folks moving from all over the country,” Miller says. “Having a separate guest suite for family is really attractive if they are coming and staying long term. There’s a beautiful efficiency to these.”
ADUs range in size from about 400 to 800 square feet, though some go larger. ADUs are not the same as so-called tiny houses, which tend to be smaller than 300 square feet and are often rented out as an Airbnb. In most cases, ADUs can also be rented out if the homeowner chooses.
In Charlotte, ADUs are allowable as a supplementary residential unit on the same lot as a single-family home in various zoning districts. An ADU is a secondary dwelling with complete independent living facilities that’s either attached or detached. To be considered a dwelling, the unit must include both a kitchen and bathroom facilities and be intended as a year-round residence.
The city, which saw about 90 submittals for ADUs in the first year of the UDO, is evaluating the standards to see if changes are needed to make them more feasible. Craig says the Housing and Neighborhood Services Department is working with the Planning Department on a pilot program to streamline the permit process to include pre-approved ADU plans and a map-based user tool to help evaluate the potential for an ADU on a lot.
Miller says adding an ADU to the backyard takes about four to six months to build after permitting is secured. Depending on the level of finishes, ADUs can start at just under $100,000 and go up. Garage conversions are less expensive and much quicker.
“There is a need for multigenerational space, whether Mom and Dad take the backhouse or the adult kids are in the backhouse and at some point, that shifts,” Miller says. “There is definitely a desire at the high end for some extra space on the lot that can be used for my parents, for my home office, or as a pool house with living space above. That’s what’s so brilliant, the versatility.”
Miller says ADUs offer a solution when people find the need for more housing that’s just not available. The escalation in home prices and lack of entry-level housing to buy make an ADU a solution for adult children returning from college or for aging parents wanting a smaller home closer to their children.
While Charlotte’s UDO allows for ADUs that meet guidelines, residents still must follow homeowners’ association guidelines if they live in such a neighborhood. That can mean working with an architectural review committee to make sure the ADU is consistent with the style of the house. ADUs are not allowed to be taller than the height of the main house.
Jean Benham, a Realtor with Allen Tate Realtors, says some of Charlotte’s older neighborhoods, such as Foxcroft, Myers Park, Plaza Midwood and Chantilly are stronger candidates for ADUs because they don’t have the restrictive covenants of newer, planned communities. “I don’t think that will change in the country club neighborhoods,” she says.
Houses in neighborhoods like Piper Glen with walkout basements can be made into independent living space.
“What we’ve learned in the last couple of years is the No. 1 reason for moving is family-related,” Benham says. “We’ve got an influx of grandparents moving to Charlotte. People want it, but we can’t find it very often.”
The first ADUs here were in the Brightwalk Charlotte community north of uptown a decade ago, says Emma Littlejohn, a residential development consultant and lead developer of that master-planned community. Brightwalk was the first LEED-certified neighborhood on the East Coast and was built with a mix of housing types.
Since that time, Littlejohn says she has seen the trend toward multigenerational housing with ADUs or guest-houses grow across the country.
“There’s a growing consumer preference for a certain economic profile to have a family compound either on a larger lot or within a resort community,” Littlejohn says. South Carolina’s Kiawah Island has seen a proliferation multigenerational family compounds, she adds. “People have been looking for places for families to gather seasonally or on occasion. It’s an idea whose time has come.”
Billy May, a land developer based near Asheville, says unique pieces of property appeal to people with large budgets.
“A lot are boomers who want to start a legacy and have this idea of a multigenerational transfer of not only their wealth but also of some place for future generations to gather,” May says.
At the high end of the market, such compounds can have a conservation ethos as people consider getting out of bigger cities and returning to nature with a house on a mountain.
“I think Covid did put a lot of ideas in people’s heads,” May says. “They were stranded at their house and said let’s renovate, let’s gather more and get closer together. Let’s do it now because nothing is guaranteed.”
Local designer Garrett Nelson says since the pandemic, more clients are interested in spaces that allow elders to age in place. The cost of full-time care can be offset by being able to stay in the home.
Nelson teaches at Queens University of Charlotte’s interior architecture and design department with a studio project that focuses on aging in place.
“I tell students at Queens the No. 1 obstacle to aging in place is denial,” Nelson says. “Those are honest and difficult conversations to have with a loved one. It’s usually offset well when they know they are going to be within a family compound, surrounded by family.”
Architect Ruard Veltman, who has offices in Charlotte and in Los Angeles, says from an architectural perspective, ADUs successfully allow designers to keep large homes more manageable in scale with smaller buildings instead of one giant home. Attached garages, which usually add awkward bulk to the design of a home, only get larger with living units above.
“You can play with scale a bit and it doesn’t become so overwhelming, and it becomes more interesting,” Veltman says. “It’s about disguising it and making it go away.”
Even with eased restrictions, Nelson says ADUs can be complex puzzle pieces to fit on a lot. Depending on the programming of a house, multiple outparcels may not fit. Many homeowners also want a pool, which increases the amount of impervious surface, hindering the runoff of rain water.
As people spend more time at home, they want pools, home offices and more aging-in-place spaces, Nelson says, directly reflecting changing times after the pandemic.
“The dynamic of family values has definitely changed over the last few years,” Nelson says. “These homes are becoming the destination hub for extended family and friends due to the evolution of the notion of home.”
