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The perfect backyard retirement home | News | Mountain View Online |

RSS Feed January 23, 2023

Uploaded: Mon, Jan 23, 2023, 10:13 am

Over the past few years, Judy Ousterhout had been pondering her future as a healthy older adult: Where would she retire? How could she generate extra income? Would she be willing to leave her Palo Alto home? The longtime Palo Alto resident, who bought her two-bedroom home on Channing Avenue in 1975, decided that building a home in her backyard was the answer.

Working with Stephanie Batties, her former business partner from The Right Touch Designs, Ousterhout custom designed her perfect “retirement” home tucked behind a garage at the end of her long driveway.

BRIGHT, LIGHT AND PRIVATE

In August 2022, the city did its final inspection on her 472-square-foot ADU and adjacent new one-car garage, which took two years to complete.

“One of the things I wanted was privacy for myself and privacy for the tenant,” said Ousterhout, who plans to rent out the backyard home.

Her design allows her and her labradoodle to use her backyard and pool without being visible from the new unit’s living area.

Because a garage was included in her project, she was able to position the new unit along the fence line, maximizing space for a private-access gated walkway leading to the home, which matches the property’s main gray stucco residence.

Clerestory windows let plenty of light into the living space, without sacrificing Ousterhout’s privacy. At the back of the home’s living room, a large sliding-glass door opens onto an ample wood deck, extending the living space outdoors.

The floors throughout the unit are synthetic material designed to look like wide-plank weathered wood.

Oil-rubbed bronze door and cabinet handles and fixtures offer rich contrast to the bright white walls throughout the home.

The kitchen is cleverly simple, with dark charcoal quartz counters, a four-burner Wolf induction cooktop, an under-counter refrigerator and a separate under-counter freezer. Ousterhout sacrificed an oven, but installed a microwave and toaster oven.

For such a small home, there is a deceptive amount of storage with cabinets tucked neatly into nearly every space. There’s even a specially designed desk nook off the kitchen.

FINDING INSPIRATION

Many of her ideas came from attending open houses for local homes with guest properties. She took pictures of things she liked and began curating her plan. Designer Batties was able to draw and submit elevations to the city for the permitting process.

Throughout her project, Ousterhout replicated things from her own home, including appliance brands and fixtures she liked, and created spaces like a desk nook that she thought she would use.

“My decisions were made on what would I want if I lived here,” she said.

Just past the desk down a short hallway lies the minimalist bedroom. The high ceilings continue here, along with an ample closet. The bathroom has a high window, streams of light and a glass-enclosed shower. The sink is one piece of white quartz on a custom-designed cabinet with two drawers cut around the under-the-sink pipe to maximize storage. A stacked Miele washer and dryer are tucked next to the shower with storage above. There’s also a white screen that can be pulled down to conceal the laundry nook. Again,

Ousterhout made decisions by asking, “Who will be living here? What do they want when they come home?”

Ousterhout said she zeroed in on the idea for a living unit on her property several years ago, around the same time the city of Palo Alto was making it easier for property owners to build extra living space.

“As I was embarking into my older years, I had two thoughts: I might eventually need help close by, and I might need the additional income,” she said. “As life goes on, it’s not a bad idea.”

A SURGE IN BACKYARD COTTAGES

Ousterhout isn’t alone in utilizing her property for additional living space. Local interest in accessory dwelling units has surged in Palo Alto in recent years. In 2015, the city received only 10 permit applications for these structures. The number climbed to 75 in 2019 and to 78 in 2020. In 2021, it soared to 136, according to a 2022 city report.

Ousterhout said she did her research, meticulously reviewing each requirement in the city’s ADU handbook.

The ADU, however, didn’t happen without challenges, she said.

Ousterhout said she started the project in early 2020, just as the world shut down because of the pandemic. That meant she could only meet with city planning staff by phone or over Zoom rather than in person.

Another early hurdle was complying with state and federal flood zone restrictions, and relying on the planning staff to discover and correct a surveying error, which would have mistakenly required her new dwelling to be higher than her original home.

After the plans were approved, the permit issued and the unit nearly complete, the city over-looked an installed utility box that was placed outside the unit. It turned out the box needed to be placed inside to protect it from the weather. Hence, the box was reinstalled inside, on the back bedroom wall, covered by a colorful quilt.

Ousterhout said despite a few unexpected challenges, building a secondary housing unit on her property has been worth it. Her next task, she said, will be carefully advertising her unit to the right tenant.

Elizabeth Lorenz is a freelance writer.

Uploaded: Mon, Jan 23, 2023, 10:13 am
Over the past few years, Judy Ousterhout had been pondering her future as a healthy older adult: Where would she retire? How could she generate extra income? Would she be willing to leave her Palo Alto home? The longtime Palo Alto resident, who bought her two-bedroom home on Channing Avenue in 1975, decided that building a home in her backyard was the answer.
Working with Stephanie Batties, her former business partner from The Right Touch Designs, Ousterhout custom designed her perfect “retirement” home tucked behind a garage at the end of her long driveway.
BRIGHT, LIGHT AND PRIVATE
In August 2022, the city did its final inspection on her 472-square-foot ADU and adjacent new one-car garage, which took two years to complete.
“One of the things I wanted was privacy for myself and privacy for the tenant,” said Ousterhout, who plans to rent out the backyard home.
Her design allows her and her labradoodle to use her backyard and pool without being visible from the new unit’s living area.
Because a garage was included in her project, she was able to position the new unit along the fence line, maximizing space for a private-access gated walkway leading to the home, which matches the property’s main gray stucco residence.
Clerestory windows let plenty of light into the living space, without sacrificing Ousterhout’s privacy. At the back of the home’s living room, a large sliding-glass door opens onto an ample wood deck, extending the living space outdoors.
The floors throughout the unit are synthetic material designed to look like wide-plank weathered wood.
Oil-rubbed bronze door and cabinet handles and fixtures offer rich contrast to the bright white walls throughout the home.
The kitchen is cleverly simple, with dark charcoal quartz counters, a four-burner Wolf induction cooktop, an under-counter refrigerator and a separate under-counter freezer. Ousterhout sacrificed an oven, but installed a microwave and toaster oven.
For such a small home, there is a deceptive amount of storage with cabinets tucked neatly into nearly every space. There’s even a specially designed desk nook off the kitchen.
FINDING INSPIRATION
Many of her ideas came from attending open houses for local homes with guest properties. She took pictures of things she liked and began curating her plan. Designer Batties was able to draw and submit elevations to the city for the permitting process.
Throughout her project, Ousterhout replicated things from her own home, including appliance brands and fixtures she liked, and created spaces like a desk nook that she thought she would use.
“My decisions were made on what would I want if I lived here,” she said.
Just past the desk down a short hallway lies the minimalist bedroom. The high ceilings continue here, along with an ample closet. The bathroom has a high window, streams of light and a glass-enclosed shower. The sink is one piece of white quartz on a custom-designed cabinet with two drawers cut around the under-the-sink pipe to maximize storage. A stacked Miele washer and dryer are tucked next to the shower with storage above. There’s also a white screen that can be pulled down to conceal the laundry nook. Again,
Ousterhout made decisions by asking, “Who will be living here? What do they want when they come home?”
Ousterhout said she zeroed in on the idea for a living unit on her property several years ago, around the same time the city of Palo Alto was making it easier for property owners to build extra living space.
“As I was embarking into my older years, I had two thoughts: I might eventually need help close by, and I might need the additional income,” she said. “As life goes on, it’s not a bad idea.”
A SURGE IN BACKYARD COTTAGES
Ousterhout isn’t alone in utilizing her property for additional living space. Local interest in accessory dwelling units has surged in Palo Alto in recent years. In 2015, the city received only 10 permit applications for these structures. The number climbed to 75 in 2019 and to 78 in 2020. In 2021, it soared to 136, according to a 2022 city report.
Ousterhout said she did her research, meticulously reviewing each requirement in the city’s ADU handbook.
The ADU, however, didn’t happen without challenges, she said.
Ousterhout said she started the project in early 2020, just as the world shut down because of the pandemic. That meant she could only meet with city planning staff by phone or over Zoom rather than in person.
Another early hurdle was complying with state and federal flood zone restrictions, and relying on the planning staff to discover and correct a surveying error, which would have mistakenly required her new dwelling to be higher than her original home.
After the plans were approved, the permit issued and the unit nearly complete, the city over-looked an installed utility box that was placed outside the unit. It turned out the box needed to be placed inside to protect it from the weather. Hence, the box was reinstalled inside, on the back bedroom wall, covered by a colorful quilt.
Ousterhout said despite a few unexpected challenges, building a secondary housing unit on her property has been worth it. Her next task, she said, will be carefully advertising her unit to the right tenant.

Elizabeth Lorenz is a freelance writer.

The perfect backyard retirement home | News | Mountain View Online | Mountain View Voice

Chicago ADU program hasn’t sparked granny flat, coach house wave

RSS Feed January 12, 2023

The Khamlins’ new home is one of three basement apartments that developer Gabe Horstick added to nine existing units in the 1930s brick building on Kedzie Boulevard after buying it in July 2021. Horstick’s firm, Base 3 Development, was able to add the three because of the city’s two-year-old ordinance allowing new additional dwelling units, or ADUs, including basement or attic apartments and detached coach houses, for the first time since they were banned in 1957.

The ordinance allowed Horstick to add three units if one met affordability requirements. He says it worked for him, “because I could turn a nine-unit building into a 12,” enhancing rental income.

And it worked for the Khamlins, who pay about $1,500 a month for the three-bedroom unit, a little more than half the monthly rent Horstick plans to charge for the other two ADUs.

In-demand Logan Square got a few new housing units, one of them within affordability guidelines, the landlord got to boost his profitability, and a struggling immigrant family found a comfortable spot.

Now, if that success can be replicated dozens or hundreds of times around the city, the ADU program will trigger a wave of new affordable housing in Chicago. So far, however, it’s more like a ripple confined to affluent North Side neighborhoods. Of 403 applications that have been approved, 84% are in the North and Northwest Side pilot zones, according to Department of Housing policy director Daniel Hertz.

The applications cover 454 units, 40 of them meeting the city’s affordability guidelines. The great majority are not yet built. As of late October, according to the Department of Housing, construction permits had been issued for 122 units, with permits pending for 78 more.

The ADU ordinance—approved in December 2020, with the first applications for permits available in May 2021—has not yet set off big changes in the city’s housing profile, although city officials and developers say some tweaks and expansions that are pending could speed it up. To be fair, it should be noted that the COVID-years supply-chain disruptions and increased construction costs contributed to the seemingly slow pace of new units getting built.

Even so, changes are needed. Two that are crucial, says city Housing Commissioner Marisa Novara, are adding a staffer to focus on getting ADU financing and expertise to property owners on the city’s South and West sides and opening the ADU ordinance to the entire city, not just the five pilot zones approved in 2020.

Novara told Crain’s in late December that she’s been authorized to add a staff position whose brief will include ADU assistance that may bring more such units to places like Grand Crossing and Washington Park.

Expanding beyond the pilot zones is not yet scheduled but is a goal, Novara said. Limiting ADUs to pilot zones initially was a compromise made to get City Council approval.

One developer of ADUs says it dramatically undercut the rollout. “At least half the inquiries I get are from people who are outside the pilot zones,” says David Wallach, a longtime Chicago builder who heads the ADU-focused firm Chicago Granny Flats. “There’s demand from all over the city, if we were allowed to build all over the city.”

Wallach’s firm is building its fourth new coach house-style ADU. One is in Evanston, which also approved ADUs in 2020, and two of the city projects are for homeowners who told Crain’s they’re adding the space for home offices, but with bathrooms and kitchens so they can be lived in by family members or become rental tenants later if the need arises. That is, they’re essentially expanding their own living space thanks to an ordinance intended to create new housing units.

While that may seem to evade the spirit of the ordinance, Wallach and the two city officials defended them as creating at least potential new living units. On top of that, Wallach says, building a coach house on a Chicago alley has the added benefit of putting eyes on that alley, potentially making it safer.

The ordinance allowed Horstick to add three units if one met affordability requirements. He says it worked for him, “because I could turn a nine-unit building into a 12,” enhancing rental income.

And it worked for the Khamlins, who pay about $1,500 a month for the three-bedroom unit, a little more than half the monthly rent Horstick plans to charge for the other two ADUs.

Expanding beyond the pilot zones is not yet scheduled but is a goal, Novara said. Limiting ADUs to pilot zones initially was a compromise made to get City Council approval.

Chicago ADU program hasn’t sparked granny flat, coach house wave Crain’s Chicago Business

Granny Pod Vs. Mother-In-Law Suite: What’s The Difference? – House Digest

RSS Feed January 3, 2023

Not quite a tiny home and too small to really be considered a guest house, granny pods and mother-in-law suites have

San Antonio ADUs to alleviate housing shortage

By building casitas, homeowners can generate wealth and help solve the housing shortage – San Antonio Report

RSS Feed December 31, 2022

San Antonio is in a growing housing crisis. The City of San Antonio’s Strategic Housing Implementation Plan (SHIP) has identified that

Port Hueneme updates ADU development standards – Tri County …

RSS Feed December 30, 2022

Photo Courtesy City of Port Hueneme

Port Hueneme–The City Council, Monday, December 19, introduced and amended section 10802 of Chapter 6 of Article 10 in the Port Hueneme Municipal Code for Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) development standards.

ADUs are otherwise known as Granny Flats, Casitas, and Second Dwelling Units, which can be detached, attached, or within a second residence as a Junior ADU.

“The State Government Code has established certain development standards to use,” Community Development Director

Tony Stewart said. “When we went through this about two years ago to establish the current ADU Ordinance, we discussed that State Law has basically preempted most local law when it comes to the construction of ADUs with regards to parking setbacks, density, building, and building heights.”

He said they constantly change regulations, and the Council must address the new regulations in the ordinance.

“It’s important for us to have our own ADU regulations because it at least allows us locally to provide a maximum ADU size,” he said. “It also allows us in the City of Port Hueneme to require an Affordable Housing Agreement with ADUs.

Stewart said there are exceptions for caregivers or family members.

“State law does continue to whittle away at our local zoning authority,” he said.

“This is part of our newly adopted housing element for our general plan, and HCD is the State Agency that approved our housing element,” he continued. “It keeps track of our ADU Ordinance and how we comply with that.”

This year’s changes increase the maximum height of a detached ADU from 16 feet, the rest of the City’s maximum height limits, to 18 feet.

“Then for attached ADUs, they can be up 25 feet and two stories in height, whether or not the primary dwelling unit is that high or not,” he said.

Stewart said the State deleted the minimum lot size requirement for ADUs.

“This is the one we lost,” he said. “Previously, we had been required to allow ADUs on any size lot if it was under the State’s 800 square foot threshold for the size of the ADU. It now applies to all ADUs across the board, so we can no longer require a minimum lot size.”

He said it clarifies that building codes harmful to public health can be required to be corrected.

“If a building violation or a zoning issue that makes the property non-conforming exists, we still have to allow the ADU to be built,” he said. “It’s only at the house where the primary residence is falling apart if it’s been burned where there is a public health and safety risk that has to be fixed. Otherwise, we have to allow the ADU to be constructed.”

The ADUs must be approved ministerially (over the counter), which is what the City currently does.

“It also states if we have design standards or if a jurisdiction, such as the City of Port Hueneme, we have to make sure our approvals are objective,” he said. “Our design standards require that the ADU match the primary residence in architectural design for the State’s considered objective. We just have to make sure that’s specified in our ordinance.”

He said the City must remove the fact that a garage or carport is converted into an ADU; they cannot require its replacement.

“In the past, if someone converted the garage, they would have been required to build a new one unless they were in close proximity to public transportation,” he said. “That’s no longer the case.”

Stewart said if a qualified non-profit constructs an ADU, they can sell it separately from the primary residence.

“That is under certain specific requirements, and that probably won’t happen very often in the City of Port Hueneme, but we still need to clarify that in the ordinance,” he said. “We had previously also required that ADU kitchens be a certain size, and they had certain sized appliances. We can no longer do that.”

He said if an ADU application is denied, and it’s hard to deny them, the City must provide a full list of why the application was deficient and how the issues can be remedied within the required 60-day timeframe.

“The project is exempt from CEQA because it exempts projects where it can be seen with certainty there can be no possibility that the activity in question will have a significant impact on the environment,” he said.

Councilman Steven Gama said Ventura County shut down the City’s Little League snack bar, and he asked if there is uniformity between ADU kitchens.”

“They’re laying on us pretty heavy down at Bubbling Springs Park,” he said.

Stewart said ADU standards are a unique animal and permissive.

“They’ve taken away our local land use authority, but it’s only applicable to ADUs,” he said.

Gama commented that the County has more stringent rules for the snack bar than what the State mandates for ADU kitchens.

Councilwoman Misty Perez asked if there is a requirement to be a certain amount of feet from a fence line.

“It depends,” Stewart said. “They are minimized at this point, and if it’s detached, it would be four feet from the side of your property lines. If it’s going above an existing property line, it can be at the property line as well.”

Councilwoman Laura Hernandez asked Stewart if he received an inquiry from Joan Tharpe regarding age limits in demographic categories as they apply to ADUs. She asked him to provide his response.

For the complete story, visit tricountysentry.com.