Mayor Sam Liccardo wants San Jose to be a leader when it comes to accessory dwelling units
- San Jose Mercury News (August 28, 2019)
Staring down a statewide housing crisis and scrambling to meet an ambitious building goal in San Jose, Mayor Sam Liccardo on Tuesday unveiled a series of measures aimed at making it easier to construct granny flats in the nation’s 10th largest city.
Backyard cottages, Liccardo said in a statement, are “the single fastest and most efficient step in addressing the city’s affordable housing crisis.” And with the city struggling to meet the mayor’s goal of building 25,000 units — including 10,000 affordable homes — by 2022, accessory dwelling units are also a way to add to the city’s housing stock.
“We’re looking for ways to do it faster,” Liccardo said at a news conference at the city’s permit center, flanked by fellow City Council members from across the political spectrum.
San Jose is not alone in taking steps to ease the building process. Across the Bay Area and state, cities are encouraging residents to build more backyard homes. Several years ago, Oakland loosened restrictions on granny flats, including easing parking requirements. San Mateo County has created a one-stop portal with everything from a price calculator to an idea book.
To simplify the process, San Jose has created an ADU master program where residents can select from several pre-approved designs to get permits faster, and launched “ADU Tuesdays,” an express lane at the city’s permit center where homeowners and developers should be able to get a building permit within 90 minutes. The city has also hired a full-time “ADU ally” to help homeowners navigate the procedures and launched a new online ADU portal where residents can find out if they are eligible to build a secondary dwelling and see the required steps...
Read more: https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/08/27/san-jose-aims-to-make-building-a-granny-flat-easier/
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