Nothing New Under the Sun

THE APARTMENT ATOP THE GARAGE IS BACK IN VOGUE (free registration requried):

From the pricey purlieus of East Hampton to the environmentally minded Northwest, towns in need of inexpensive housing are turning to garage apartments, mother-in-law units and cottages in the backyard. The aim is to enable people who would otherwise be priced out of the housing market to live close to their jobs and relatives.

Hundreds of communities across the country have rewritten their zoning rules in recent years, to eliminate longtime bans on apartments in single-family houses and encourage new ones to be built.

The revisions — allowing, say, backyard bungalows in Santa Cruz, Calif., and efficiency units in farmhouses in Vermont — have occurred largely in suburban and exurban areas where growth and efforts to control it have driven housing costs up.

Once fairly common in large houses but prohibited by zoning ordinances after World War II, so-called accessory apartments in places like garages or attics are now seen as one way to expand the supply of moderately priced rentals. They are intended for older people on fixed incomes, young people starting out and workers needed for essential but relatively low-paying jobs.
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That is not to say the apartments are not controversial. In the suburbs, some residents have argued against encouraging or even allowing them, saying they will damage their neighborhood’s look and feel. Some say they worry about crowding, traffic, parking and a strain on public services, especially schools.

To answer those fears, towns have tailored their new rules. Some permit only one-bedroom apartments, screening out occupants with school-age children. Many insist that the owner live in one of the units and that there be off-street parking. Some have made the rules so restrictive, critics say, that the units have received few or no applications.
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During the process of developing rules for the units for the town of Montgomery, N.Y., “There was some concern about what we might politely call ‘neighborhood character,’ ” said David Church, the county planning commissioner. What is often meant, he said, is “Who are those people who are going to move in?”

Seventy miles north of New York City in what was once dairy farmland, Montgomery has been experiencing an influx of outsiders, creating pressure for development and putting housing prices out of reach. As a result, the town council changed Montgomery’s zoning rules and procedures last year to encourage people to convert barns and outbuildings into rental units and to install apartments in big houses.