California’s first ADU condo sale offers another path to homeownership

Backdoor Revolution: The Definitive Guide to ADU Development

I have been interested in ADUs for years ("DC and accessory dwelling units," "There are plenty of lots capable of accessory dwelling units in Upper Northwest," "Will carriage houses destroy city life as we know it?."  

And for a time did alley tours in Greater Capitol Hill.

Article from the Orange County Register.  From the article:

San Jose is home to the first accessory dwelling unit sold as a separately owned condo in California, city officials said, setting a potential template for a more affordable path to homeownership. But a lengthy rollout raises questions about whether the model can become a scalable solution to the state’s housing crisis — the sale comes more than two years after the state made such transactions possible.

The 749-square-foot, two-bedroom ADU on Josefina Street near downtown closed last month for $530,000. That’s about a quarter of Santa Clara County’s eye-popping $2.1 million median single-family home price in May, according to the California Association of Realtors. Real estate brokerage Redfin last month listed San Jose among the 10 most expensive U.S. housing markets, based on the share of median income needed to afford to buy a home.

ADUs, also known as in-law units or granny flats, typically have up to 1,200 square feet of living space and must include a kitchen sink, cooking appliance and separate bathroom.

The sale was made possible by a state law passed in 2023, Assembly Bill 1033, which allows homeowners to convert ADUs into condos and sell them separately from the main property, rather than just renting them out. Under the law, ADU condos come with their own property tax bills, but require an HOA agreement with the primary homeowner for common elements, such as roofs or driveways.

Historicity.  I have been intrigued by alleys, historic carriage houses, and ADUs for a long time.  First in terms of historicity.   

• DC Historic Alleys Building Survey, DC Historic Preservation Office
• "The American Alley, Part 1: A Hidden Resource," "The American Alley, Part 2: Origins of the American Alley," "The American Alley, Part 3: The End of the American Alley," "The American Alley, Part 4: Rediscovering the Forgotten Human Scale," Strong Towns/Resilience
• "History: Capitol Hill Alley Dwellings," Hill Rag

• and how on some properties there are historic carriage buildings that have been converted from horse stables to houses.  These are on regular house lots.  
• There are also some carriage houses on their own lots separate from a street facing lot, developed when the interior of large blocks were "programmed" with buildings separate from the street--often for "industrial uses" like stables, machining, storage, drayage, etc., 
• I learned from a guy I talked to once on a rear alley off of H Street NE who said that at the time (before DC liberalized ADU laws) it was legal for these buildings to have a "caretaker" apartment
• Interior blocks often were developed with housing to use up the space, make it profitable, and  sometimes as a way to provide mixed income housing--for servants, lower income people, etc.  
• (Later, instead of dealing with interior blocks, developers created intervening streets, such as Acker Place, Lexington Place, Morris Place, Morton Place, and Orleans Place between 6th and 7th Streets NE, Parker Street NE by Union Station, or blocks of rowhouses west of 5th Street NW in Manor Park like Quackenbos Street NW and Quintana Place NW)
• President's wife Ellen Wilson's claim to DC fame was her work to rid blocks of this interior  housing, probably because often the people settled there were African-Americans.

• Although some sections remained, like Millers Court NE and Brown's Court SE or on Capitol Hill and became models for building similar housing later 
• And because in upper NW, such as the lots east of 4th Street in Manor Park, the deep lots often have free standing garages or nothing, and could accommodate an ADU.  Our lot could, which I'd like to take advantage of some time.
• Transit access is key.  But I think it's best to focus ADU development within walking distance to a Metrorail station, to reduce the demand for driving.  Our house in Manor Park is about three quarters of a mile from Takoma Metrorail Station.

Affordable Housing.  Second in terms of the idea of adding "missing middle housing" and affordable housing. Missing middle housing is smaller types of housing vis a vis "normal sized" single family attached and detached houses.  In DC, it's not missing, it's just very expensive because all housing in DC is expensive.  And because there isn't a lot of it.  As noted above, it's mostly on interiors of blocks, and as a product of its time, pre-1900.

A very small house on Millers Court NE rents for $4,500 per month.  Middle housing indeed!

But the people who can afford to build an ADU might not necessarily want to provide AH.  According to a study in Greater Los Angeles ("The dark side of California’s backyard ADU boom: How much do they ease the housing shortage," LA Times):

He found that “ADU prevalence correlates with lower-income, renter-occupied, and younger households, denser populations, and areas with higher concentrations of non-white residents and registered Democrats.”

This type of housing is a form of what's being called "missing middle housing."  

In some weak markets like a neighborhood in Austin, Texas, ADUs are promoted to support multi-generational living and wealth generation through improving the value of a property by adding a unit, or to have a second income stream from the property to pay the mortgage ("Alley Flat Initiative fits small, green homes into unexpected places," CultureMap Austin, Alley Flat Initiative, Guadalupe Neighborhood Development Corporation). 

Some photos.

Parker Street NE -- the houses are narrow but still expensive because of the location.

Quintana Place NW -- the houses are more colonial, Tudor and not contiguous but in units of two because the National Capital Planning Commission ruled  sometime in the 1920s that rowhouses couldn't be contiguous (seen as an anti-African American policy decision)

Lexington Place NE -- the Queen Anne rowhouse style typified by the houses on Parker Street NE started to be succeeded by a more Craftsman form, often called Wardman style after the developer.  This transition started around 1907. ("What's in a Wardman? A Short Overview of DC's Most Prevalent Architecural Style," DC Urban Turf).

Millers Court SE is super well situated.  A block from the Supreme Court.  Two blocks from the Capitol.

Third, I've wanted to put one on our lot.  But ADUs aren't as cheap to build as people say.

1.  everyone says "oh, they're cheaper because you don't have to buy the land."
2. That's a little true, but the cost of permitting and new construction and financing is still high, over $250/s.f.
3. Plus the cost of installing electricity and water/sewage (and maybe gas).
4. They are hard to finance, although you can do it through a home equity loan I suppose.  And then the rents can't be super cheap because you have to pay off the cost of construction plus the various annual costs.

This is a garage on the rear of a lot on the 4400 block of River Road NW in DC.  It's a similar configuration to our lot in Manor Park.

The amounts of money cities offer to encourage ADU construction aren't very much and usually require renting out at less than market rates.

To facilitate this "the city" or nonprofit should create an ADU clearinghouse working with property owners to finance and build, and then with property owners and renters to facilitate rentals in a systematic way.

CDCs to build and finance at scale.  Gosh a good 12+ years ago I suggested the creation of a community development corporation that would operate city wide doing this.  Ideally, on our block you could build as many as 32 ADUs, they could go in on a block, with a city incentive too, and try to get multiple property owners to do it at the same time, to cut costs.

A number of firms do this now in the Midwest, such as ADU America, and in the Pacific Northwest and California (ADU Resource Center).

Pattern Books to make building ADUs easier.  Some cities have also created ADU pattern books to facilitate permitting and lower cost construction.  Often they include more modern buildings which don't appeal to me.  I prefer that ADUs match the prevailing neighborhood architectural style be it Queen Anne or Craftsman rowhouse, Colonial, etc.

-- ADU D.C. Homeowner’s Manual, Coalition for Smarter Growth

-- Philadelphia Rowhouse Manual (not on ADUs, but historic rowhouses, providing indirect guidance for how to do pre 1914 style ADUs)

-- A Pattern Book for Founders’ Place Neighborhood, Muscogee, Oklahoma, Oklahoma University-Tulsa Urban Design Studio

-- Del Ray Neighborhood Residential Pattern Book, Alexandria, Virginia

-- Accessory Dwelling Unit Guidebook, Boston Planning Department

-- A Pattern Book for Neighborly Houses, Habitat for Humanity, (I like the points about context sensitive development, it's not so much about ADUs)

-- ADU Pattern Book for Mid-Century Homes, Family Housing Fund

-- Building an ADU, Salt Lake City

-- ADU Pattern Book, MB Architecture

-- Changing Lanes: Laneway Suites in Toronto

Problems:  Some people don't want to share.  Granny flats/Yay or Nay.  Originally, were called "granny flats," with the idea that downsizing parents would relocate to an ancillary dwelling on their children's property

But some people don't want to share their lots.  "An Honest Conversation About Toronto Laneway Houses," Toronto Realty Blog.  From the article:

But why do people disagree on laneway housing? And what issues are at the forefront of the discussions? “An honest conversation,” i.s what I called this in today’s blog title, and that’s what I’m aiming for because I feel like the discussion about laneway housing in Toronto is merely getting started. 

 A client of mine remarked last weekend, “I have no problem if somebody else wants to build a laneway home on our street. But I don’t think I’d take one if it were free. I don’t want somebody living in my backyard with a window that looks out to where my kids play, and I don’t want to park my car under their living room.”

The LA Times has a series of articles on ADUs, and many involve multi-generational families, so sharing the lot isn't an issue.  And sometimes it's not for granny, but for the adult children. ("She couldn’t afford L.A. rent after law school. Her parents’ ADU came to the rescue").  

There are many in the Belmont Heights neighborhood of Long Beach.  We stayed in one as an airbnb.  A less than one mile walk to the beach...

For others, it's an ancillary studio not to be rented out ("Thanks to a tiny ADU, an L.A. home transforms into a stunning art gallery and studio," "Surprising ADU with tricked-out garage, rooftop deck matches family’s playfulness").  This is a big issue now with work from home.

But for unrelated people, if they aren't into the idea of having renters, an ADU may not be appealing.

Problems:  Financing.  It's still difficult to get traditional financing.  And adding an ADU if you have a mortgage, you have to notify the lender. ("Should I take a bridge loan to build an ADU?," LA Times); 

Problems:  Parking.  DC requires that building an ADU doesn't reduce parking on the lot.  In an area like Manor Park, this is dumb because there is plenty of street parking.  Less so in rowhouse neighborhoods in the core.  Basically, people can create "parking pads" that double as patios. Also see "A Koreatown parking protest: Tenants stage sit-in to protest loss of parking to make way for ADUs," LA Times.

Green Alley initiatives.  Separately, a number of cities are pursuing "green alley" initiatives where they are focusing on plantings, stormwater capture, and sometimes placemaking (" In Miles of Alleys, Chicago Finds Its Next Environmental Frontier," New York Times, "To Battle Floods, Cities Revive Their Long-Forgotten Alleyways,"JSTOR, "Cities Give Alleys New Life," Governing).  

-- Chicago Green Alley Handbook

In the early 2000s I read an article in (I think) Southern Living about Calder Loth, then State Architectural Historian for Virginia, and his initiative planting flowers in his alley in the Fan District ("The Self-Taught Gardener: Division Street," Berkshire Edge).

Alley repaving.  DC had a green alleys program but it never did much.  

Separately the Department of Transportation created a program still in operation that actively repaves alleys, many of which were in disrepair, with a polyglot of materials, using brick or asphalt block where it had been in use.  

Except that originally they only used red brick, and some alleys originally had yellow brick or other treatments.  I know I called for a change in this to be more historically accurate and they did change, according to this Instagram post.

This image shows yellow brick on the alley, and red brick fronting the sidewalk/apron to the street.

There is an alley off North Capitol SE, where one of the abutting property owners put in (or maintains) historically accurate cobblestones, with a brick track for "carriage wheels."  

Although, if you walk on cobbles, like some streets in Georgetown, it's not comfortable.

Placemaking and retail laneways initiatives.  ("Hidden in Plain Sight: Activating Urban Alleys," MRSC)

-- Living Alleys Toolkit, Austin

For at least 15 years, Melbourne has been reactivating alleys as retail spots.  In the US, larger real estate projects are often using the laneway concept as a way to activate interior spaces and add a fun element to the development.

Sydney, Austrailia

Retail laneways initiatives.   

-- Melbourne's Revitalized Laneways, Gehl Architects

-- Pocket Book of Melbourne Laneways

-- "Australia’s laneways investment is breathing new life into its cities," Monocle

-- Pioneer Square Alleys Design Manual

WTF? Detroit News op-ed: Ease building secondary dwellings in Detroit | Is no solution to lack of housing demand

Before my life disintegrated with the death of my father, the middle house is where we lived in Detroit.  Our Congresswoman lived down the street.  The Zillow estimate is $242,000.

The op-ed ("Ease building secondary dwellings in Detroit," Detroit News) argues that the solution to Detroit's broken micro-economy is making it easier to build accessory dwelling units.  He suggests lowering permit fees, among other steps.

ADUs can pull double duty for the city. They build generational wealth for Detroiters, while supporting housing affordability. It’s a simple amendment that does not upend the general plan of the city and frees citizens to utilize their properties how they please. It’s time to start building back a city meant for everyone, not just the few who can afford it.

This is misguided.  Detroit has tens of thousands of vacant properties and lots ("Detroit Shrinks Itself, Historic Homes and All," Wall Street Journal, 2010).  From the article:

Mayor Dave Bing has pledged to knock down 10,000 structures in his first term as part of a nascent plan to "right-size" Detroit, or reconfigure the city to reflect its shrinking population. When it's all over, said Karla Henderson, director of the Detroit Building Department, 

This house, in the upscale Palmer Woods neighborhood, was demolished but looks recoverable to me.

"There's going to be a lot of empty space." Mr. Bing hasn't yet fully articulated his ultimate vision for what comes after demolition, but he has said entire areas will have to be rebuilt from the ground up. For now, his plan calls for the tracts to be converted to other uses, such as parks or farms.

Even when the demolitions are complete, Detroit will still have a huge problem on its hands. The city has roughly 90,000 abandoned or vacant homes and residential lots, according to Data Driven Detroit, a nonprofit that tracks demographic data for the city.

... "Neighborhoods that are considered stable are now at 20% vacancy," said Deborah Younger, a development consultant involved in the demolition effort.

Making ADUs a little easier to build isn't the answer to an "over supply" of recovarable properties.

At a conference a number of years ago, Alan Mallach and I had a conversation where we expressed incredulity that advocates in Baltimore were advocating for inclusionary zoning, when the city has thousands of vacant properties.  The same goes with ADUs in Detroit.

This op-ed discusses "gentrification."  Yes, some neighborhoods will experience inward investment and this brings sometimes unwanted change.  But the solution to disinvestment is investment, and that's part of the equation of gentrification.

Detroit has tens of thousands of vacant properties and lots.  It is in desperate need of increased demand for housing.  

In the meantime the city demolishes hundreds of buildings each year because of lack of demand ("City of Detroit demolished 6000 homes since 2020," CBS, Detroit Demolition Program, "Detroiters spent $49M on demolition. Where did the money go?," BridgeDetroit).  

The City of Detroit has spent more than $10 million demolishing blighted homes in District 7 on the city’s west side. Some residents say they are glad to see vacant properties being torn down, while others wonder how the money is being spent. (BridgeDetroit photo by Bryce Huffman)

Looking at images of distressed homes in Detroit is particularly depressing.  From the article:

2023 was as a special year for Detroit. For the first time in decades the city gained 1,852 new residents, reflecting a city finally out of its rut and ready to prosper again. True to Detroit’s commitment, property values across the city increased.

On paper, this seems like nothing but fantastic news, but if you ask Detroiters, they tell a different story of gentrification. Gentrification is a process where less wealthy neighborhoods have money invested into them. This can be advantageous for only those who can afford it. With rising property values come higher property taxes. High taxes can be a factor that pushes original residents out of the area, and it’s no secret that many Detroit neighborhoods are ripe for gentrification. 

The article argues that zoning is used to maintain segregation, although rather than term it race based, it expands the definition economically, according to income and the cost of a property.

Detroit, for example, still supports civil-rights era zoning codes that actively enforce segregation based on income. This is slyly done under the guise of mandating setback lines and density maximums to force builders into only one type of development: single-family homes. 

The article suggests that ADUs can help bring about affordability.  Detroit has decades of affordability ahead because of lack of demand and a huge overage of potential housing supply.

A single-family home is not a vice within itself, it is the overabundance and lack of affordable units that artificially spikes housing prices, leaving those less fortunate in the dust. This is not what Detroit needs.

Besides Detroit having lots of small lots, making it a bit harder for ADUs to have space, the reality is that they aren't "that cheap" to build.  Yes, you don't have to pay for land, but you do have to pay for utility hookups including sewer, water, and electricity, and that can be expensive.  A $300,000 or more new to build ADU is a lot more expensive than it is to renovate a $25,000 house.

Plus, in a weak market like Detroit an ADU is harder to finance.  Since it's possible in Detroit to buy and renovate houses for much less than $300,000, an ADU isn't likely to appraise at the cost of construction for a mortgage loan, because it is higher priced than the market.  So ADU builders will have to self-finance.

=====

By contrast, in Pittsburgh, Robert Fragasso recommends another course ("What the city of Pittsburgh can do with abandoned houses," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).  It's nothing new, been done by cities over the decades.  But renovation is better than demolition.

Pittsburgh has 10,000 abandoned houses and empty lots, of which 1300 have reported code violations, and restoring these properties to the tax rolls would go far in helping to balance the city and school district budgets. Using the average city property tax of $2500 on those 10,000 properties, adding $25 million in new revenues.

Our political leaders seek governmental solutions to this problem, solutions the city cannot afford, when the private sector offers a potential answer. Here’s my proposal: Instead of expending scarce public funds for demolition and leaving empty lots behind, allow individuals to buy properties for $1 in return for a signed contract to demolish or gut the structure within 60 days (unless it can be successfully rehabbed), build a new residence within 12 months and agree to owner-occupy.

... Once renovation begins in a neighborhood more follows. We have seen this in areas that have been restored.

There is a conundrum.  If you offer such properties to lower income households out of the goal of equity, they may lack the capital necessary to fix the house in 12 months.  OTOH, if you focus on developers, the houses end up being rentals, disallowing individual homeowners the opportunity to build equity.

Note the math compared to an ADU.

The math for the buyer is compelling. The cost of home construction in Pittsburgh begins at around $150 per square foot. Remember the land was obtained in the original $1 transaction. The median home size in Pittsburgh is 1500 square feet, which equates to a construction cost of $225,000. /p>

If the buyer can do some of the work, the resultant cost could be less. That total cost would be much less if the existing structure could remain, be gutted and rebuilt from the inside out. Add $10,000 for demolition or gutting of the structure and the upward estimate of total construction would be $235,000. That is about the average cost of an existing home in Pittsburgh, but this would be a new home.

In Detroit, the cost of demolition is about $20,000.

DC and accessory dwelling units

Capitol Hill.

I have been interested in this for a long time, have written a lot about it, and believe that a targeted support program could create a many thousands of units in neighborhoods where back lots are deep (ours is 90 feet long), ideally targeting areas within one half mile of a Metrorail station.

-- Plus1 House, California ADU resource center
-- ADU Design Guide, Santa Cruz California
-- ADU units design guide, Tacoma, Washington
-- Building an ADU, Salt Lake City
-- ADU resource page (including guides), AARP

Neighborhoods like Capitol Hill and Georgetown are known for both "English basements" and carriage houses, which often are rented out.

DC has changed the rules to make it somewhat easier, but there are still various constraints. But it's not cheap.  It would cost at least $150,000 to $250,000 to construct, plus permitting etc.  It turns out that having "free land" doesn't make construction of such a dwelling unit much cheaper.

Image by architect Ileana Schinder from profile in Dwell Magazine.

An article ("Enduring less ado with an ADU") last week in the Washington Post shocked me though, because an ADU in the 16th Street Heights neighborhood (somewhat more than one mile away from our house, but nowhere near a Metrorail station) is renting for $1,975/month.

From the article:

They also incorporated a rehabilitation loan for $150,000 to cover the cost of converting the two-car garage into a 500-square-foot, one-bedroom rental unit. The couple imagined a hip space in the alley, but having to stay within the limitations of the existing garage put a stop to that idea. ...

Free-standing ADUs are subject to the same building codes and zoning regulations as a full-sized house. Conversely, they do not have their own address and are not deeded separately. They cannot be bought, sold or gambled away. ...

Before the project was complete Fazio ran ads on Craigslist and Reddit using Schinder’s renderings to showcase the space. “We had a dozen people interested in the first week,” Fazio says. The selected tenant is now in place and paying $1,975 a month. Fazio says the rent is “as high as anybody is paying for a one-bedroom in this neighborhood.”

That level of rent--albeit not priced as "affordable housing"--makes putting in such a unit financially efficacious.

But on the Columbia Heights e-list, one correspondent derided ADUs as anything but affordable.  My response was:

"if you have to get a loan to build the unit, the add on to the mortgage payment will be at least $1,000 and the construction cost will be financed privately."

If you want to offer these as lower cost rental units, they'd have to be subsidized by at least half the cost.

Potentially convertible garages to the rear of the 4400 block of River Road NW in Greater Friendship Heights.

Then again, it could well be worth it, as the production of one unit of housing would be 25% or less compared to the cost of traditional construction of a single unit of affordable housing.  OTOH, such a unit wouldn't be permanently affordable.

Parking still required.  One hindrance is that you can't convert a garage without replacing the otherwise foregone parking.  That requirement should be reconsidered, especially within one-half mile catchment areas of transit stations, at least in typical detached housing zoning districts.  In rowhouse districts it should vary, maybe, but definitely shouldn't be required in areas close to transit stations.

That's why in the photo above, there's a parking pad next to the building.  Although other photos in the article show that they repurpose the space more frequently as a patio.

The slums of Montgomery County Maryland (not)

Whereas the City of Los Angeles has massive problems to address, including homelessness, illegal dumping and the like, Montgomery County, Maryland is one of the nation's most economically successful counties in the US, is the 17th richest--of 3,144--along with being one of the largest in population, 42nd.

That being said, according to one letter writer published ("Don't turn Montgomery County into a slum") in the Washington Post, by making it a bit easier for homeowners to add accessory dwelling units, the county is likely to become a slum.

Ironically, I have criticized MoCo's ADU policy in the past, both because it has an arbitrary ceiling on the number of units that can be created and because it doesn't allow separate units on large lots, but only an additional unit within the existing footprint of a house, even though many of the county's subdivisions are marked by large lots.

Here is the letter in its entirety:

The Montgomery County Council is pushing through zoning changes to allow a proliferation of “auxiliary dwelling units” in people’s backyards. Despite announcing a “work session” on this topic for June 18, Councilman Hans Riemer (D-At Large) admitted in a constituent letter that the county already was hiring inspectors for these controversial units. This shortsighted proposal will cause property values to plummet and even more residents to flee the county.

The council appears oblivious to signs that Montgomery County is losing appeal, as if declining tax revenue and school performance weren’t enough. For most people, their home is their biggest investment.   

Kenwood neighborhood of Bethesda during cherry blossoms. 

Allowing campers, trailers and storage containers to be put in a neighbor’s backyard to house low-income residents is a slap in the face to those people who have worked hard to build a comfortable home and neighborhood. It is a sham to suggest that this is being done to provide housing for aging parents or adult children.  

people provide space in their homes, even if it means putting an addition onto their home, for family members. The council should instead lift some of the onerous restrictions on developers to encourage them to build decent and affordable housing. Just because others flee crime-ridden and poverty-stricken areas doesn’t mean Montgomery County has to be turned into a slum to accommodate them.

Katherine C. Gugulis, Gaithersburg

I couldn't help but laugh, and think of the Iggy Pop song, "Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell."

MoCo is not on its way to becoming a slum.

Remembering back to what DC was like in the 1980s and for most of the 1990s, not a slum, but you had to want to live here given all the problems, the hyperbole is breathtaking.

The county isn't losing population, it's gaining it. For the most part, tax revenues are increasing. School performance isn't declining, but it is challenged as the county's low income population is growing. And allowable ADUs won't include "trailers, campers, and storage containers."  It has three companies on the Fortune 500 list (although yes, Fairfax County, Virginia has 10.)

Montgomery County has issues.  No question.  They have a growing low income population and this creates issues in the schools in particular ("Brilliant piece in Bethesda Magazine on a Title I elementary school").  They could be more dense.  An aging population will put more demands on local government and infrastructure.  "Conventional subdivisions" are less attractive to younger demographics, and this makes up the bulk of the county's single family housing stock.

Rockville Pike.  Washington Post photo.

It's still a very automobile-centric community, despite the commitment to transit--the county's RideOn bus transit is one of the nation's most successful urban bus systems..

The state has a habit of using Montgomery County's tax revenues pretty liberally--a colleague calls MoCo "the ATM of Maryland state government."  Etc.

But it has some of the best schools in the country.  One of the best county parks systems in the US.  A great base of amenities.  High quality of life.  It's relatively safe with 1/8 the number of murders in DC, although MoCo has 300,000 more residents.

According to the Census, MoCo has 386,587 housing units. Adding up to 4,000 housing units within the footprint of already existing houses is not going to drive the County into ruin.

Top energy stories

1. Oil.  It's cheap and will remain so.  A few years ago that wasn't what was predicted.

The US is now a big exporter.  OPEC is on decline.  But fracking-produced oil wells generate most of their production in the first two years, so for oil production to remain high, wells will need to be continually drilled.  But since firms aren't really making money, is this sustainable?

-- "The Petro States of America," Bloomberg Businessweek, 2014
-- "The Dark Side of America's Rise to Oil Superpower," Bloomberg Businessweek, 2018

2.  Coal.  Since it's cheaper to fuel electricity generation with natural gas, coal production continues to decline, despite calls for increased use by the Trump Administration.  Another impact of natural gas as fuel for electricity generation is reduced labor.  NG electricity production requires a lot less labor than coal.

3.  Electric cars.  Are a way to reduce demand for oil, which hurts Saudi Arabia and Russia.  And reduces the "need" for the US to be involved in Mideast affairs as a way to ensure a continuous supply of oil to support the US's sprawl economy.

It's had an effect on those countries, clearly.  But the Trump Administration isn't interested in leveraging that economic effect to change the way those countries act.

But cheap oil makes electric cars less cost effective on an economic basis, without tax credits, and the Trump Administration is making noise about electric car tax credits.

4. Electricity generation and transmission.  I went to a presentation sponsored by BASF and produced by Atlantic Magazine, the Summit on Infrastructure and Transportation, and one of the presenters was Bruce J. Walker, Assistant Secretary, Office of Electricity, U.S. Department of Energy.  He actually made me feel confident about the Trump Administration in this area. He has extensive experience in the utility industry.

He distinguished between reliability and resiliency, making the point that the grid is very reliable, but what concerns him is "resiliency" especially in the face of changes in the mix of energy sources.  Coal use for electricity generation is way down, natural gas is way up, and wind and solar power is becoming a larger source.

I learned a new term "second contingency."  That is how the electricity transmission system is designed, so that if two major transmission lines fail simultaneously the system can still function.

Later on a coffee break I spoke with him at length about the problems and redesign of the grid in Puerto Rico. I missed a session as a result but it was well worth it. He was awesome.  He has a design for the PR system that goes to the fourth contingency in reliability.  (He even drew on a napkin the system, the problems--most of the demand is in the San Juan area but the power plant there is sub-optimal and they were rely on electricity from power plants more than 60 miles away--a problem when the transmission system goes down in a hurricane.)

Electric cars will also increase the demand for electricity and increase demands on the electricity grid.

5. Sustainable energy.  Off shore wind is a real opportunity for coastal states, but not a whole lot is happening in the US compared to Europe.  The one benefit of being a laggard is advances in technology and engineering mean that larger more efficient turbines can be deployed (a la Gerschenkron's thesis of the economic advantages of "backwardness.")

Another of the presenters at the Atlantic Summit on Infrastructure and Transportation was Tom Fanning, CEO, Southern Company. Southern Company is the nation's most innovative "traditional utility" and heavily invested in renewable energy. Another impressive presenter--actually virtually every presentation and presenter was great (which is rare).

His point was that they could manage the decline of the company as the electricity business model changed, or they could be forward, and shape and ride the changes and maintain profitability and position.

-- Southern Company Bets Big," POWER Magazine

Recently, I read a long article about the company's efforts in renewable energy but I can't remember where it was published.

6. Car industry efficiency requirements.  The Trump Administration aims to reduce car gasoline efficiency requirements, rolling back a continuous raising of the standards.

One of the plants GM will close makes the Chevrolet Cruze, in Lordstown, Ohio.  GM photo.

Yet, President Trump is not happy about GM closing manufacturing plants, which happen to make gasoline powered cars.  Over the last few years, Chrysler first and then Ford announced that they are mostly cutting back on car production and instead focusing on trucks and SUVs.

More than 0% of the market for vehicles is SUVs.  They aren't making money producing cars.

And without stronger requirements for fleet "efficiency" of course car companies aren't going to be able to sell cars, based on their legacy business model and business conditions.  So that's one of the spillover costs.

There need to be increased efficiency requirements for light trucks and SUVs.

7.  Natural Gas.  Fracking produces a lot of it. Prices are down as demand increases.  More is being produced for export through liquification (LNG) and shipment.  There are a few export terminals in operation, including in Maryland and there is interest in building more.  Note that Australia is in the odd position of exporting LNG through long term contracts and they are having a problem meeting domestic demand.

8.  Carbon taxes.  The unrest in France over an increase in energy costs as an energy efficiency measure has a lot of causes beyond attempting to deal with the environment.  But it does demonstrate that getting people to willingly pay more money for energy is difficult.

Washington State did not vote in favor of a carbon tax in the recent election.  But states are doing more, for example, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a group of nine Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states have created a “cap-and-invest” system for power plant emission reductions.

Alley housing on the 100 block of C Street SE

This is one block from Pennsylvania Avenue SE, behind the Library of Congress and around the corner from the Capitol South Metrorail station.

I don't think I've ever walked in that alley where remnant houses abut newer apartment buildings, but as I was walking from the Metro station, I looked down the alley and saw a mural painted on the garage door of a carriage house, which caused me to explore.

"Undesirable" back yard tenants

A cream-colored skunk in our backyard, next to the garage which could be converted to an ADU.  Because of the rains, the grass hasn't been cut.

Skunks... well, not really, as according to the Humane Society for the most part skunks stay out of our way. 

Our landscape design for our backyard is what I call "rustic," we let wildflowers bloom even though they give our beds a very much unmanicured look. 

On the other hand, we have plenty of different species of birds, bees, butterflies (and yes, mosquitos) and such and have a more Jain-like attitude to those species.  I contrast our backyard habitat (which qualifies for the NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat program) to the very manicured lots which have minimal bird activity.

(Note that this is the first time we've seen a skunk.  We do have raccoons from time to time.  Bats fly around from time to time, but we aren't close enough to a water source to put up a bathouse.)

There are plenty of lots capable of accessory dwelling units in Upper Northwest

DC needs an alley dwelling open house or Alley-Palooza of its own.  This poster and event is from Seattle.

Much of the most vociferous opposition to the potential for "alley dwellings" on the rear of housing lots in Washington, DC--something that is legal now in certain residential zones, has been grandfathered in for some dwellings/carriage houses that wouldn't be legal now, but for existing buildings, but mostly isn't legal in DC--comes from Wards 3 and 4 in Upper Northwest. 

Yet many of the lots are appropriately sized for such dwellings.

And the likelihood of residents--the proposed changes to the zoning code would only allow accessory dwelling units on owner-occupied lots--renting units to "bad tenants" is extremely unlikely.

See "Will carriage houses destroy city life as we know it?" and discussion on the topic from Greater Greater Washington:

-- Walkability and garage apartments are not just for the young
-- Panic! Your alley could have a cute, clean little brick house!
-- Why the angst over accessory dwellings?

We went to an estate sale on the 4400 block of River Road NW over the weekend, and the block was full of lots with garages, at least one might have been semi-converted into something more, demonstrating the potential of accessory dwelling units here.

The block is 0.46 miles from the Tenleytown Metro Station and 0.59 miles from the Friendship Heights Metro Station.

Personally, I think that ADUs should be prioritized, when they can be easily accommodated, in transit station catchment areas, up to about one mile from the station--easy walking distance is up to a half-mile, and biking distance is up to one mile.





Note the extension on this building.  The plantings obscure the building somewhat.  But if you zoom in, you can see it better.

Testing changes to zoning with demonstration projects

This coop in Ballard is tucked in the corner of the lot, against the back alley. 

One of the big problems with zoning is that it is an all or nothing phenomenon.  Usually there are a number of authorized uses, which triggers no significant review, unauthorized uses (such as chickens in DC), or uses that may be allowed depending on hearings or other changes.

While traveling this past week, I read a bunch of newspapers from the Pacific Northwest and there were a bunch of articles about how changes to zoning codes concerning matter of right use (such as a automobile dealership in a residential area) allowing discordant uses (commercial in solidly residential areas) in close proximity created problems.

A guy in my greater neighborhood had some chickens--DC hasn't legalized urban poultry even though many of the nation's largest cities have--and someone reported it (comparable probably to how someone stole the flowers I planted on the alley side of our property) and he has to get rid of them.

He's suggesting that they allow him to keep the chickens until the code is changed. 

While there is zero chance of that happening (see this 3+ year old story on the topic "D.C. residents fight to raise poultry in the city" from the Post, as well as Max Weber's writings on bureaucracy, James Scott Seeing Like A State, and John Friedmann's Planning in the Public Domain), it does raise a good point, that it is worth testing certain kinds of zoing changes on a limited basis, to get people to see how it will work, to make tweaks to proposals, etc.

We don't have that kind of iterative process in zoning.

But we need some type of demonstration process for at least five categories:

- urban poultry
- accessory dwelling units (it's actually legal now in some parts of the city, but it isn't really used much)
- apartments in houses
- "corner" stores (it was legal at one time so there are examples here and there across the city, especially in Capitol Hill)
- conversion of large houses to "rooming houses" (this is illegal now but could be allowed in certain situations).

This backyard has a small garden and is also used by the dog.  The family has four chickens.  In Seattle, the legal limit is 8 chickens for lots less than 10,000 s.f.

Otherwise, people think everything will be going to hell with the changes.  Ideally, if they saw such in action, knowledge might trump fear.

We were traveling this past week (a wedding) and saw some urban chickens in two different neighborhoods in Seattle, in Ballard, a neighborhood with escalating housing prices, and in a middle income area, Madison Valley.

The chickens have been at both those households for 10 years or more.  They, their neighborhoods, and the City of Seattle have survived.

-  Seattle planning tip memo: Urban Agriculture
- "An update on Block Supported (Poultry) Agriculture," a previous entry based on some experiences with chickens in Salt Lake City

Note also that Seattle had a demonstration project on accessory dwelling units in Southeast Seattle, which is captured in this document, A Guide to Building a Backyard Cottage in Southeast Seattle.

Will carriage houses destroy city life as we know it?

Last Friday's (8/9/2013) Express/The Washington Post's "Ready to Rent" section featured the carriage house as a desirable place to live. See "Your Own Private Hideaway."  I haven't figured out where they have this online, but you can find the article by downloading the issue from the Read Express website.

So I guess the Post believes that the city won't be destroyed by carriage houses.

In DC's zoning update process (see the past blog entries "A good chance the DC Zoning Rewrite will crash and burn: Part 1" and "DC as a suburban agenda dominated city"), one of the elements that has unglued many residents of the suburban intra-city is the possibility of expanding the ability to have accessory dwelling units or legal apartments within larger dwellings.

In all the hullaballoo about "alley dwellings" and "accessory dwelling units" the Office of Planning has backed off their original more expansive proposals, and propose to allow either a separate unit on the lot or an in-building apartment, but not both.

Image of Gessford Court SE from The Hill is Home blog.

The city has a long history with alley dwellings, which for more than 100 years, were used to hide and house poor people.

President Wilson's wife Edith helped spur along the Alley Dwelling Authority, which mostly eradicated this type of housing.

Even so, pockets of alley housing ("D.C.'s Gessford Court is a little alley oasis" from the Post) re-branded as "Courts" and individual carriage houses ("Alley Homes Fight for Respect -- and Trash Pickup," Post) remained on Capitol Hill especially, but can also be found in Greater Dupont Circle and Georgetown, and here and there across the city.

James Borchert's Alley Life in Washington: Family, Community, Religion, and Folklife in the City, 1850-1970 is the definitive book on the history of this type of housing unit in the city, at least preceding the last 40 years.

Right: This little girl, 5 years older than when this picture was taken, lives in a renovated carriage house located immediately behind the commercial buildings on H Street NE.  She seems to be fairly well-adjusted--and is even more gorgeous--despite the claims by Upper Northwest DC residents up in arms about "those people" living in alley dwellings.

Currently, ADUs aren't really legal, unless they are used by family members or "domestic servants" or building custodians.

But creative legal minds have figured out that since domestic servant isn't absolutely defined in the zoning code, if "tenants" put out your garbage, that qualifies as a domestic servant.  So in R1 zones--single family houses on for the city, comparatively big lots, ADUs are matter of right.

(Otherwise it's hard to get approval for alley dwelling units.  The current regulations require that the alley be 30 feet wide in different R zones, for housing to be legal--unless grandfathered in.  But arts-based uses, non-living, are legal.)

A lot of the opposition is about "those people," "those people" being different, unruly, and poorer than owners, forgetting the fact that legal ADUs will only be able to be offered if the main house is owner-occupied. It won't be in an owner's best interest to rent to the unwashed, especially if they are sharing the same backyard.

I have written about this a lot.  Basically, I think that ADUs should be preferenced in areas around transit stations especially.  My neighborhood could accommodate hundreds.  ADUs will allow lower priced housing, but also enable another income stream for otherwise increasingly more expensive to acquire properties.

And it will provide a revenue stream for renovating structures that might now be neglected or otherwise nuisances.

The increased price of owner occupied housing is why you see in Canada especially--they don't have a mortgage interest tax deduction like we do in the US--the addition of apartments to "single family houses" and depending on the community, carriage houses/ADUs/laneway houses.  Although this is seen more in cities like Vancouver, BC and Seattle, Washington.

The Pocket Neighborhoods concept, by Ross Chapin (I've mentioned the book before, which is beautifully written and illustrated) is a riff on the idea of laneway housing.

And housing of this type in Salt Lake City, built decades ago, and down the block from Pioneer Park, was pointed out to me.

Being that it is situated behind some apartment buildings, you'd never know it was there, unless your attention is called to it.

The photos of laneway type housing in SLC are below.  The thing is that they are incredibly well located.  (SLC was designed with massively large blocks, 10 acres in size, so "alley type housing" is a good way to use up space on the interior of a block.) 

As I mentioned, they are across the street from the city's signature downtown park, and close to upscale groceries, a couple blocks from Downtown, a bicycle sharing station, etc.

In DC, ADUs would allow the surgical increase of affordable housing, in ways that limit demand on infrastructure, and strengthen neighborhood commercial districts, schools, and safety on the interior of blocks.

Accessory dwelling unit resources

We have been talking about the desire for some of us to bring back alley dwellings as residents. Other accessory housing units are sometimes called "granny flats." John Linck offers a good list of links on resources for accessory dwelling units.