Long Live the Granny Cottage
By: Brad Edmonson, September 2005 | Source: AARP Bulletin | 2005-09-08 10:56:00-04:00
Anne McGivern wanted to convert a spare room extending from her Santa Rosa, Calif., house to an apartment. "It would be there when my mom needed it," says McGivern, 54, "or in case I needed to hire a caregiver for myself."
When she applied for a building permit, many neighbors and their lawyer opposed her at a hearing. McGivern prevailed, but then a neighbor, a former judge, sued to block the project. He contended that private rules governing their 50-year-old subdivision prohibited second units, she says.
"They brought in a consultant who argued that my little cottage would wreck the neighborhood," says McGivern. "It was like something out of The Twilight Zone."
Once a popular way to keep family members close—but not too close—or to earn extra income, second units, or "granny cottages," have nearly been zoned and bylawed to extinction in many urban areas. Detractors claim they ruin views, drive down neighborhood property values and attract undesirable renters.
Now there are signs that granny cottages are making a comeback, at least in California. Santa Rosa developer Cobblestone Homes recently built 29 homes with attached apartments. Just to the north, the city of Windsor encourages second units, says city planner Kevin Thompson. So does Ventura, 70 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
"As our population ages, it will be invaluable for cities to let these kinds of units evolve," says Ann Daigle, Ventura's planning and urban development manager. And don't forget about all of those boomerang kids, young adults who return to live with Mom and Dad.
Granny cottages have gotten a bum rap, many urban planners say. Adding a second unit to a primary residence makes a neighborhood's population denser—perhaps contributing to enough density to support businesses.
"If you can walk to the stores and services you need, you can remain independent longer," says Laura Hall, an urban designer in Santa Rosa.
Second units also make financial sense. "People can add a granny unit affordably because they have already paid for the land underneath it," Hall says.
Consider a boomer couple raising a family and looking for a bigger house, says Maurice Lockwood of Cobblestone Homes. The husband's father dies, and his mother, living alone, gets a good offer for a house she owns outright. She sells, helps her son buy a bigger place and puts a second unit on his lot. "Everyone wins," Lockwood says.
Glenn White, president of Precision Integrated Homes in Newport Beach, Calif., sells a "backyard home" manufactured by Silvercrest, a division of Western Homes Corp. The freestanding 674-square-foot cottage comes in four exterior styles. It has a living room, bedroom and galley kitchen with stainless steel appliances. And it exceeds state requirements for earthquakes and high winds.
White says he has 50 interested buyers at $150,000 or so a pop, but only a couple of cottages have landed on the ground. In too many communities, he says, people "see that it's modular construction, and they think it's a trailer."
Resistance to second units persists. California law gives local zoning and building codes control over second units. Last year a coalition of real estate agents and affordable-housing activists pushed a bill to standardize rules through the legislature. After more than 100 cities objected, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R, vetoed the measure.
Anne McGivern, a gerontologist and real estate agent, won her case on appeal in February. The battle cost her $50,000, but she "saw it as a civil rights issue. People were discriminating against multigenerational living in favor of living in single-family ghettos. I thought that wasn't right."
ECHO Cottage Housing Helps Families Stay Closer (AARP.org)
AARP.org's Housing Choices Channel (AARP.org)
What is Universal Design? (AARP.org)
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