Since 2011, Raleigh Residents Have Been Lobbying the City to Allow Backyard Cottages. Whats the ...

Since 2011, Raleigh Residents Have Been Lobbying the City to Allow Backyard Cottages. What’s the Holdup?

Call them backyard cottages, granny flats, or detached units—small, livable additions on the same lot as a first house, but unconnected. They've existed in some form or another in North Carolina since colonial times and were widespread by the 1800s. In zoning jargon, they're known as accessory dwelling units, or ADUs. Some Raleigh residents have been lobbying the city since at least 2011 to allow them—for themselves, for renters, or for family members in need of a place to live.

"We've gotten questions from people who are interested in building them," says Charles Dillard, of Raleigh's long-range planning division. "They'll say, 'My mother lives alone and is in her eighties. We want to see if we can build an ADU so she could live with us, but not in the same house." There's also room in ADU World for millennials, Dillard adds: "There are millennial children who can't find jobs, or can find jobs but can't afford their own dwelling."

Durham, Charlotte, Greensboro, Asheville, and several other cities across the state and nation have long allowed backyard cottages. In Portland, Oregon, nearly 11 percent of all residential permits between 2009 and 2015 were for ADUs. In California, the legislature passed a law this year requiring cities to allow backyard cottages.

Raleigh is an outlier. And some people want to keep it that way.

Opponents say the units could crowd older neighborhoods and streets, leading to raucous renters, light pollution, and the loss of privacy. Though it's difficult to put a number on it, some Raleigh houses have ADUs that are grandfathered in because they were built before the city banned the dwellings in the 1970s. The council is said to have passed that ban out of fear of boisterous tenants—including college students.

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