Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Adu Housing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Provo planners outline ADU rules, change paths to approval; Pleasant View remains only area in District 1 where ADUs are allowed by right
Summary
Council staff summarized recent changes to Provo’s accessory dwelling unit (ADU) rules, described zoning map areas where ADUs are allowed by right, and explained three pathways for homeowners to gain ADU approval; neighborhood residents asked enforcement and eligibility questions.
Malia, a staff member in the Provo City council office, presented an overview of the city’s accessory dwelling unit (ADU) rules and recent ordinance changes to Neighborhood District 1. "This is found in our city code, chapter 14.30," she said, and noted the code treats attached, detached and internal ADUs the same for regulatory purposes.
Malia walked attendees through where ADUs are prohibited and where they are allowed by right: much of the city’s low-density residential zones prohibit ADUs, while a set of mapped areas (shown in staff slides) allow them by right. She said that within District 1, Pleasant View is the only neighborhood where ADUs are allowed by right by zoning. For properties outside those mapped zones, Malia explained three pathways to obtain an ADU: (1) an ordinance text amendment with neighbor signatures (which now reduces the fee from $1,000 to $500 but still requires council approval), (2) a rezoning of the property into a zone that allows ADUs, or (3) the now-eliminated special-use permit pathway that previously allowed some ADUs without council action (staff said that pathway was removed by council action and no longer exists).
Malia also summarized grandfathering and owner-occupancy rules. She said ADUs that were previously permitted under older special permits remain valid while the original owner occupies the home and complies with the rental-dwelling license and safety inspections; if the owner moves or sells, that permit does not run with the land. She clarified ADUs require owner-occupancy: "As soon as the person who owns the home is not living in that home, it's technically not the ADU anymore," she said. A community member asked whether family members could reside in an ADU; Malia said family occupancy is allowed under the code’s family definition.
Residents asked practical questions about how to identify immediate adjacent properties for signature petitions, the process for reporting suspected illegal ADUs (call 311 or submit an online code-enforcement complaint), and the one-time $50 fee for the elderly-special-use permit path. Malia said all ADU-related approvals require final council approval when applying via ordinance or rezoning.
