Revere Council adopts amended ADU rules to comply with state law, limits parking and curb cuts

The Revere City Council adopted changes to the city's accessory dwelling unit (ADU) zoning ordinance after a lengthy discussion of state requirements and local controls.

City Planning Director Tom Skrowski told the council the state's model bylaw requires municipalities to allow ADUs by right where single-family homes are allowed, and the draft before the council was written to meet that state standard while adding local limits the city considers reasonable.

The ordinance narrows where ADUs must be allowed by removing the automatic right in commercially zoned and industrial districts; prohibits variances for ADUs; limits new driveway curb cuts in most cases; restricts off-street parking for ADUs within a half mile of transit; and sets size, setback and detached-unit coverage limits. Under the final version the city set a 900-square-foot protected-size limit drawn from the model bylaw, prohibited new ADUs below the FEMA 100-year base flood elevation, and limited detached ADU footprint in rear/side yards to 25% generally and up to 35% in specified floodplain cases where the ADU cannot meet other base-elevation requirements.

Skrowski said the draft also removes a prior allowance for multiple ADUs on a single lot unless authorized by special permit. "By law, we need to allow ADUs by right in any neighborhood where a single-family home is allowed by right," Skrowski said. "We are choosing not to allow additional ADUs on a lot."

Council members pressed staff on several operational questions: how the planning and building departments will administer permitting, whether the ordinance allows ADUs to be rented, and how the rules intersect with parking permits and conservation commission approval in flood-prone areas. Skrowski said site plan review and the building inspector will handle permitting and that the state law permits ADUs to be used as rental units; the city struck ambiguous language that could have been interpreted to prohibit rentals.

The council adopted several amendments proposed at the subcommittee level'including a carve-out to permit a slightly larger detached-ADU footprint (35%) for properties that cannot comply with the ordinance's elevation requirements in the FEMA 100-year floodplain. The measure passed on a roll-call vote as amended and will be forwarded to the full council for engrossment and finalization.

The council and planning staff said the goal of the changes is to implement the state mandate while preserving neighborhood character and limiting traffic and flood risk.

The ordinance will be enacted as amended; implementation details such as how parking permits will be applied to ADU addresses will be handled administratively by the parking director and building inspector.

Tom Skrowski, director of planning, said the draft implements the state model bylaw and attempts to add "reasonable regulations" that the city can lawfully adopt; he urged the council that the changes are designed to reduce conflicts with mixed-use and commercial districts and to avoid bonus "stacked" ADU development that would create effectively larger apartment buildings.

"So we are choosing not to allow additional ADUs on a lot," Skrowski said during the presentation.

Several councilors praised specific changes while warning about limits. Councilor Kelly told colleagues she supported removing variance relief and limiting multiple ADUs per lot but regretted removal of a prior local prohibition on ADUs in duplexes and condominiums that had been left in error in the draft.

The planning director and councilors agreed further administrative guidance will be written to clarify parking-permit eligibility, site-plan triggers, and how the ordinance will interact with conservation commission approvals and building-code permits. The building inspector will continue to handle the actual permit issuance.

The ordinance as amended received a favorable roll-call for final engrossment and ordainment and will be incorporated into the city code.

Topic-specific speakers and presenters included Planning Director Tom Skrowski and several Revere City Council members who questioned and amended the draft; public commenters raised parking and driveway concerns. Quotes in this story are taken from the council hearing record.

The city will publish final ordinance language and implementation guidance on the Planning Department pages and handle parking and permit eligibility on a case-by-case basis per the ordinance and site-plan review conditions.