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Fayston planners revise ADU size limits to comply with state guidance
Summary
The Fayston Planning Commission proposed tiered accessory-dwelling-unit limits to align local rules with recent state guidance, specifying caps by principal dwelling size and removing conditional-use requirements that the state now restricts.
The Fayston Planning Commission on July 14 moved to rewrite how the town treats accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to reflect recent changes in Vermont law that limit local special-review options.
Planning Commissioner Langford Davidson said the state now requires that review of an ADU be no more stringent than review for a single-family home. "If your home is larger than 4,000 square feet, the largest ADU you can have is 30% of your livable floor area; if your house is between 1,600 and 4,000 square feet, you're allowed to build a 2,000 square foot ADU; if your house is smaller than 1,600 square feet, you can build 75% of your principal dwelling, or 900 square feet, whichever is larger," Davidson said. The commission's drafted language removes routing ADU proposals to conditional-use review where the state bars that step.
Commissioners said the limits are intended to keep single-family lots from becoming de facto duplex lots without subdivision. "With the way the regulation currently reads, we were concerned that we may be backdooring the opportunity to put in duplexes on single family lots," Davidson said. Several members of the public told the commission the changes sounded reasonable. The commission plans to incorporate public feedback into the draft and revisit the revisions at a future meeting before forwarding them to a warned Selectboard hearing.
