Does Carrboro Need More Mother-In-Law Apartments?

GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT

CARRBORO–Would allowing more accessory dwelling units (ADU), AKA “mother-in-law apartments”, in Carrboro create added affordable housing or added short-term rentals that change the nature of the town’s older neighborhoods?

The Carrboro Town Council held an Oct. 14 work session on the town’s “unified development ordinance” (UDO). When complete, the UDO will set zoning regulations, stormwater management rules and other requirements for Carrboro development. The meeting gave Chad Meadows of Codewright Planning the opportunity to update the council on the UDO-drafting process, and for them to provide feedback. Short-term rentals and ADUs were among the topics Meadows brought up..

Short-term rentals

Cities around the country were debating the merits of short-term rentals before Airbnb and similar platforms made it easy to rent out property for a week or a weekend. A short-term rental is usually defined as lasting for a month or less.

Rental supporters say they boost the economy by bringing in tourists to spend money in town. Critics say the rentals saddle residential neighborhoods with added cars, noise and trash. A 2023 New York Times article found that STR owners catering to the college-sports market sharply reduced the number of rentals available for college-town residents. The cost for long-term renters increased due to competition for the remaining rentals.

Meadows says the current land-use rules allow “tourist houses” in a few places but don’t set standards. The rules used in some other communities include:

Occupancy limits based on the number of bedrooms or bathrooms.
Rules about trash collection. Tourist houses piling up trash on the curb is a common complaint in some communities.
A requirement is that tourist houses provide a minimum number of parking spaces.
Informing tenants of the rules.
Making the owner or their representative available to answer neighborhood complaints.
Allowing the town to ban rentals at a given property after repeated rule-breaking.

Meadows said some options, such as requiring short-term rental owners to register their properties, aren’t available in North Carolina. Even with rules to minimize problems, there’s the possibility that tourist houses will eat into Carrboro’s housing supply and change the community feeling of many Carrboro neighborhoods. If a lot of short-term renters cycle in and out of a neighborhood, “it becomes a different kind of a place to live.”

Accessory dwelling units

Providing more affordable housing is a Carrboro priority. Allowing more ADUs, such as a small cottage in a backyard or a garage apartment, could be one solution. Meadows said feedback from Carrboro residents favored making it easier to allow ADUs.

The council members spent part of the work session discussing whether more ADUs would help the housing crunch or simply turn into short-term rentals.

Should the town distinguish between one homeowner renting out an ADU and an investor with 20 Airbnb properties?
What if a homeowner needs to rent out a room to make the mortgage?
What happens if people simply ignore whatever rules end up in the UDO and rent out their property anyway?
Is the risk of ADUs becoming short-term rentals so serious the town should pass up a potential source of affordable housing?

Meadows said current rules only allow ADUs on lots at least 1.5 times the required minimum lot size. In neighborhoods where lots are large, that rule won’t do much to restrict a boom in ADUs. Council Member Randee Haven-O’Donnell said in a neighborhood like Barred Owl Creek, with lots of space, there could be enough ADUs built that it would end up like “North Side in Chapel Hill, all students.”

Meadows said the town can use zoning rules to exclude ADUs in some areas but not others. Homeowners in no-ADU neighborhoods can currently apply for a special-use permit. Zoning regulations could be used to set some restrictions on ADUs.

Meadows said he didn’t have the perfect solution, but if the town could expand its affordable housing stock, the loss of some ADUs to rentals wouldn’t be too bad. He compared it to when he lived in the Florida Keys and discovered many of his neighbors didn’t worry about losing some of the fruit they grew to insects — things grew so fast they figured there would be enough fruit for them anyway.

You can watch the whole work session on YouTube.

Fraser Sherman has worked for newspapers, including the Destin Log, the Pensacola News-Journal and the Raleigh Public Record. Born in England, he’d still live in Florida if he hadn’t met the perfect woman and moved to Durham to marry her. He’s the author of several film reference books and has published one novel and several short story collections. This reporter can be reached at: Information@TheLocalReporter.press