Regarding accessory dwelling units in Tempe, the city is looking to proceed with a draft ordinance and hearing process for its regulations this fall to abide by the state mandate for ADU regulations based on population.
At Tempe City Council’s June 20 work study, council received an update from Community Development Director Jeff Tamulevich and Deputy Community Development Director Ryan Levesque about the latest work on Tempe’s ADU regulations.
As explained in a city staff report, staff had received further guidance at a November work study session to conduct more public outreach and information gathering on ADU regulations, with staff conducting its second outreach process from February until early May.
“Within that time frame, three public in-person meetings were held, including one virtual meeting session, along with updates and feedback to multiple boards and commissions. The outreach was wrapped up with an extensive online survey that yielded 619 responses,” the report stated.
However, Tamulevich started the presentation by saying that staff was unaware that HB 2720, the state mandate that established requirements relating to accessory dwelling units, would be passed by the House and signed by the governor last month.
“Today, Tempe’s no longer in the driver’s seat, we don’t have the abilities that we had,” Tamulevich said.
HB 2720 requires that cities with populations over 75,000 adopt regulations to allow ADUs for single-family use by Jan. 1, 2025, taking away local control of ADU regulations.
Currently, Tempe’s standards for ADUs allow for one ADU per lot, a maximum of 800 square feet of livable area, no additional vehicle parking required and no more than two bedrooms. Additionally, the property containing an ADU must be zoned for multifamily residential and have an existing single-family use.
Levesque went into the city staff’s conclusions from the second outreach process, which sought feedback on updating Tempe’s ADU section in its Zoning and Development Code to expand ADU’s applicability to single-family residential zoned properties.
“It is expected to expand affordable housing options, provide extra income opportunities for homeowners and as well as facilitate multigenerational living,” Levesque said.
From their outreach, he said that residents are generally in support of expanding to single-family zoning areas, also supporting the restriction of ADUs as short-term rentals to address concerns related to affordability and congestion.
Other highlights from the city’s outreach showed that the majority of residents favored a three-year ownership requirement before ADUs can be built to address developer-driven acquisition of properties and maintaining guest quarters provisions in ADU regulations.
Residents also showed support for allowing ADUs to be up to 1,000 square feet and calculating parking based on the number of bedrooms on a property.
Levesque also touched on the role of HOAs in regulating ADUs, explaining that HOAs can regulate the use of a property, in some cases overruling the city’s regulations of ADUs. More information about HOAs’ role in regulating ADUs can be found at tempe.gov/ADU.
Covering Community Development’s recommendations for the city’s regulations based on the state ADU mandate, Levesque stated a need for further exploration into requirements for owner-occupancy of short-term rental ADUs, combining guest quarter provisions into the proposed ADU regulation proceeding with drafting the ordinance this fall.
Staff anticipates that they will release a proposed draft ordinance for public review in August, with hearings and adoption for the ADU regulations likely to take place from August to October.
Reporter Caroline Yu can be reached at cyu@iniusa.org. To voice your opinion on this story, connect with us at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.
Meet Caroline Caroline Yu joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2020 as a summer intern covering Scottsdale. As an intern, she continued her coverage of Scottsdale, Paradise Valley and Tempe. After graduating in 2022, Caroline became a full-time reporter for Scottsdale and Paradise Valley. She is currently reporting for the Tempe market.
Community: She is a supporter of the environment and tries to get involved with related community events.
Education: Arizona State University with a BA in Journalism and Mass Communications, with a minor in French.
Random Fact: She used to be a ballet dancer for 10 years.
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