TRAVERSE CITY — It’s a controversial issue for many people in Traverse City but city commissioners passed changes to the zoning ordinances Monday night.
The changes will allow for more accessory dwelling units or ADU’s within the city limits. ADUs are small apartments built into and around existing homes.
Traverse City planning director Shawn Winter said there is a housing shortage in Traverse City, like many tourist destinations in Northern Michigan.
“It’s really hard. There are no vacancies,” said Winter.
Over the past few years the city has been exploring options to address the housing shortage.
“It’s not lost on anyone that we’re dealing with a housing crisis, if you will, both in terms of affordability and availability. We need more units at all price points,” said Winter.
Winter said the planning commission sent recommendations to the city commission back in June and they voted on those at Monday night’s meeting.
“Nothing that the city commission approved allows more short term rentals in the residential neighborhoods. What it does allow is more variety in the type of housing,” said Winter.
some of the changes include requiring property owners to live either in the main home or the ADU, and also making changes to single and two family districts.
“For instance, you can now build a house on a slightly smaller lot, so there may be some big lots out there that could result in a split and a new house being built that previously couldn’t. Or you’re allowed to now have a duplex in our single family neighborhood, which was exclusively single family until now,” said Winter.
Winter said according to the last two censuses, Traverse City has a growing population compared to the rest of the state.
“We had a housing market analysis done commissioned by Housing North that identified that here in the city alone we’re shy approximately 2000 dwelling units. Kind of mixed 50/50 between rental and for sale units and all different price points. The demand exists across the spectrum housing,” said Winter.
Winter said the report also made it clear that the housing shortage is affecting the younger generations.
“A lot of these people, due to their age, in their careers are making less income. And the housing supply has constrained the constraint on the housing supply, rather, has restricted the prices. And it’s just squeezing that market and driving those prices up,” said Winter.
Yarrow Brown, Executive Director, of Housing North said the changes to the ordinance is definitely a win for the city but there’s much more work to do.
“We’re very happy and I should say that this is a progress for sure. These changes will essentially bring more housing opportunities but we were hopeful that there would be more ordinances passed that would allow for more units than duplexes,” said Brown.
