How Can Accessory Dwelling Units Help Beverly's Housing Crunch?

BEVERLY, MA — Beverly will become the latest North Shore community to delve into the discussion around expanded accessory-dwelling units as one small solution to the region's increasing affordable housing crunch when ADUs — or so-called "in-law apartments" — are the topic of a public meeting next week.

ADUs are smaller subsections of bigger homes designed to increase the housing inventory while allowing homeowners a revenue source from their property. ADU supporters say they increase the housing stock while allowing older residents a way to stay in their homes when less space is needed, and allowing younger residents with a need for limited space the chance to live in the community where they work or desire to stay at a generally lower cost. ADU opponents say that the increase in renters has the potential to add traffic congestion and change the complexion of residential neighborhoods.

Beverly City Councilor Hannah Bowen — an ADU proponent — told Patch on Tuesday that Beverly is an ideal city for expanded ADUs to be one more way to increase housing opportunities without imposing new development.

"I am really looking at housing and development as holistically as possible," Bowen said. "ADUs are one of several things that we need to be doing or need to keep doing. In Beverly, we have a little more space in a lot of neighborhoods compared to someplace like Salem, so I think it could work even better here than it has in Salem where you saw some of that pushback."

Salem passed its ADU zoning ordinance in 2021 after years of City Council debate and amended it earlier this year in an effort to ease some of the restrictions around them and spur more interest in ADU production. Bowen said Beverly can learn from Salem's experiences as it begins the road to a potential change in its ADU ordinance — which currently only allows family rentals under stringent conditions — starting with the May 2 public hearing at 7 p.m. in City Council chambers.

"When you look at our housing plans, our master plan, all the community meetings that went into those," Bowen said, "all those points to that Beverly has a lot of people who want smaller units to live in. Maybe they currently have a home that's too big for what they need, but they don't have anyplace else in Beverly they can move to, or they are younger and maybe work for a nonprofit, and buying a house is never going to be their plan in life.

"There is something really special about our neighborhoods' architecture. If you allow for more ADUs you get to keep all those things because you can put in the ordinance that they need to fit with the physical space and the style of that neighborhood so it doesn't change the feel of a neighborhood."

Bowen said she has yet to hear much opposition to her push for the expanded ADUs but welcomes the public hearing as a way to hear out any questions and concerns so they can be taken into consideration before any change is sent to the full City Council for a discussion and possible vote.

While the details of the specific new ordinance are still to be developed, Bowen said it will likely include the owner-occupancy requirement that was ultimately kept in the revised Salem ordinance after a move to remove it faced significant resistance during the public comment portions of ordinance hearings. She said it will likely prohibit short-term ADU rentals that are more akin to Air BnBs.

Bowen said that even adding five to 10 ADU units per year could be part of the solution to bringing more scale housing to the city.

"Building an ADU from nothing is not cheap so there aren't that many people who may choose to do it right away," she said. "But the demand for housing in Beverly is so high that it might make sense for someone who has a basement or attic or other space they are not using, to use that infrastructure to make it into an ADU. Doing a renovation to a building is easier and less impactful than putting up a new four-story structure."

"Most people who would consider doing one are not looking to become a developer. They are looking to stay in their homes and have some income to support that. And maybe have a new neighbor to help out with the yard work."

The May 2 public hearing is set to air on Bevcam and the Bevcam Youtube channel.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)