On your mark, get set, granny units!

SANTA CRUZ No track shoes are required, but Thursday night will be a marathon -- a marathon on granny units.

The city is planning two meetings on granny units that will span at least four hours and several city blocks.

The first meeting will be a chance for the public to see two more of the city’s seven prototype granny units, which illustrate the legal design of such structures.

The second meeting will be a Planning Commission meeting at which the city will wrestle with how to comply with a new, looser state law on the building of granny units.

Granny units are typically converted garages, and only 114 of the estimated 2,000 granny units built in the city between 1984 and 2002 are legal.

But the city is trying to change that. The city has moved toward making granny units easier and cheaper to build. The Accessory Dwelling Unit Development Project is tackling that from the design perspective.

The program would allow people interested in building legal granny units to select from a variety of pre-approved templates and have them modified to fit their house. The templates include a converted garage, a two-story granny unit, a granny unit above a garage and a single-story granny unit.

Low-cost units will be the focus of Thursday’s meeting. The designs will be presented by architects Mark Primack, who has created a $30,000 converted-garage design, and by Chris Remedios of David Baker and Partners. Remedios will unveil a design for a manufactured home granny unit, built with pre-fabricated panels and costing $40,000.

Granny units that are one-and-a-half or two stories, described April 10, could cost $70,000.

The same night, the Planning Department has placed its granny unit ordinance revisions last on its agenda so those finishing up at the first meeting can run to the second.

The clerk at the Planning Commission meeting will call over to the Police Department Community Room, where the first meeting is being held, to let the public know when the Planning Commission is starting on the granny unit item.

The Planning Commission will attempt to make its law, which requires public hearings for granny units, mesh with a new state law, which prohibits public hearings. Mary Alsip of the Planning Department said the city is trying to assuage neighbors’ fears while complying with the law.

"What we’ve come up with is that the best way to comply with the law is that we will issue administrative permits (not requiring a hearing) for all granny units except two-story granny units that sit within 20 feet of the rear property line," she said.

That means that two-story granny units that are further than 20 feet from the back line can be approved without a hearing, and that single-story granny units that sit further than 3 feet from the back property line could be approved without a permit, as well.

Two-story units that sit between 10 and 20 feet off the back property line are the most "looming" for neighbors, she said. So they would still require a hearing under the proposal, she said.

The unveiling of the granny-unit designs will be at 6:30 p.m. at the Police Department Community Room, 155 Center St.

The Planning Commission meeting will start at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Santa Cruz City Council chamber.

What are granny units? I'm guessing it is housing for elderly relatives. It is high time the government got out of the business of limiting our ability to care for our parents via zoning laws. Also I've wished for years that the little garage apartments that provided income for the elderly would make a comeback. Used to be there were many housing choices for renters rather than the densly populated "projects" that seem to breed crime and danger.

What are granny units?

In my understanding, they are basically parts of what is esentially a "single family dwelling unit" that are rented (or given) out to another person or family. An unused area over the garage would be the typical example.

The tenant does not need to be a relative. The term "granny unit" is generic. It simply refers to a place where you might put your own grandmother.

The controversy arises from a number of things, both pro and con.

- Housing costs
- Building code violations
- Other zoning issues
- Traffic

In Santa Cruz, the big issue right now is housing costs. A typical 3/2 home rents for about $2500 to $3000 per month. Could be more.

They need to increase their supply of housing, and this is one way that they might be able to do that.

I don't think it's such a bad idea.

Btw, a "granny unit" usually has a basic kitchen and a bathroom. It is an area where someone can supposedly live on their own.

It is these things that often cause the problems. For instance, the kitchen isn't wired well and it catches fire.

They are usually areas that have been converted informally, without permits or inspections. Often by the home-owner.

I live in Santa Cruz county and, believe it or not, the county board of stupidvisors has made it illegal to chop down a tree without a permit from them. Of course, since we have property rights in America, my dad decided to fell a couple trees in our backyard last year, but it's still a moronic law.

And I would generally like to keep the planning commission out of everyone's business as much as possible. Unfortunately, the county stupidvisors and the Santa Cruz city council thinks that would be showing too blatant a disregard for Karl Marx. In fact, the socialists down south in Watsonville actually require developers to sell a certain percentage of houses at very low prices, as part of their "low-income housing" social-engineering. Haven't these dumbasses heard of the free market, and how it promotes growth?? Watsonville will be stuck as the ghetto of the county if it doesn't change its self-destructive policies, such as those ridiculous urban-development boundary lines. Apparently the leadership there would rather have a lot of the huge Hispanic population continue to work in the fields and be poor, rather than being able to make serious money out in the real world.

Oh well, that's all I have to say about the People's Republic of Santa Cruz County for now, considering it's 1:20AM and I need to go read something (probably either the Washington Times or National Review) and then go to sleep.

They need to increase their supply of housing, and this is one way that they might be able to do that.

I don't think it's such a bad idea.

But who ever made it the government's job to find cheap housing? Certainly some areas are going to cost more to live in than other areas, and I don't think it should be up to the avowed socialists in both the county and city governments to regulate costs for housing.

Of course, if one is so inclined as to want to rent out a "granny unit" to someone else, I see no problem with that. Although I think that practice is illegal under zoning laws in my neighborhood.

Basically I just want the government's hand out of all this housing business. I live in my house, and you can pay for your own. Capitalism works wonders when used properly ;).

But who ever made it the government's job to find cheap housing? Certainly some areas are going to cost more to live in than other areas, and I don't think it should be up to the avowed socialists in both the county and city governments to regulate costs for housing.

I don't disagree with you. Not at all.

But it is a fact of life that all communities do have zoning laws and other regulations. It isn't a free-for-all, do-anything-you-want type of situation. You have to abide by the rules.

For the most part, I think those rules are generally well intended. But I also think that the rules have been taken too far.

Santa Cruz is a case in point. Last time I heard, it costs something like $30,000 just to be able to be able to break ground there on a new single family dwelling. That could well be $50,000 now.

Then the city council turns around on itself and complains about a lack of affordable housing.

If the city council is finally coming around to notion that they can't have things both ways -- a fact not yet in evidence -- I'll take it.

Yes, of course there are zoning laws, but it really frosts my ass when cities either use taxpayer money to pay off developers to sell their houses for cheaper, or just screw the developers and make them sell a certain percentage at highly discounted prices (which undoubtably scares away developers and damages growth, especially considering that they would likely have to charge more for the other, full price homes.

Of course, if it's just a matter of changing zoning laws to give people more freedom with their land, I'm all for that. Under current zoning law, renting out a "granny unit" in my neighborhood is illegal.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.