Common Council votes to approve more housing options for residents

People in the City of Madison will have more access to another housing option after a unanimous vote from the city’s Common Council on Tuesday night.

Alders voted to change the City of Madison’s zoning code to allow Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) to be built on a lot that already contains a building with up to eight dwelling units, while also eliminating the requirement that the property owner lives on the property.

Previously, the city’s zoning code only allowed Accessory Dwelling Units to be built on an owner-occupied single-family property citywide, or on an owner-occupied single- or two-family property in the city’s Transit Oriented Development Overlay District.

The goal of the change is to allow for modest increases in housing density while creating more housing options to address the “missing middle” in Madison – the gap in housing options between single-family homes and large apartment buildings.

Under the city’s zoning code, Accessory Dwelling Units can either be attached as an additional living space within an existing building – like a garage, attic, or basement – or detached as a separate structure on the same lot. Both attached and detached ADUs are limited to 900 square feet and no more than two bedrooms.

The City of Madison has allowed Accessory Dwelling Units on properties with owner-occupied single-family homes since 2012. In 2021, the City expanded the zoning code to allow Accessory Dwelling Units as a permitted use on single-family properties, meaning homeowners did not need to get conditional use approval from the City to create an ADU. In 2023, the City adopted the Transit Oriented Development Overlay District, which encouraged higher housing density along high-frequency public transit routes, leading to Accessory Dwelling Unit rules being further expanded to allow them to be built on two-family properties in the overlay.

Since many owners of buildings containing between 3 and 8 units do not live in those buildings and owner-occupancy restrictions can be an obstacle to obtaining mortgage financing, the hope is eliminating the owner occupancy requirement with the latest zoning changes will lead to more ADUs being built.

The number of Accessory Dwelling Units currently in the City of Madison is not high – a total of 32 have been built or are under construction since 2012 – but these changes are another piece of the puzzle in creating more housing options in the City of Madison.