The ADU legislation has certainly opened up a serious rift within our community. One side wants a “one size fits all” ADU policy for the entire city and the other side wants an “owner-occupancy” ADU policy for the 3rd Ward only.  Former Councilor Rob Gearhart’s 11th hour email to the Mayor and Common Council a few days ago offers a possible. Rob was the former 3rd Ward Alderperson from 2016-2023 and his ADU idea was being discussed on council pre-pandemic and then shelved by council to take care of more pressing city issues. 

Rob’s break through idea involves a 5 year pilot program for owner occupants to build ADUs on their own property. Which he termed a “resident-developer” pilot program. I believe this program has the potential to dramatically increase the number of owner occupied ADUs built in the 3rd Ward. The same plan can be offered to other wards that chose to opt in.

If this “resident-developer” pilot program doesn’t produce results in 5 years, compared to other parts of the city, it could be eliminated and the 3rd Ward would revert back to the city wide ADU policy.

Rob had other supports and incentives that should be in place before the 5 year clock starts ticking like:

Arranging for favorable financing programs for ADU projects – perhaps through a local lender
Creating a pool of “pre-approved” designs that could help reduce the time and financial burden for bringing plans for approval
Identifying and certifying a list of contractors who are knowledgeable about the City of Ithaca ADU building codes as a step toward reducing construction costs
Providing temporary tax reductions on properties that add ADU housing – as we do for many large-scale developers