Dec. 17, 2024
Aside from an extra mailbox, there's little indication from the street that Ron Durand's lot is home to two homes. But tucked above the garage is a two-bedroom apartment, where his daughter and granddaughter live.
It's the first accessory dwelling unit (ADU) to be built since the town of Newmarket, New Hampshire, eased its housing rules in 2023. State lawmakers and city planners across the country are increasingly eyeing ADUs as one way to combat the challenges of housing affordability and availability, including in rural areas.
Home to about 9,500 people, Newmarket showcases how quickly attitudes are changing on the issue: Just a few years ago, another family looking to convert a garage attic on their rural lot gave up after facing too much red tape and resistance from town leaders.
But now, the town's planning department is outright encouraging the units, easing restrictions on how and where they can be built.
Durand stresses that the idea won't work for every property, but he thinks more homeowners should consider ADUs. "Not all situations are probably this ideal," Durand says. "This just happened to work out really, really well."
Durand's conversion cost about $300,000 — not cheap, but certainly much less than the cost of new housing in the area: Just up the hill, newly built condos start at nearly $900,000.
The 'gateway drug' for additional housing
ADUs can't fix the housing shortage, but they can make a difference, says Jason Jordan, principal in public affairs at the American Planning Association (APA).
They're generally more politically palatable because they can increase housing density and inventory without drastically changing the fabric of neighborhoods. "I sometimes think of it as the gateway drug of zoning reform," he says.
APA has for years worked with AARP to develop model legislation on ADU creation. Jordan says more states will be taking up the issue in 2025 legislative sessions.
Learn how communities across the U.S. are speeding up housing development by reading the Housing Supply Accelerator Playbook.
While attitudes are changing, he says, homeowners in a majority of municipalities are still banned from adding additional units by their local zoning regulations.
Even when legislatures condone ADUs, local governments can still layer many rules and regulations that make them difficult or impossible to build, says Emily Hamilton, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center, a conservative think tank at George Mason University.
Some states, including California, have refined their ADU laws in recent years to remove potential local barriers such as parking requirements and setbacks from the street. "There are so many ways that localities can obstruct ADUs, if that's their goal," Hamilton says. "In California, it's been a process of dozens of statewide ADU laws that have passed to get to the point where they're really broadly feasible to build."
Changing attitudes in New Hampshire
Perched atop a hill overlooking green farm fields, Bill and Gail Nostrom's property offers a scenic portrait of autumn in New England. It sits on a wide cul-de-sac, but with two acres, the neighbors' homes are barely visible.
Just before the pandemic, the couple wanted to convert the attic of their detached garage into an apartment for their son. But that effort was stymied by town rules that ADUs be physically attached to homes.
While the property is miles away from the neighborhoods and businesses at the heart of Newmarket, it — like all rural areas in the state — is still subject to town zoning and building regulations.
Gail Nostrom says one town official outright said they didn't want to see "that type of housing" pop up across the community. "We just thought, boy, what an answer," she says. "But the powers that be are the powers that be."
So, they set the idea aside and left the garage attic unfinished.
Bill and Gail Nostrom hoped to construct a garage apartment in Newmarket, New Hampshire, before the pandemic, but were blocked by local rules at the time.
But their challenges piqued the interest of state representative Ellen Read, a Democrat and Newmarket resident. In early 2024, Read introduced legislation to make it easier for property owners to create ADUs by requiring that localities allow up to two units without any special requirements over lot sizes, setbacks, aesthetics, or design review.
Her legislation passed the state house but did not advance through the senate. Read has already submitted the bill again ahead of the 2025 session.
But her community is moving forward either way. To spur ADU development, Newmarket in 2023 eased zoning rules by reducing ADU parking requirements and allowing units detached from the primary home.
Communities across the Granite State are making similar moves.
"I've seen the interest increase drastically. It used to be like, 'Ehh, that's just a weird thing that some communities do,'" says Mari Brunner, senior planner for the city of Keene in the southwest corner of the state. "Now, I think almost every single community is looking at it."
Keene, a community of about 23,000, relaxed its ADU requirements in 2023. Nearby, in Peterborough, town leaders have sought to ease concerns about the housing additions by showcasing how little they change neighborhoods. Earlier this year, town leaders led a bus tour to offer a view of what the units looked like inside.
They also played a game of "I Spy" while aboard the bus, says Danica Melone, the town's director of planning and building. "The purpose of that was to really show that a lot of these ADUs blend right into their surroundings," she says. "They're hiding in plain sight."
Peterborough, home to about 6,500 people, currently has about two dozen ADUs. Each unit moves the needle by opening up a house or apartment for someone else, Melone says.
"It's kind of a carousel of housing," she says. "Moreover, now we have someone who's living in the community, who's going to continue to contribute to our tax base. . . . It most definitely has an impact."
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