Early in Wednesday’s Albany council meeting, a neighbor complained about people living on the lot where the city on Jan. 27 demolished a house declared to be dangerous because of code violations. And near the end there was another fruitless argument about the size of accessory dwelling units the city should allow.
In the year he has been on the Albany City Council, Alex Johnson II has rarely been as outspoken as he was Wednesday on the size of accessory dwelling units or ADUs.
The Albany City Council Monday went through the ritual of hearing the mayor’s veto message in regard to accessory dwelling units. Her opponents may try on Wednesday to override her veto, but at last report they lack the fifth vote to get that done.
The Oregon legislature wants more people to be clustered in existing single-family neighborhoods. But Albany Mayor Sharon Konopa says not here. So she is once again blocking a council-passed ordinance relaxing the city code on accessory dwelling units.
Eighteen people talked to the Albany City Council Wednesday about accessory dwelling units, most of them in favor of allowing larger ones. But it made no difference in the outcome: The mayor and two councilors want one thing, four councilors want something else, and nothing was resolved.
The Albany City Council gets another chance this week to pass a code change to allow detached “accessory dwelling units” — essentially small second houses –on all single-family residential lots in line with a state mandate.
Albany’s ADU flap: It’s not over yet
Albany’s struggles over the size of permitted “accessory dwelling units” or ADUs appeared to have ended last month, but not so fast. Now the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals may get involved.
Tags: accessory dwelling units, ADUs, Albany development code, Albany Historic Districts, LUBA