To some, accessory dwelling units – ADUs – represent extra housing for the city’s workforce, multigenerational housing arrangements or sources of additional revenue. To others, they are nuisances that threaten neighborhood character with noise, clutter and a burden on infrastructure.
To Laurie Dickson, who moved into her accessory dwelling unit in October, the approximately 300-square-feet loft she now lives in is simply her home – one she sought for months after a yearlong work trip on the northern side of the U.S.-Canadian border.
Decades ago, she owned a house in Durango catty-cornered to her current landlord. After spending a year in Canada last year, she returned to Durango to eventually discover her old neighbor would be her new leaser.
Emily Irwin, Dickson’s landlord, lives in the 700 block of East Third Avenue. She said she dreamed of building an ADU to someday live in herself. She imagined renting her three-bathroom, four-bedroom home to a family who needed the space. But she and her two dogs and two cats live in the house for the time being.
Dickson said upon her return from Canada she considered buying a container home in Island Cove Park on Florida Road.
“I’ve learned to live small,” she said, reflecting on the small cottage she occupied during her stay in Canada. “I’ve only done small lately.”
But lot rates in Island Cove Park cost as much as an apartment rental would, she said. She was offered temporary stay in friendly snowbirds’ homes – but she didn’t want to abandon nests on little notice if she found a more stable living situation in the meantime, and she turned offers down.
Dickson said she eventually came across an offer for Irwin’s ADU on social media.
“After seeing what prices were (across the market) – it was absurd for rentals – I just nabbed it,” she said.
Her ADU is a single-room loft. A precise heel-turn takes one’s gaze 360 degrees around her quarters: a small bookshelf tucked into a corner where a couch had yet to be squeezed in; a modestly sized dinner table; a well-equipped kitchen; a bedroom and bathroom; and a stairwell leading down and outside.
Dickson laughed at the sight of a small shoe-changing bench at her stairs’ landing because the bench hadn’t been used yet.
Describing her home experience so soon after moving in, she said she recently had friends over for dinner and she tucked her standing desk away to make room on the kitchen table.
“It’s great. This is a wonderful little kitchen,” she said, gesturing to the home’s amenities. “And I have a washer, dryer back there and a closet, and I have the downstairs closet as well. I’ve learned to live small.”
Dickson said she encourages more ADUs in Durango.
City Council is partway through discussions about whether to reduce restrictions on ADUs in certain neighborhoods, although the formal conversation has been frozen until January.
If City Council approves the loosening of restrictions, about 400 properties in established neighborhood zones 1-3 (described by the city as old Durango, the Avenues and East Animas City, respectively) would be allowed to have detached ADUs, Jayme Lopko, Community Development director, said earlier this fall.
Dickson said infilling neighborhood housing reduces residential commutes and pollution, and a diversity of residents makes neighborhoods safer. But she understands fears about congestion and short-term vacation rentals such as Airbnbs.
ADUs are not cheap either, she said.
Some residents have used building cost as a point against ADUs, saying they aren’t the affordable workforce housing proponents would like them to be.
But Dickson said a higher price point means ADUs won’t spring up everywhere because of lax restrictions as some residents fear.
“Just because people are building an ADU does not mean it’s going to invite 100 more Texans to come into Durango,” she said. “That’s just not how it’s going to work.”
Irwin said building her ADU cost her six figures and took several years to construct.
“If I just built a garage, it would have been much more affordable because I wouldn’t have had to do the plumbing, electricity, everything,” she said. “But, you know, it’s done.”
When Irwin imagined building her ADU, she thought of an affordable living space, plus maybe a couple parking spaces, at the back of her property. She wanted to charge $800. That’s just not practically affordable, she said.
ADUs change a neighborhood’s character too, she said, but she prefers denser housing to expanding the city across the hillsides.
Irwin’s own ADU blocked her view of Raider Ridge. She said she didn’t realize how large it would be after it was built, and she apologized to her neighbors.
Dickson, who was formerly the director of the Four Corners Office for Resource Efficiency, described herself as a “LEED” (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) professional. ADUs are good for the housing market because they allow for denser infill, which in turn reduces commuter traffic.
She said regulations should focus on restricting vacation rentals and builds should be planned to block existing solar panels.
“I’m definitely coming at it from a sustainable community design standpoint and I think it can be done,” she said.
She said with proper planning, direction and land-use codes, ADUs can be one more solution to the need for affordable housing.
cburney@durangoherald.com
