The Oklahoma City Council is considering an ordinance to streamline the process of building and letting people build and live in accessory dwelling units, or ADUs.
You might have heard them called "mother-in-law suites," but OKC realtor Jessica Thompson says she avoids that term.
"We don't want to alienate potential people from thinking, 'Oh, I'm not a mother-in-law, so it's not for me,'" Thompson said.
These dwellings can take many forms. In Oklahoma City, they are often located above a detached garage behind the main house. But ADUs can also be attached to a house or part of a basement.
An ADU does need its own entrance directly to the outdoors. And it needs a bathroom, a living space and a "true kitchen" — Thompson said that pretty much means it needs a stove.
The ordinance would allow people to build ADUs in central Oklahoma City, although many are already there.
"It has always fit in," said Marilyn Allen, a program planner with the OKC Planning Department. "If you go to the older neighborhoods, there's back garages on almost every lot, and people use them for various things, but they're not allowed to rent them right now."
Filling a housing gap
Under the current zoning code, ADUs aren't allowed to be used as residences without special approval from the city, called "Simplified Planned Unit Developments" or SPUDs. Those take time and money, and they require negotiations from the City Planning Commission on a case-by-case basis.
Thompson said that's a problem, because Oklahoma City is missing smaller housing — spaces that work for young people who are just starting out, older people who don't want to take care of a big space, and people in between who just don't need or can't afford a big place in the urban core.
She thinks it could help to streamline the ADU zoning process.
"Let's provide housing not just for people right now, but the future generations," Thompson said. "For our kids and our grandkids, so that they can stay here in Oklahoma City and they don't have to move to other cities or states. Because that's what we see right now."
Assistant Director Lisa Chronister with the OKC Planning Department said the idea of this ordinance is to make it easier for people to fill that gap.
"Let's agree on the standards up front so that everybody can have a great deal of certainty," Chronister said. "Because one thing that slows down development of anything is uncertainty."
Homeowners who wanted to build an ADU or convert an existing structure into one would still need to apply for a building permit. But most would get to skip the currently required step of negotiating individualized requirements with the planning commission, because there would be a baseline set of rules.
Chronister said this would boost ADU development, but she doesn't think the city will see too many new ones, because they aren't generally super profitable.
Homeowners could get extra money from renting out an additional unit for someone to live in. Short-term rentals, such as Airbnbs, would require an additional permit, and the owners would have to be present when hosting guests.
Mostly, though, Chronister says people use ADUs for more personal reasons, because they don't usually make sense as a financial investment.
"We were talking like it had to pencil — you know, it had to make rational sense on a balance sheet," Chronister said. "But part of the purpose of accessory dwellings is to fill an altruistic need. I want a place for my young adult child to be able to live nearby. I want that, so I don't need it to pencil."
Increasing density a little
City engineers say the density of OKC's urban core could double without straining the existing water and wastewater infrastructure. But T.O. Bowman with the OKC Office of Sustainability said the ADU ordinance wouldn't bring that kind of density.
"We don't mean New York City 35,000 people per square mile type of thing," Bowman said. "We mean just maybe on a little bit more dense side of 1000 people per square mile. That's pretty spread out."
But that level of density can help make the city more sustainable, Bowman said.
"If more folks can live closer together, it makes things like walkability and connectivity make more sense," Bowman said. "Easier-to-get-to transit routes can increase ridership, which makes those systems more sustainable. And then you know the air quality benefits that come with all of those things, too."
That's why the Office of Sustainability has developed a program to design ready-made, code-appeasing ADU plans with sustainable features — kind of a plug-and-play system if the ordinance passes.
The funding for that program is in flux under the Trump administration's grant policies, but the idea was to create more affordable housing in a sustainable way.
Regardless, Bowman said ADUs are likely to only make a slight difference in the city's quest for more sustainable housing.
"I don't think we're going to have a huge influx of ADUs coming in every neighborhood and doing that," Bowman said. "Most often, I would wager that it would be an existing garage that's able to put plumbing in so that it can be a one bedroom."
Existing data supports that. Even in Portland, the U.S. city with the highest percentage of houses with an ADU, only 2% of homes have one. Chronister says most plots in OKC don't have the space to build an ADU, and not every homeowner who has the space will want one.
"So then the question from people is, well, then why are you doing this, if you don't think there's that many lots that are suitable?" Chronister said. "We're like, well, we're in such a housing crisis that in any amount of units is a positive thing."
Part of a bigger plan
The ADU ordinance is also an appetizer for a larger zoning code update the Planning Department is working on.
Allen with the Planning Department said the ADU ordinance and the code update fit into a nationwide trend to develop zoning rules that focus on the character of buildings rather than their use.
"If you're going to come in and just change the whole character of the neighborhood, we don't want that," Allen said. "But if we can make rules that make it fit in there, then we're hoping that would preserve our neighborhoods, but allow a little more people to live in the core."
Oklahoma City Council will hear the proposed ADU ordinance on May 6. You can read it on the City Planning Department's website.
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
