Tucson Arizona Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU)
To Learn More About Tucson Accessory Dwelling Unit Watch The Short Video Below
The City of Tucson just approved what is called an ADU. It stands for a casita accessory dwelling unit. Now regardless of the zoning of your property, you can build a second unit on your property.
There are certain parameters, but the cool thing is previously, depending on your zoning, you could build a second unit, but you were limited in terms of what you could do, especially when it came to a full kitchen. You can build a second unit on your property with the full kitchen.
PUT IN A FULL KITCHEN REGARLESS OF THE ZONING
In the past, if you had the zoning, let’s say an R2 where you could build a second unit on your lot, you were somewhat limited because you couldn’t do a full kitchen. So if you had a casita, or a little guest house or a studio, it would be a place to sleep and a place to use a restroom, but you didn’t have a full kitchen.
What the city just approved is pretty cool because it gives you the ability to put in a full kitchen regardless of the zoning.
You still have to conform to the zoning setbacks per your zoning. I’m going to go into details in terms of square footages and what you can and can’t do.
It’s pretty exciting and it opens up a lot of different things for homeowners because one of the things that we’re struggling with right now is lack of inventory, lack of living spaces, and there’s far more demand than supply, and so this opens it up and gives people the flexibility to build another unit on their property.
There’s a lot of people out there that are looking for, an Airbnb, or let’s say they’re getting a little bit older, and they just don’t have the money or resources to maybe go into a nursing home or move. Now you could go build a second unit in order to have a guest casita facility to just give people a lot more options of what they can and can’t do per their properties.
SIZE OF TUCSON ACCESSORY DWELLING UNIT (ADU
I’ve have a few rental properties, some that are R1 that I couldn’t do you this, and now with this new approval of the ADUs, I can go and build a second unit on my rental properties, and I’m pretty excited about it. Again, it just opens up a lot of different things. It allows you to put in a full kitchen and that’s really the big thing regardless of the zoning.
If you’re considering building an ADU, an accessory dwelling unit on your property, the limitations are based on the size. That’s the biggest thing. What size ADU can you build? It’s all based on the square footage of your lot.
You want to find out how many square feet your lot is, and then based on that is the size that you can build. So if you’ve got a lot size that’s 6,499 square feet or less, you can build an ADU that’s 650 square feet or less.
If you’ve got a lot size that’s 6,500 square feet or more, you can build an ADU that’s 1,000 square feet.
The limitations are basically size, based on your lot size. But regardless of your zoning, you can now build an ADU on your property, and the ADUs that you can do can now have full kitchens whereas in the past, if you wanted to build a second unit, it would not have been a full kitchen. So it’s exciting. Again, 1,000 square feet. If you’ve got a lot size at 6,500 square feet or more,
That’s a nice casita that you could put in in terms of a bedroom, full bath, kitchen, even a little dining/living room area. So something to get excited about. So the limitations are based on your lot size in terms of what you can build on your property.
OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER ABOUT A TUCSON ACCESSORY DWELLING UNIT (ADU)
Some other things to consider are the setbacks and the zoning setbacks per what your property is zoned still applies. So you need to take a look and figure out your property zoning, and then we’ll have a link down in the show notes to some resources.
Per your zoning, you need to look at your setbacks… You’ve got side setbacks, and then you’ve got the front and the rear setback. The City of Tucson didn’t change anything in terms of zoning setbacks. You need to check with your zoning to figure out if you’ve got enough room in terms of setbacks, in terms of where you would put your ADU on your lot.
A couple other things to consider if you’re wanting to do an ADU on your property is one of the things, it needs to have a cool roof, and that’s a roof that reflects more sunlight. It’s more energy efficient, and it’s going to keep your ADU much cooler in the summertime. So it needs to have what is called a cool roof. You can Google cool roof.
The other thing that it needs to have is the height of it. There’s certain restrictions…. it’s whatever’s greater either the current size of your residence or 12 feet, whichever’s greater.
The other thing that it needs to have is it needs to have at least one parking space for your ADU. So some other things to consider, cool roof, the height of it, and then a parking space, or some other things that are criteria in terms of building an ADU on your property.
IN CONCLUSION
Excited new about what the city just approved in terms of the accessory dwelling unit ADU casita. It opens up a lot of different options for existing homeowners that are contemplating whether they want to move because they’re out of space, but now they can actually stay put and build an ADU.
One of the big reasons I think the city might have did what they did is just what this inventory crunch and shortage, it opens up the ability to homeowners to come in and help be a part of the solution rather than the builders out there. It gives Tucson homeowners a lot more options and flexibilities about their current property.
If you’re buying a home and it, and you want a guest house or a casita, and it doesn’t have one, it gives you the ability to do that as well, regardless of the zoning. The big, big change with all this is now you can put in a full kitchen, which is awesome. If you’ve got any questions, or you’re looking at a property that might be the perfect one where you can put an ADU on, reach out to us and somebody on the team would love to help.
RESOURCES - CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW
Contact Tyler Ford
Get Social
