Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 14, 1994 TAG: 9405150075
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It was this last item on their list of amenities - a one-bedroom attached apartment next to the garage - that caused the problem.
Before it was over, the Coopers had consulted a lawyer and fought for their home at five hearings before county bodies. And the Board of Supervisors had threatened to sue its own Board of Zoning Appeals.
The Coopers ultimately prevailed and got to keep their guest cottage, which violated county zoning ordinances. Some of those regulations have been changed as a result.
The space that caused the controversy is called in planning circles an accessory apartment or "auxiliary apartment." These living quarters are often squeezed into existing single-family homes, tacked onto the backs or tops of garages or added as backyard cottages. The Coopers, however, built theirs at the same time they built their house, and it's larger than most.
Such apartments weren't allowed in Roanoke County until 1993, and this is only the second one approved since zoning laws were changed.
"Even though we never allowed them, there's probably hundreds of them," said Terry Harrington, director of planning for Roanoke County. "Once a house is built, it's easy to retrofit your house."
Accessory apartments provide affordable housing in decent neighborhoods, help homeowners pay the mortgage and keep elderly people close to family and out of nursing homes, a function that gives the apartments their other name, granny flats.
Kenny Cooper plans to use his as a guest cottage, but it ultimately could be a place for his mother to live if she ever needs it.
"She may never move over here," he said. "But if she does get sick or invalid, she's got a place. I made her a promise a long time ago. I'm fortunate enough to keep it."
As the population ages and lives longer, the idea of keeping Mom and Dad in their own home as long as possible will become more popular.
"I said, `Look, I'm the baby boom generation,' " Cooper said. "You're going to have to start . . . addressing this issue sooner or later."
Cooper is a contractor who built his own house. He said people who have seen his Bower Road home have asked him to build the same for them.
Says Sheila Cooper, "This type of house might become the big wave of the future."
Harrington agrees.
"I'd like to encourage them - I think they're very compatible," he said. The demographics are changing, the population's getting older. I think we need to offer other alternatives for them than institutional care. . . . The hope was that someday developers would build whole subdivisions with accessory apartments."
Not only do the apartments provide affordable housing integrated into established neighborhoods, they also help families pay the mortgage by giving them rental income.
But civic leagues often frown on the apartments in single-family residential areas because of the perception that tenants are less desirable than homeowners to a neighborhood. Like the county until recently, zoning ordinances nationwide often prohibit accessory apartments.
Roanoke city, for example, changed its 20-year-old zoning ordinance in 1987 to discourage accessory apartments, acting zoning administrator Evelyn Dorsey said. They're allowed in certain residential areas with a special-use permit and in the historic district, where they can help a homeowner restore a carriage house or outbuilding through rental income.
Blacksburg wrestled with the issue last year and approved an ordinance in August putting restrictions on accessory apartments. Although they've been prohibited there since 1976, many that were built decades ago are still in use. Most are rented by students, who residents often think are incompatible with their neighborhoods. Owners must now register with the town every year and must live on-site.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is beginning to offer cities and counties seed money to encourage homeowners to build accessory apartments. Annually distributed "HOME funds" are used for housing rehabilitation and to build affordable housing, but for the first time, HUD said last month that the money could be used to pay for small, free-standing "elder cottages" built in back yards for low-income elderly or disabled family members.
HUD spokeswoman Frances Kenney in Richmond said because the funds are so new, she doesn't think anyone in Virginia has taken advantage of them for that purpose yet. Roanoke city will get $605,000 in HOME funds this year, and Virginia as a whole will get $10 million.
In the Coopers' case, their apartment violated several parts of the county zoning ordinance: It was more than 25 percent of the size of the main house, and it has a front door that faces the street, which was forbidden so houses with the apartments wouldn't look like duplexes. But the Coopers' second door is tucked around the back of the house - it's visible from the road, but doesn't look like a second living area.
The county has since dropped its ban on front-facing doors in favor of a rule that the second door cannot make the house look like a duplex in the opinion of the planning director. The county continues to require that the owner live in the main part of the house, although its hard to monitor that unless neighbors complain.
No one reviewed the blueprints submitted by the Coopers when they applied for a building permit for a single-family dwelling, so they received a permit and started work.
But a neighbor complained and the Coopers were told not to install plumbing in the guest cottage until an appeal could be heard by the Board of Zoning Appeals.
The board granted the Coopers' appeal. And although Harrington says he wants to encourage accessory apartments, he thinks that the decision created a precedent that would open up the whole county to accessory apartments without review.
Harrington took his concern to the Board of Supervisors, which threatened legal action against the Board of Zoning Appeals to reverse the precedent. To avoid that, the appeals board decided to reverse its decision at the next meeting and urged the Coopers to apply for two variances: one for the apartment's size, and one for the front door. Both were granted.
The Coopers' home is finished now, and the apartment is expected to be done this month. They have relatives coming at the end of May who plan to stay there.
Harrington said he'd like to see such apartments be an option for builders when subdivisions are being planned. He doesn't see them as a threat to traditional landlords.
"I don't think it will be at a great enough scale to ever interfere with the apartment market," Harrington said.
by CNB