Hi there,
I have an outside-the-box ADU concept and I’m trying to understand if it would conform with local ADU zoning. I would love any advice this group has!
Here’s my situation:
I have a friend that lives in a single-family home in one of DC’s “R” zones, with a yard that is compatible with the city's ADU zoning restrictions. They would like an income-generating accessory dwelling unit but they do not have the $ resources to finance an ADU build at this time.
In parallel, I would love to live locally in a backyard ADU and I do have the financial resources to construct something in the $250k range. But I do not own property on which to build, and I can't afford to buy in the DC market w/ interest rates + home prices where there are right now.
Thinking about these two challenges together, I'm wondering if, by blending my friend’s land ownership with my capital, an ADU + a ground lease could be a potential solution to both my friend and my own housing challenges?
Here’s the idea, using a ground-lease model of development:
The owner of the ADU-compatible lot would lease to me a portion of their backyard land via a formal ground lease agreement (similar to examples I’ve seen from Community Land Trusts across the country).
I would build an ADU on the leased backyard land, including responsibility for design/permitting/construction/maintenance of the ADU structure.
Once complete, I’d own the physical ADU building while the lot owner retains ownership of the land the ADU sits on (again, seems common to what I’ve seen with ground-leases for commercial and land trust properties).
We’d both live full time on the property, I in the ADU and the lot owner in the principal dwelling unit, for the duration of the ground lease. (I believe this would satisfy DC’s owner-occupancy restriction.)
I’d love feedback on the feasibility of this “model” of ADU ground-lease development.
To be clear -- I know this is not a standard setup, but I’ve read DC’s zoning code extensively and I can’t find anything prohibiting this concept. The setup plays well to our situations and would be interesting as another option for property owners that want an income-generating ADU but can’t afford the construction costs themselves.
Thank you for your help!
Marshall Daly
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_____________________________ Cheryl Cort (she/her) Policy Director Coalition for Smarter Growth Mobile: 202-251-7516 (e) che...@smartergrowth.net | www.smartergrowth.net Twitter @betterDCregion | @cherylcort |