Housing  will now be called ‘accessory dwelling unit’

May 8, 2025, by Michael Armstrong

Special to The Seward Folly

After three meetings, including last meeting’s postponement of action, the Seward City Council on Monday approved changes to the zoning code regarding efficiency apartments.

While city code allowed efficiency apartments, a substitute version of Ordinance 2025-007 will now call the housing Accessory Dwelling Units, acknowledging the more widely used term, and allow them to be both attached and detached building and with more than one room.

In a 6-0 vote, with Council Member Robert Barnwell absent, the council first approved a substitute version proposed by city administration, laydown no. 2

[https://www.cityofseward.us/home/showpublisheddocument/5103/638812942249170000]

— that is, making the substitute a new version of the original ordinance. In another 6-0 vote the council then approved the substitute version.

“Thank you to administration for reworking this; I really appreciate it,” said Council Member Randy Wells. “And I’m sure lots of people who would like to develop an ADU appreciate it as well.”

The changes to city code came about after citizens complained about a requirement that efficiency apartments could only be built if attached to the main dwelling. The code also limited the apartment to one room or a studio-style apartment with the sleeping, dining and cooking areas in one space. The new ordinance came to the council after work sessions last fall by the Seward Planning Commission and a joint work session with the commission and council in January.

The new ordinance makes these changes:

• In Seward City Code 15.10.140, Section B(1) under the definition of accessory buildings,  strikes the term “efficiency apartment” and adds “Accessory Dwelling Unit”;

• Adds a section defining ADUs as a single separate dwelling unit subordinate to the main home;

• Allows ADUs to be either attached (AADU) or detached (DADU);

• Eliminates a section defining efficiency or accessory apartments as containing not more than one habitable room with a combined sleeping, dining and cooking area and an accompanying bathroom;

• Allows both detached or attached ADUs in the rural residential (RR), single-family zoning districts (R1), two-family (R2), multi-family (R3), urban residential (UR) and auto commercial (AC) zoning districts and in the central business (CB) zoning district with a conditional use permit, and

• In a section of 15.10.215 regarding parking, changes “apartment efficiency” to “accessory dwelling unit” and keeps a minimum requirement of one off-street parking space in addition to that required for the principal dwelling.

At the April 14 council meeting, Wells had suggested eliminating a requirement that detached ADUs be connected to separate utilities if the lot could be subdivided later. That section was dropped in the amended version the council approved. Wells also argued for more liberal zoning for detached ADUs in all residential districts and the council approved those changes. Wells said at the last meeting that requiring separate utilities on lots that could be subdivided hindered development and could add an extra and unneeded cost if the homeowner did not immediately intend to subdivide.

In another action that could potentially increase housing in Seward, the council also passed a motion to initiate a Special Improvement District for the Forest Acres Afognak Subdivision.

At a March 24 work session the council discussed ideas on how to make 25 lots in that subdivision more affordable to develop. One option was to allow onsite water and septic systems.

Seward City Manager Kat Sorensen asked for the council to initiate the Special Improvement District to speed up the process.

“It saves significant time in the process, versus telling the property owners they need to go back and build on a petition, and then the clerk has to confirm those petitions, and this is a lot of this back and forth,” Sorensen said. “If you guys initiated, it basically just brings us to the same exact same point more quickly.”

Michael Armstrong is a retired Homer News reporter and editor. Reach him at wordfolk@gmail.com.

The Seward Folly publisher Robert Barnwell is a current member of the Seward City Council, but he did not participate in the editing of this story.