Faced with a housing shortage, the borough assembly and planning commission will consider whether to allow adding small apartments, sometimes called “granny flats,” to single-family-zoned lots. The secondary units are often called accessory dwelling units or ADUs.
The housing shortage is an issue that has been under discussion at the borough level for several years. According to a 2022 report by the Haines Economic Development Council, median housing costs in Haines increased 41% in the five years before the study. As home ownership becomes more expensive, so too have rental costs, which rose 93% in the five years before they were last recorded in the 2023 Census.
Many in town agree there is a need for new housing. The trickier question is where.
Currently on the table are two main routes for adding housing units: developing new land, and increasing density to existing residential neighborhoods.
At last week’s planning commission meeting, commissioner Eben Sargent said the first route is unlikely to get the borough to adequate housing supply, given high costs for clearing land, putting new buildings on the grid, and putting in a water/sewer solution. Sargent says that even though the borough has plenty of empty land, there’s a real shortage of land actually available for housing.
The problem is that most of the borough’s residential areas are zoned for single-family housing, where increasing density is made difficult by code.
That’s where ADUs come in — Even in single-family-zoned areas, homeowners would be allowed to rent out ADUs on their property. In theory, homeowners could contribute new units to the housing stock without the upfront costs that larger developers might face. And, it mean the borough wouldn’t have to go through the process of changing zoning maps.
The ADUs would come with significant regulation. The proposal would require qualifying structures to have permanent foundations, and bath and kitchen facilities separate from other housing on the property.
The area of the ADU would have to be below either 1,000 square feet, or 70 percent of the gross floor area of the principal dwelling on the lot, whichever is less. That square footage would still be included in calculations for maximum lot coverage regulations, and homeowners would only be allowed one ADU per lot.
Currently, a similar unit called an accessory apartment is allowed in single family zones. The difference between those and ADUs is relatively small: unlike accessory apartments, ADUs would be able to be freestanding structures apart from the primary residence on the property, and would be able to be 400 square feet larger.
Similar zoning allowances for ADUs have been implemented or expanded elsewhere in the nation, including in nearby municipalities like Juneau, Wrangell and Petersburg.
Many homeowners, however, take issue with the idea of increasing density.
“A lot of people bought [homes], especially in single residential [zoning], with the idea that’s where they would stay,” Don Turner Jr. said in public comment during last week’s planning commission meeting. “Changing the zone wouldn’t be fair. I bought two lots so that I would not be close to anyone. That’s the way I want it.”
Planning commissioner Jerry Lapp weighed in with a similar sentiment, saying he “didn’t move into a single residential zone to have the zone changed.”
At the meeting, Lapp expressed support for building duplexes on undeveloped borough land. But other commissioners pushed back on the effort to redirect away from ADUs.
“There are going to be people in every zone who don’t want their zone to change,” commissioner Eben Sargent said. “We can say we don’t ever want anything to change in Haines, but we can’t then complain about housing problems.”
There are currently two chunks of undeveloped land in the townsite zoned for multiple residential zoning. One is west of the fort, including a plot owned by Roger Schnabel and a plot owned by the Port Chilkoot Corporation. The second area is undeveloped land west of the northern end of Fourth Avenue. Most of that land is divided between Schnabel and Paulene Roberts.
Opposition has already proven effective in limiting the ADU expansion. The proposal in front of the assembly applies only to the townsite — a result of public comment at planning commission meetings from Mud Bay residents against ADU expansion. Following those comments, the planning commission decided to exclude Mud Bay and Lutak from the ADU allowance.
That precedent might be trouble for ADU supporters come assembly decision time.
Public hearings are scheduled for May 13 and May 27, and mayor Tom Morphet said the standard set by the planning commission will apply.
“If the public doesn’t want it, then the public doesn’t want it,” he said.
Morphet and other officials who support the plan are in a somewhat tough position. Three-quarters of their constituents are homeowners — higher than the 66% average statewide. Those already settled into homes are more likely to be worried about any potential crowding and decrease in home values, and less likely to have a personal stake in high costs of rent and homeownership.
And, of all assembly members and the mayor, only one — Gabe Thomas — is not a homeowner. Thomas said he pays $2,000 in rent for three bedrooms. “It’s absolutely brutal,” he said.
But some, nevertheless, feel the change is important for the community. Morphet said he personally doesn’t see the ADU ordinance as too drastic of a change for neighborhoods. He added that, if anything, homeowners would be incentivized to build nice structures, so as not to decrease their property values. In his capacity as mayor, he said he sees it as a big need for the future of the borough.
“I think it’s what the younger constituents want,” Morphet said.
Morphet also cited specific young families who he said fell in love with and contributed to the community but were forced to leave because of costs of housing and childcare.
That’s something professionals in the borough have echoed.
Janine Allen, a program coordinator at Southeast Alaska Independent Living (SAIL), said she has also seen housing costs in the community become insurmountable, especially at the other end of the age spectrum
In the past, Allen said there were more vacant rental options, and options affordable for residents living on a fixed income. Now, she said, she works with seniors at SAIL who pay 90% of their income toward housing.
Whether residents and elected officials see ADUs as part of a solution to those rising costs — and whether they are willing to welcome ADUs into their neighborhoods — remains to be seen.