Martin County Commissioners voted Aug. 26 to begin exploring changes to county policy that could allow accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, as part of an effort to expand affordable housing options.
The consent agenda item approved by commissioners initiates amendments to the county’s Comprehensive Growth Management Plan and Land Development Regulations.
ADUs, sometimes called guest houses or “granny flats,” are secondary, self-contained living spaces on single-family lots, such as backyard cottages, garage apartments, or attached suites.
“Think of a garage apartment, or a lot of places down here have a mother-in-law suite in the back, a little area like that,” county spokesperson Martha Ann Kneiss said.
The proposed changes would broaden what qualifies as a rentable unit in the county, giving property owners and renters more housing options. Kneiss said the county hopes expanding options will help keep residents in the community.
“If you’ve ever talked to any of our commissioners or listened to them, we want our children to go to school here, grow up here, go off, do what they’re doing in college, but we want them to come back to our community,” Kneiss said. “We don’t want to be a community that’s just of a certain age and the kids go elsewhere because there are no jobs or there are no homes.”
Madeleine Bozone, executive director of Family Promise of Martin County, an organization dedicated to assisting homeless families, said she welcomes the idea.
"I'm always a proponent for any way we can add supply to our lacking supply in the county right now. We don't have enough supply for the demand for our local work workforce," she said.
Bozone said that housing in the community is being boxed out by people who work remotely.
"We already had a shortage prior to the pandemic. Post-pandemic, we had so many people move here. Many of them work virtually, they're what we call digital nomads," she said. "Our local workforce is competing with their income, New York, California, even Miami salaries, our local wagers can't compete. And so they're getting priced out of their own homes. A lot of their homes have been doubled in rent."
Even some of the cheaper housing options, Bozone added, are becoming increasingly out of range for many.
"For housing to be considered affordable, it can be no more than 30 percent of their household income, and it's supposed to include taxes and utilities. What we're finding is our local workers are actually paying over 50 percent of their household income on rent alone," she said.
Kneiss added the policy could also help older residents.
“I know we have people who are parents, they don’t really need to be in assisted living, but maybe a little bit of oversight would be nice,” she said. “I think it could be anything from family to renting it out to someone else.”
With the commission’s approval, county staff will begin drafting plans for ADUs. Those proposals will be reviewed at public meetings before being sent to the state for review, then back to the county for a final hearing.
“They’re really expecting that that can be done before the end of the year,” Kneiss said.
Looking forward, Bozone sees this proposal as a great first step, with more work to be done.
"First of all, policies need to be changed so that the definition of workforce housing includes people that make 80% or below the area median income," she said. "For housing, like some of the multifamily rentals that have been built, for developers to get incentives to build that and to get density bonuses, they can rent them out to people that make up to 80% and 120% of our area median income. Our area median income is around $89,000. So if you look at that, that's people that can afford market rent, so it's not helping our local wage earners."
Bozone said her vision for housing in Martin County is one that remains affordable for people who work locally, not just higher earners.
"They're working full time, they're doing everything right. They really deserve to be able to live here in the community that they helped build and create and that they're helping to sustain," she said.