Also (anyone!) always feel free to reach out to me personally offline (maryesell@gmail.com). I’m really not trying to hate too hard (and shouldn’t name call, sorry!) but this stuff is deeply concerning to me and we all have to own up to our own agency in it. Let’s think outside of our own experiences a lil and hopefully we can all come out of it more accepting of others and work toward building more sustainable and inclusive communities 
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The 5 or 6 ADU’s would be on the two properties beside my house, the two behind my house, and the two across the street… not one property. My neighborhood is older and does not have any HOA. And I wonder how many of those built currently have aging parents in them ( I am guessing not that many). I am not against renters as I was a renter for about 10 years of my adult life, but generally speaking if you live in a neighborhood you prefer home owners over renters (except for the one home owner who lives directly across the street from me and does nothing at all for his house and yard as trees are growing out of his gutter).
NIMBY can get thrown around but if just generally don’t like it, hey, that’s cool. Kind of similar situation, I have a neighbor that is a HUGE ham radio/CB geek and he has a killer antenna set up. When he broadcasts in the direction of my house, I get to hear him over my speakers, my microwave beeps, and at one point, he could trip my breakers. We talked it out and fixed a few things to minimize it.
Do I like it when he does it? Actually, not at all. Am I going to complain? Nope. I talked it out with him, we made tweaks, we understand.
I can’t see why doing something similar whether it be a backyard cottage, a backyard treehouse for kids, a garage, a pool, really anything nearby others, can’t just be worked out in a civil manner.
That’s what gets me most about this ADU topic is that council is so tirelessly trying to dictate my life, making me out as the “bad neighbor” when there are so many “off the book” civil conversations between neighbors. What if all my neighbors around me didn’t care that I built an ADU but when you go this 10-acre overlay district route, I can’t get it passed and wasted a lot of money?
That’s not a very welcoming, inclusive city to me.
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My house is only 1250 square feet and I live on a government salary so I don’t think I qualify as either elitist or toxic. By Cary standards my house is practically a shack…
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To add to Leo’s point that Raleigh isn’t likely to see a proliferation of ADUs . . . there’s only a very small percentage of residential zoning in Raleigh that doesn’t already outlaw ADUs through their neighborhood covenants and HOA rules.
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I understand the concern and don’t necessarily think you’re a NIMBY for having it. I can see potential for problems in neighborhoods at risk of getting gobbled up by investment property owners (vs. homeowners with ADUs on their own property and a vested interest in the neighborhood).
I’d think a majority owner-occupied neighborhood that adds a few ADUs here and there isn’t going to see a lot of issues. And making it nearly impossible for anyone to add one seems like an unnecessary restriction on property rights.
And like Leo said, I don’t see this as a huge in-demand thing where overnight everyone is going to want ADUs.
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Some of our neighbors have 4-5 cars & trucks per household, this in a 1938 Five Points neighborhood. The neighborhood was developed during the depression when the streetcar was in use & maybe, there was one car per house. No sidewalks, so people parallel park on both sides of the street, interspersed with young children with balls. My concern is beyond ADUs, why do they need all these vehicles, some kids at college leave cars that just sit. Inadvertent vent.
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I would really like to know the count of you who keep advocating for these ADUs actually OWN property?
The vast majority of us that actually own property do not want this nonsense for a multitude of reasons…all of which contribute to a negative impact on our property values.
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I am starting to learn that if someone personally sees ADU’s as a threat to their property values there might not be anything I or anyone can say or show to bring that fear down. Like what evidence could I show to dissuade your fear? I can show areas where there are ADU’s and high & increasing property values, or new ones in Durham where property values are going up. But, I don’t think that would solve your issue which is your fear of ADU’s. It is a really interesting problem. Like if I don’t like 4 story buildings and think only 3 or 5 story are good. How could someone prove to me that I am wrong? It is my own feeling ha! Here is a property with an ADU. 710 McCulloch Dr. Raleigh NC. Do you think it is brings Boylan Heights down? Has this part of Boylan Heights seen it’s property values decrease because of this ADU? Can you prove to me that this ADU is bad? lol
Check out the Zillow Estimate for the home right next to the ADU.
They seem to really be hurting (sarcastic). Can you prove to me that ADU’s don’t increase neighbors property values?
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Do you own any property yourself?
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Yes, I own a single family home that my wife and I live in and pay a mortgage on each month. It also has a large back yard.
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With regards to the concern from neighbors that an ADU will lower their property values — that’s lunacy. An ADU represents a serious investment in one’s property, and isn’t something that your typical negligent or uncaring landlord would be making. Costs vary depending on the location, but almost anywhere you try to build one it will end up costing tens of thousands of dollars, sometimes more than a hundred thousand. If you’re spending that much on a property addition, you’d better plan to use it and take care of it or you’re just wasting your money on something that could be generating rental income.
Because of the high cost of constructing ADUs, the fears of a sudden “wave” of them hitting the city are completely overblown. Very few people would be seriously interested in building them, let alone having the means to pay for construction. Allowing them to be constructed will result instead in a few here and there, not in finding all your immediate neighbors clearing land on their property to build one as soon as possible.
Neighbors should welcome the addition of an ADU to their neighborhood. It’s a very clear sign that the property owner is invested in the neighborhood and wants to make their property more valuable. Tell me, how that would result in a property value decrease? If anything, it should result in an increase.
Raleigh needs to get its act together on this issue, and not wimp out over such a straightforward matter. Make ADUs legal again, and simplify the permitting process. It’s not going to transform the city overnight, but it will allow for some small-scale improvements that will ultimately strengthen our fair city.
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You folks live in a fantasy land if you think everyone who builds one of these is going to construct some sort of Architectural Digest award winning cute bungalow!!!
The reason people oppose these things is because there will be someone who tries to take advantage of this policy and milk every dime out of every square inch of property. You already have this problem today in Raleigh with absentee landlords, many of whom do not live in the City but in some suburban cul de sac in wake forest and they could give a damn about the type of tenants they have as long as they collect as much money as possible.
Yet the ADU supporters have some sort of cult-like obsession with them and try to paint some picturesque image of what they will be like all the while ignoring the inevitable douche bag landlords who will not live up anywhere near that illusion.
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I, too, own a SFH and support ADUs in Raleigh and don’t think the cult of fear mongering about the imminent influx of slumlords should dictate public policy. The are enough examples of cities that have allowed and disallowed ADUs and we should be able to identify notable peer cities that can provide both data and guidance. I know after I graduated college, I was glad to have the opportunity to live in an ADU at a much more reasonable rate than the surrounding neighborhood.
I’m curious why this is a thing now? Haven’t these been allowed in the city? Is this whole discussion new regulation or was there some loophole that needed to be closed? I know there are quite a few in my neighborhood.
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The history is that they were banned in the 70s, and since ~2013 people have been asking for a way to build new ones. The city council just passed an ordinance to “allow” them that still defacto bans them. A number of neighborhoods like yours have some from before the ban. Never heard of any complaints about those.
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I own a single family home 3 miles from DT and support ADUs. In fact I spotted one in my neighborhood the other day for the first time in nearly 3 years of passing by it almost every day, and I dig it. Good for them for having a grandfathered ADU structure.
Question for you. How long have you owned the home that you’re so concerned about?
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I own 50 properties. What’s your point?
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You already have this problem today in Raleigh with absentee landlords
This right here IS the problem that should be being addressed. Not banning ADUs. So far, every concern about ADUs can be similarly applied to just housing. So why not get together and enforce fair housing and bad landlord practices in Raleigh? (across all types of housing)
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Because the N.C. GOP took away a City’s ability to regulate those landlords. You are just adding to the problem with ADUs, not to meantion the parking concerns people have stated before as well as impervious service issues, etc
50 properties. Well considering your stance on how ADUs degrade neighborhood character by bringing “renters” in, and how most people try to avoid hypocrisy, it’s safe to assume that all of your residential rental properties are being rented to hard working families with 2 cars max, in areas that are surrounded by only other rental properties, right?
That wasn’t my point. My point was that, it seems to me, those who are most opposed to ADUs or any transformative change to density for that matter are the ones that have benefited the most from rising property values in Raleigh. Those of us trying to afford our first home or move up, we’re left to figure it out with limited supply, shorter days on market, and rising costs. It’s the “I’ve got mine, good luck to you” mind set that needs to be checked at the door for the sake of the city as a whole.
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