Milwaukee Delays Legalizing Carriage Houses

2672-2674 N. 30th St., a house and carriage unit. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

There was no opposition until it seemed like everyone was in opposition, including two of the sponsors.

An amendment to a proposal to legalize “accessory dwelling units (ADUs),” commonly called carriage units, rear cottages or granny flats, derailed the legislation on the Common Council floor.

“I honestly don’t know where to begin to with how disappointed I am with this substitute [amendment] being added at the last minute,” said Ald. JoCasta Zamarripa at Tuesday’s Common Council meeting.

Last week she had signed on as a co-sponsor to the proposal, which would allow all residential properties with one or two units to add an additional unit, either as a separate structure, an addition or within the existing structure.

The proposal, first contemplated as part of the Department of City Development‘s (DCD) Growing MKE plan, is designed to accommodate demand for more housing types and follows a national trend. It would reinstate a housing type found in many of the city’s oldest neighborhoods, the detached back house, that has been effectively illegal to build new for several decades.

An amendment, created just before the meeting by the proposal’s lead sponsors Council President José G. Pérez and Ald. Robert Bauman, would have prohibited ADUs from being added as an internal unit in the existing structure or as an addition in areas that were zoned for single-family housing. It would also prohibit duplexes from having a third unit added to the existing structure.

The single-family area targeted change, said Bauman, would block property owners from “adding significant rental housing primarily in high student neighborhoods, like the UWM area, or short-term rental housing.”

The city’s RS1 through RS6 designations, used for single-family housing, primarily apply to the city’s newer homes, mostly located north of Capitol Drive and west of 60th Street on the northwest side, south of Oklahoma Avenue on the southeast side and southwest of Jackson Park on the southwest side. But it also includes the area around UW-Milwaukee, where opposition to the Growing MKE plan became a campaign issue in the recent aldermanic race.

“Yes, this cuts back on a little bit of the flexibility that we wanted to afford the zoning code, but I think it cut backs in a way that allows us to gauge the impact going forward,” said Bauman. He noted that detached units could still be developed everywhere, including in the single-family areas.

“One concern that was raised was if we allow internal and attached ADUs in single-family zoning areas, we have effectively eliminated single-family zoning,” said Bauman. He said it also wasn’t clear exactly where market demand would fall. But, last week, a DCD official said the least-costly and most-likely ADUs would be those constructed with an existing structure, including basement-to-second-unit conversions or converting a second-story attic into a separate unit.

“We thought that was perhaps a bridge too far that required more discussion,” said the alderman of allowing that everywhere.

But his colleagues were frustrated they weren’t included in the discussion to make that determination.

“To not be given a heads up about this substitute, I find it highly disappointing,” said Zamarripa. She withdrew her co-sponsorship. “And I would frankly like my colleagues to not pass it today and send it back to committee.”

“I share my colleague’s surprise,” said Ald. Peter Burgelis, the fourth cosponsor. He also pulled his support. “This isn’t a simple amendment. This fundamentally changes what was discussed in committee.”

A lengthy discussion took place April 15 at the Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee meeting.

At last week’s meeting, a Department of Neighborhood Services said the idea of adding a third unit to an existing structure was likely a non-starter because it would trigger a building code requirement to add sprinklers to the existing structure. The amendment would explicitly prohibit it.

“I am trying to understand what issue this is resolving,” said Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic of the amendment. She said the council is drifting away from its original aim of creating more ways to supply affordable housing.

Ald. Mark Chambers, Jr., a co-sponsor of Growing MKE with Zamarripa, said he opposed the standalone ADU policy and that the city should move forward with Growing MKE.

“The bottom line is that was a plan that was dead in the water,” said Bauman of why a separate proposal emerged.

But reading the room, Bauman moved to send the file back to committee, thereby blocking a potential to vote to kill the amendment or the entire proposal.

“I would encourage everyone to come to committee so we can actually discuss these complexities,” said the alderman, the new zoning committee chair.

The motion to send the file back to committee passed on a 10-5 vote, with Chambers, Zamarripa, Sharlen P. Moore, Russell W. Stamper, II and Pérez voting in opposition.

Under the pending proposal, an ADU, currently undefined in the city’s zoning code, must include a lockable door, separate plumbing and a separate cooking area.

A key requirement of the city’s proposal is that one of the units on the property must be owner occupied at the time of construction. Pérez, last week, said that it is designed to ensure ADUs are a tool for families aging in place, not a “tool for absentee landlords.

Bauman, when the City Plan Commission debated the file April 7, said he favors a stronger restriction, but the City Attorney’s Office advised that the time-of-construction is the practical legal limit.

Minneapolis was the first major city to re-legalize ADUs. Since 2021, it has approved an average of 17.75 new ADUs annually. West Allis and Wauwatosa have already legalized ADUs.

Missing Middle Proposal Passed Without Debate

A separate proposal from Bauman and Pérez to create a new zoning designation that allows buildings of up to eight units to be built was passed without debate.

At both the plan commission and zoning committee it encountered substantial opposition from a dedicated group of individuals, but with no formal public hearing Tuesday it wasn’t even discussed and passed unanimously.

Unlike the ADU proposal, the eight-unit designation would not immediately apply to any properties and would require a future public hearing to designate any property as suitable for a building of up to eight units.

It is intended to fill a gap, known as the “missing middle” in national housing debates, caused by zoning districts allowing up to four units or a much more complicated designation allowing far more units, but nothing in between.

Map of Residential Zoning Designations

Map of residential zoning from July 2024 Growing MKE plan.

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