The City of St. Paul Planning Commission will hold a public hearing Friday, Feb. 5, at 8:30 a.m. at City Hall, 15 W. Kellogg Boulevard, to discuss zoning changes that would allow accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to be built on single-family lots in neighborhoods one-half mile north and south of the Green Line Light Rail. That includes south St. Anthony Park.
ADUs are separate living quarters added to the back or inside of a house, over a garage or built as freestanding structures.
The public hearing comes just as the St. Anthony Park Community Council’s ADU Task Force presented its yearlong study of the issue to the council in January. The council’s Land Use Committee created the task force to review ADUs and make a recommendation as to whether or not they are appropriate for the entire St. Anthony Park neighborhood.
The group studied ADU ordinances in other cities, and after two public meetings and two public commentary periods, the task force recommended that only internal and attached ADUs be allowed in the district and that they be owner-occupied “with clear, reasonable enforcement provisions for verifying owner occupancy.” Detached ADUs would not be allowed in the task force’s recommendations.
The recommendations were presented to the District 12 Community Council on Jan. 14. The council voted to send a letter to the St. Paul City Council and Planning Commission endorsing the St. Anthony Park ADU Task Force’s recommendation for consideration of a citywide ADU ordinance outside the transit corridor. The council also vote in favor of sending a letter to the city’s Planning Commission in support of the draft ordinance establishing ADUs as a permitted accessory use along the Green Line.
You can read the St. Anthony Park ADU Task Force’s entire recommendations at sapcc.org. A copy of the city’s proposed zoning changes can be found at https://www.stpaul.gov/departments/planning-economic-development/planning/current-activities. Scroll down to “Green Line Accessory Dwelling Unit Zoning Text Amendment.”
