EAST LONGMEADOW — The East Longmeadow Town Council approved a bylaw on Feb. 11 to regulate accessory dwelling units, such as tiny homes and in-law apartments.
In the summer of 2024, Massachusetts passed the Affordable Homes Act, which was intended to make housing more available and affordable throughout the state. As part of the law, accessory dwelling units were made an as-by-right use. This means municipalities cannot prohibit them. However, cities and towns were allowed to pass bylaws restricting them.
Using guidelines from the state and the town’s attorney, the bylaw was written by Planning and Community Development Director Rob Watchilla and received several public hearings with the Planning Board. After an initial reading by the Town Council and review by the council’s Planning Matters Subcommittee, the Town Council reviewed the proposed changes.
Under the bylaw, accessory dwelling units, commonly referred to as ADUs, are allowed in residential zones AA, A, B and C. Only one ADU is allowed on a property, and that lot must also contain a single-family home. All buildings on a lot must cover less than 25% of the land. There are additional rules around lot coverage for properties in residential zone C. Mobile homes and temporary structures are not allowed to act as an accessory dwelling unit.
ADUs must contain sleeping, cooking and sanitary facilities. A separate entrance and clearly marked address are required. The gross floor area of an ADU is limited to the smaller of either half the gross floor area of the principal dwelling or 900 square feet. All setbacks and building height limits required in a residential zone also apply to the ADU. All ADUs must conform to all state and local sanitary and building codes and environmental laws.
The council debated whether to require separate electrical meters for the attached and contained accessory units. Councilor Ralph Page said the state regulations do not require a separate meter for these ADUs. He also said it may require homeowners to rewire their entire house. Watchilla said rental units usually have a separate electrical meter unless electricity is paid by the landlord. Council President Connor O’Shea agreed with Watchilla and said tenants and their landlords can work it out between them if a separate utility bill is not desired.
Use of ADUs as a short-term rental, such as a vacation rental, is prohibited. Watchilla said that since short-term rentals are not allowed anywhere in town, the language could be removed from the bylaw. However, Councilor Marilyn Richards said that people will primarily check the ADU bylaw when considering such a use and the language should remain, and it was included in the final bylaw.
An ADU must have one off-street parking space devoted to it and a separate driveway is possible in zones that allow more than one curb cut per property.
There are three types of ADUs: attached, contained and detached. Attached ADUs are those created by adding an addition onto a primary residence, while contained units do not change the footprint of the primary structure and all construction occurs inside the primary dwelling’s envelope.
The bylaw spells out separate rules for detached units, which do not share a wall with the primary residence. Detached units can be located in the side or rear yard and must have a distance of at least 10 feet from the single-family home. The units must also have a separate water meter and sewer lines and separate trash removal.
Existing accessory buildings, such as a garage or shed, can be renovated into an ADU. Because of this, O’Shea suggested changing the bylaw to require that such ADUs adhere to the setbacks for accessory structures instead of those for the primary dwelling. Richards countered that 5 feet from a rear or side property line, as allowed for accessory structures, is too close to neighbors for a dwelling. Page agreed with Richards but said that as written now, the state’s regulations indicate that an ADU can be placed wherever an accessory structure can be placed. He said he would rather be more restrictive than less until the state finalizes its regulations. The language was not altered.
Site plan review
Detached ADUs require a site plan review by the Planning Board. There was much debate over whether to require a site plan review for attached and contained ADUs. As Page pointed out during a Planning Board public hearing on the matter, additions and interior renovations of a single-family home do not require a site plan review.
The Planning Matters Subcommittee suggested that instead of a site plan review, attached and contained ADUs should be subject to administrative review by the Planning Department and a building permit. Page said that the building permit should suffice as an administrative review is not required for other additions and renovations of a single-family home. He said in-law apartments already exist in town without any issues.
The council decided to remove the requirement for Planning Board administrative review, as many of the same steps could be included in the building permit process.
During the hearing, Planning Board Chair Russell Denver commented, “It’s another piece of where the state [is] sticking their nose into local zoning.” He said there have been several times that the state has allowed a lawsuit over a zoning decision made in East Longmeadow.
“Hundreds and hundreds of years, local zoning has been it. [Towns] have decided what the zones should be and how they should be enforced, and now recently, the state has decided to step into the shoes of local communities and make these changes.”
Denver said he and members of the Planning Board “believe that this … potentially has the ability to make major impacts on this community — some people will say positive, I think the majority of the Planning Board will say negative.” He posed a rhetorical question asking if state representatives or state senators that represent the town or Gov. Maura Healey had called East Longmeadow to ask their opinion on allowing ADUs as-by-right.
“Our hand is forced here,” Christensen acknowledged. However, he said that “almost every department in town,” including the Planning Board, had a hand in creating the bylaw over just 188 days and that is “exactly how government is supposed to work.”
