Reply to Montgomery County zoning: Council wants to change zoning throughout the county to multi-family

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]Anonymous wrote:
I'm from CA and agree that the people on the county council seem to be enamored within anything that the Bay Area does and calls progressive without a ounce of understanding.

In CA, ADUs make sense and the majority of citizens support them. Our lots and houses are much, much smaller so an ADU lets us have a guest room/guest house. There are many retirees who stay in place due to the property tax freeze but struggle to make ends meet with the rest of the high cost of living. The ADUs give them a much needed income source. The rental inventory is so low here that rents can easily double in a year. This happens at the same time as they tech giants bring in thousands of new workers every month. The ADUs are not being illegally rented to 12 people. They are going for a high price to single tech workers or the the couple who is priced out of renting because they don't make over 100K a year. The ADUs here are also getting used a lot by people's working age kids. Their kids can not afford housing in the area so if they land a job in tech or just want to stay in the area, an ADU on their parent's property is the only way to do it.

In Montgomery County, I have to scratch my head and wonder why. Rents are relatively cheap, not rising dramatically and the rental inventory always has vacant units. Retirees do not age in place here due to the taxes and climate. There doesn't seem to be a huge market for professionals that want to live in some else's backyard. AirBNB for people who live close in could be attractive but there are a lot of AirBNBs in DC. I'm not sure out of towners will decide gee I really want to visit Rockville , Olney or Silver Spring this summer. No one has every heard of these burbs outside the DMV.

Relative to San Francisco, one of the most expensive cities in the US.

San Francisco has terrible housing policies. Nobody would want to copy them - and Montgomery County's ADU regulation doesn't.[/quote]

Rents are cheap in comparison to the rest of the DMV or at least DC and VA. Rents are cheap in comparison to salaries which is the more important metric. [/quote]

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