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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION – MARCH 10, 2025 10 Councilmember Weber referenced an email that was received by Council that had a video attachment. The concept is the parents own a large parcel with a big house on it, the kids can’t afford to buy a house. They tear down the big house and build four houses on the lot. It worked and the kids didn’t have a mortgage. Mayor Grant pointed out that Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen was saying it was easier to access utilities if the infrastructure was in front, but didn’t say it was impossible to extend them to the back yard. Councilmember Weber wasn’t implying that Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen thought that. Mayor Grant said regarding ADUs in a back yard, a lot of residents back up to a wood land or a lake. It is problematic to put a detached ADU in a back yard. Picture that a house has a nice view of the lake and then there is another ADU sitting the back. Now you’re impacting that view. In the zoning code you are not allowed to block the view of the lake. There is a calculation based on shoreline and ordinary high water mark. In Arden Hills people enjoy their back yards. People move here because we have a lot of nature. We have back yards that have some privacy. Having ADUs in the back yard could affect that. Councilmember Monson said we don’t have to allow detached ADUs. Mayor Grant agrees. He thinks detached ADUs in Arden Hills will pose some problems. He will have to do a little more research on basement ADUs. Councilmember Weber pointed out the regulations as related to disturbing someone’s view, are self-regulating. Those codes already exist. Not including a detached ADU because it might impact another code that would already control that aspect, doesn’t make sense. He agrees detached ADUs may not be right for Arden Hills but he would like to see more information on it. He believes some of these already exist. Mayor Grant said having that code in place regarding view may negate the option to placing and ADU in the back yard. He thinks, whether in front or back, there are issues with detached ADUs. City Administrator Jagoe said she is hearing there is an interest to bring this topic back to the Council for a more robust discussion. She can request the consultants to give a recommendation of where that may best fit in but that we won’t review that immediately, if Council is good with that. She said in looking at the list, there are 19 factors that need to be considered in order to get to ordinance language. She thinks this would be an item could be placed on a work session once there is a Community Development Director on Staff. She doesn’t think this can be taken on until that happens. The consultants won’t do anything more with it as part of their zoning review. Councilmember Weber thinks we may want to consider allowing basement ADUs. Mayor Grant said that City Administrator Jagoe could tell the consultants that Council had a discussion of detached front and back yard ADUs and that Council didn’t think that was going to happen. The discussion regarding basement ADUs is more likely appropriate for Arden Hills.