Woodside OKs changes to guest house rules Woodside OKs changes to guest house rules (March 30, 2005)

By Andrea Gemmet

Almanac Staff Writer

The great debate on guest cottages threatened to rear its ugly head again in Woodside, but subsided as Town Council members fell in line behind a plan they've been mulling over for many months.

As a result, new rules governing the rental of guest houses are set to go into effect.

Rental units, which are distinguished from those that house guests, family members or staff, may now have a larger maximum size and will be allowed in barns. Intended to create opportunities for affordable housing, the changes affect only new construction.

Key points of the changes approved on March 8 are:

** Living quarters may legally be built in barns and stables.

** The cap on the size of second units is increased from 720 square feet to 1,000 square feet for rentals -- the maximum size for guest houses that are not rented remains 1,500 square feet.

** Only one rental unit per property is allowed.

Woodside officials have been laboring for several years to come up with changes to the housing element portion of its general plan that will satisfy state mandates for more affordable new housing.

Guest houses are a touchy subject in Woodside. The ability to build accessory buildings is widely considered to be the trade-off Woodside officials gave property owners when zoning changes limited the maximum size of main residences. Critics say that properties with the maximum of three homes -- a main house and two accessory living units -- create backdoor subdivisions, with as many as three families living on properties intended for one family.

The Town Council has gone back and forth on the new rules, initially agreeing to a conceptual plan in April 2003, which was approved by state officials the following summer.

However, when faced with the task of drafting changes to the rules to put the plan into practice, council members have suffered some changes of heart. They watered down some of the provisions and sent them back to staff and the Planning Commission in October.

Town Council members indulged in a bit more tinkering at the March 8 meeting before finally voting 5-1, with Carroll Ann Hodges opposed, to pass the housing element changes.

Ms. Hodges said she thought maintaining an impossible-to-enforce legal distinction between rentals and guest houses was farcical, and that a size limit of 1,000 square feet should be imposed on all second living units. She also said that a single accessory living unit was more than enough for a property.

"Woodside is zoned for single-family residential, and I think this ordinance really makes a mockery of that fact," she said.

Although Ms. Hodges had the sole opposing vote, she did have some support for her position on the council. Councilman Pete Sinclair said he too thought that one guest house per property was enough.

"I agreed with Carroll Ann, but I was roundly shot down by my colleagues who said that if we did that, Town Hall would be burned down (by angry residents)," he said.

Woodside officials intend to waive planning and building fees for new rental units as an incentive to property owners who will pledge to charge below market rates to qualified renters. The council will act on fee changes at a future meeting.

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