Petersburg has a tight housing market – last year, a survey found the town would need an additional 300 homes in the. But a new local program aims to make it easier for people to add small homes, also known as Accessory Dwelling Units, or ADUs, to their property.
“When you’re trying to address housing situations, it’s multifaceted, so there’s no single solution, she said. “And in this case, we’re trying to make something that takes a lot of the upfront work out of the picture and be able to get someone a little bit further along in getting the project done.” “What it does really well, I think, is that it addresses the issue of the cost of infrastructure development and it gives you an option for increasing the number of housing units without having to build out your infrastructure,” she said., which range in size from about 350 to 650 square feet. The houses are designed for Petersburg’s climate, and built to the town’s code. Cabrera said she hopes the houses will be used in a variety of ways.
Anyone who lives in Petersburg’s Service Area 1 can apply for the plans. Cabrera said homes built outside the service area would open the borough up to liability, since the borough can’t enforce code outside Service Area 1. Applicants will pay a building permit fee once the borough confirms that zoning codes are met. Cabrera said the borough used money from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, to fund the development of the plans.