A guest house, also known as an accessory dwelling unit (ADU), is a great way to have a private cottage for visiting family members or friends, or even a full-time home for an elderly mother or father.   A guest house is permitted on your property in Clallam County, provided you meet the requirements of the Clallam County Code (CCC).  You can have a primary residence and one ADU.  As you can see from this Sequim guest house, it can be a very nice custom built home.

The Code gets very specific about how to qualify.   The property on which an ADU is to be located must comply with the minimum lot size of the underlying zone. Parcels not meeting the minimum lot size may be allowed an attached ADU. Outside of designated urban growth areas, the property on which a detached ADU is to be located must be at least 1.5 acres in size.  This standard may be waived by the Administrator where it can be demonstrated that the detached ADU will be served by a community water supply and community sewage disposal system.  There’s a lot more detail in the CCC.

Learn more about the legal requirements about guest houses in Sequim and Port Angeles.

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• The Past Dwells in the Future
• Accessory Dwelling Units

I write about real estate on this blog, but it’s time for a little diversion.  Today we have some fun looking at something that is still real estate, but not your traditional home.  I wrote the following article for Pacific Northwest Home magazine, and it was published a little over a year ago.

What is the latest popular trend?  I’m not asking what the latest technology fad is or what gimmick Steve Jobs is marketing.  Forgetting about technology, gadgetry, and the Internet for a few minutes, what is one of the most popular trends around the country?  If you can leave your email alone and stop surfing the Internet for 10 minutes, you might be surprised as we travel to ancient times in order to come back to the present. Yurts!  You read that right.  It’s not a typo.  What you ask is a yurt? You might think of a yurt as a tent on steroids.  It’s much more than a tent, but it is not a stick built home either.  The yurt is an inexpensive, easily assembled dwelling that can be temporary or permanent.  It can be a humble abode for overnight stays or summer vacations, or it could be a larger home with kitchen cabinets, a dishwasher and all the comforts of home.

Photo Courtesy of Rainier Industries

Where did yurts come from?  The yurt is the traditional dwelling of the nomadic people of Central Asia. They are found from Anatolia to Mongolia.  Some think the Turks invented the yurt.  There are bits of history referencing what were probably yurts dating back to the sixth century, and perhaps long before that.  By the time of Marco Polo, yurts were widely used.  It’s not possible to say which of the ancient nomadic tribes originally developed the traditional design, but the yurt is still in use by people throughout Asia and plays an important role in the lifestyle of the shepherd.  To this day yurts remain one of the strongest, most efficient outdoor living structures ever devised.  (more…)

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• The Sequim Guest House
• Accessory Dwelling Units

An Accessory Dwelling Unit is like a second small house on your property, and under a strict set of rules, you can have an ADU on your Sequim or Port Angeles property. The following is from the Clallam County Code:

In addition to the general requirements of CCC 33.50.030, accessory dwelling units shall be subject to the following requirements.

(1) Size.

(a) Size of Detached ADU. Detached ADUs shall not exceed fifty (50) percent of the gross floor area of the primary dwelling unit, nor exceed 1,250 square feet in gross floor area.

(b) Size of Attached ADU. Attached ADUs shall not exceed thirty-five (35) percent of the gross floor area of the primary dwelling unit.

(2) Density.

(a) The property on which an ADU is to be located must comply with the minimum lot size of the underlying zone. Parcels not meeting the minimum lot size may be allowed an attached ADU, but detached ADUs are prohibited.

(b) Outside of designated urban growth areas, the property on which a detached ADU is to be located shall be at least 1.5 acres in size. This standard may be waived by the Administrator where it can be demonstrated that the detached ADU will be served by a community water supply and community sewage disposal system.

(c) Inside areas zoned Agricultural Retention (AR), detached ADUs are prohibited except on lots that are subject to the agricultural retention development standards of CCC 33.07.010(4) to CCC 33.07.010(10), or where the existing parcel is thirty (30) acres or larger is size.

(d) Inside areas zoned Commercial Forest (CF), detached ADUs are prohibited.

(3) Occupancy.

(a) The owner of the parcel shall live either in the primary dwelling or ADU as their primary residence. For the purpose of this standard, “permanent residence” shall mean occupancy by the underlying property owner for no less than 120 days during a calendar year.

(b) ADUs may be used for occupation by family members, guests, renters, lessees, and estate caretakers/groundskeepers.

(4) Design.

ADUs shall be designed so that the appearance of the lot remains that of a single-family residential development through the following standards:

(a) All building entrances shall be located so that only one entrance faces the road frontage of the development.

(b) On-site parking area shall be provided.

(c) Access for vehicle ingress and egress shall share the same legal access onto a public or private road as the primary dwelling unit and no new access shall be established for the ADU.

[You can find links to all key real estate links in Sequim and Port Angeles at SequimPortAngeles.com Links.]

Possibly Related Posts:

• The Sequim Guest House
• The Past Dwells in the Future