Sitka Assembly returns Tuesday to ordinance easing backyard apartment rules

The Sitka Assembly takes up an ordinance Tuesday, Oct. 13, that would amend the city's zoning code to promote construction of accessory dwelling units, the backyard apartments and other second homes that sit on the same parcel as a single-family house. The measure returns as unfinished business from an earlier meeting.

The ordinance would cut the number of requirements a unit must meet to be built outright from 14 to eight, Alaska News reported when it first went to the Assembly. It would also bar the units from R-2 lots, where the city's guidance says they are now allowed by right, cap them at 800 square feet and allow tiny houses on chassis. Sitka bars renting an accessory unit for less than 90 consecutive days, but the ordinance would create a three-year, non-transferable short-term rental permit for newly built units. Assembly members Katie Riley, Kevin Mosher and Scott Saline sponsored it.

A 2025 city planning memo called the current standards restrictive. It said attached or basement units were not allowed, that variances could not be used to fit units on smaller lots, and that units in residential zones faced a 25-foot height limit tied to the height of the main house. It recommended revising the rules to make the units easier to build while keeping neighborhood-compatibility standards.

The rental market has little slack. The state labor department put Sitka's rental vacancy rate at 5.8 percent in March, down from 6.1 percent a year earlier.