Sitka would make backyard apartments easier to build, in fewer places

An ordinance before the Sitka Assembly on Tuesday would cut the number of requirements a second dwelling has to satisfy to be built outright from 14 to eight. It would also bar those units from R-2 lots, where they are currently allowed.

An accessory dwelling unit is a second home on the same parcel as a single-family house. Sitka allows one per parcel, in the districts zoned for one home and for up to three, on lots reached by a publicly maintained road, and not on parcels that already hold a duplex. The units have to meet the main house's setbacks, lot coverage and design standards.

The ordinance, sponsored by Assembly members Katie Riley, Kevin Mosher and Scott Saline, would also cap the units at 800 square feet and allow tiny houses on chassis.

Short-term rental is the piece that gets complicated. Sitka bars renting an accessory unit for less than 90 consecutive days, and the staff memo says that is the one requirement no permit could waive. The ordinance would nonetheless create a three-year, non-transferable short-term rental permit for newly built units.

The Planning Commission recommended approval unanimously in August.

Behind it is a rental market with 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. A city search for buildable land turned up roughly eight acres, and the Sitka Community Land Trust has asked the city to waive parking requirements and allow smaller lots on Halibut Point Road.