By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
ssoldan@mihomepaper.com
Brandon Twp. — On Nov. 12, the Brandon Township board of trustees voted unanimously to approve an amendment to the zoning ordinance to add regulations for accessory dwelling units.
“What they’re trying to do with this one, from my understanding, is limit mother-in-law suites for example,” said Supervisor Jayson Rumball. “But they’re trying to put control on those and how big they can be in relation to the rest of the footprint of the house.”
Accessory dwelling units, sometimes referred to as in-law suites or guest houses, are dwellings with a separate entrance from the main house structure. The proposed amendment includes two new zoning ordinance sections to differentiate between attached and detached accessory dwelling unit structures.
The amendments allow only one accessory dwelling unit per parcel used as a single-family residential dwelling unit, with a minimum lot size of two acres. The floor area of the ADU cannot be greater than 50% of the gross floor area of the principal building, and a detached unit may not exceed 1,000 square feet. An attached unit may not exceed 800 square feet.
“Especially looking forward, we’re going to have a tougher economy and families are going to start coming in together under one household,” said trustee and planning commissioner Steve Unruh. “So that was part of the discussion and people are going to need this.”
The ordinance will come back for a second reading, and the full amendments are available to read in the new business documents of the Nov. 12 meeting.