Kingston, NY, Invites Residents to Design ADUs for Plus One Home Program

*Attendees discussing the footprint of accessory dwelling units at the Plus One program launch party in Kingston, NY. (Source: Kingston Housing Initiative.)*

A waterside launch party was held in Kingston, New York, for the ADU (accessory dwelling unit) Plus One Home Program, an initiative that unites three separate programs (zoning, design/build, and funding) in a push to accelerate the creation of housing and equity from the ground up.

The Plus One program is aligned with Kingston’s new form-based zoning plan (instituted August 2023), which includes provisions that allow anyone to build an ADU on their property. Plus One also includes a dovetailed grant and design program to spur on new projects. Form-based zoning is based more on the character and style of an existing neighborhood rather than dividing the area into use-based districts, allowing neighborhoods to retain their character while speeding planning. Bartek Starodaj, director of Housing Initiatives Kingston and a leader in the new zoning process, said, “In short, the new code aims to encourage new housing development of all types and mixed-use, walkable development everywhere.”

On the afternoon of the launch party, I walked past the Maritime Center’s wrought iron gate to see a bright yellow rope outline representing the walls of a 700-square-foot ADU. Following this life-size rope outline, you were able to walk inside and imagine what living there might be like. While I explored the imagined ADU, I also saw a smiling local restaurateur handing loaded food platters to Starodaj, who was going all out to welcome the community. He planned the event to be “a fun thing to do on a summer night,” and wanted to make people comfortable who might not normally come to a city hall event. Kai Lord-Farmer (of the Ulster County Planning Board) said that publicizing the launch event helps to widen the circle of information to non-attendees, as well.

*Desirée L. Lyle of Simply Sustainable, one of the panelists for the forum, standing in the Accessory Dwelling Unit footprint. (Source: Kingston Housing Initiative.)*

Attendees to the launch explored the outlines of the ADU outside the barn, musing about things like where the sofa would go or which room was best for the kitchen. Going inside the barn, we were greeted by two large tables with playful illustrated maps, showing what Kingston looks like from above. These maps were strewn with small paper rectangles in scale to the size of a typical ADU. The maps and ADU rectangles were a sort of game of visualization about where an ADU could fit on a typical lot, and folks could try out different positions for a dream ADU. Starodaj and Lord-Farmer were both hopeful that this approach would generate excitement in property owners about the possibility of building.

*Paper rectangles representing where ADUs could fit on a typical Kingston lot. (Source: Kingston Housing Initiative.)*

Kingston, located about 90 minutes from New York City, has had its ups and downs. Long the site of ancient Lenape Trade route, it came to be a chartered town in the 17th century, and was set to the torch in the Revolutionary War. By the turn of the 19th century, Rondout Creek and its surrounding neighborhood was a bustling maritime port that boasted a diverse community. Into the 20th century, the city turned to IBM and away from ships. In time, IBM closed its business, hitting the town’s economy hard. The town has both preserved many of its historic buildings and also suffered some tragic urban renewal typical of the 1960s. Although Kingston remains the largest and most diverse town in the Hudson Valley, it’s faced rising house prices combined with a lack of new housing. As Starodaj said, “We need housing of all types here in Kingston and we need it quickly. Accessory dwelling units are one aspect of that in easily allowing property owners and homeowners in established neighborhoods to add housing.”

Starodaj and Lord-Farmer, along with their colleagues, created a construction grant program that does its best to engage the wider community, and give maximum flexibility to the property owner. Starodaj says the grant program also incentivizes the creation of rentals, which can “chip away” at the need for affordable housing.

The total initial grant fund of $1.75 million was sourced from the City of Kingston, RUPCO, and Ulster County-New York State Homes and Community Renewal Fund. Lord-Farmer indicates that Kingston will move these Plus One grants out as fast as possible, and simultaneously seek more funding. The grants offer up $125,000 to owner- residents who want to build an ADU on their property. The grant guidelines prioritize those who will rent the structure for 10 years at a price proportionate to 60-80% AMI (Annual Median Income indicated rent), while adhering to cost and design requirements. (Perfectly OK to rent your ADU to your family and friends, of course!) An ADU design competition, the first in New York state, was created in service of these grants, hoping to make building as easy as possible.

The competition for ADU designs has attracted entrants from around the United States, and will award a prize to both a professional and non-professional ADU design that adheres to stated objectives of size, energy use, and affordability. Winning entries will be available along with pre-approved build plans to anyone in Kingston. And the construction-funding grant winners, who are building from these award-winning designs will be provided shovel-ready build sets, guidance, and ongoing support. The intention is that property owners willing to create these needed spaces are supported from idea to full completion. The design competition is also intended to stir excitement for what an ADU might be. Starodaj hopes that the completion will also attract architectural talent to consider the area and “their role they play in [designing] the urban fabric.”

At the launch, having had time to imagine their own ADU, the audience was invited to sit down, filling all the chairs and standing around the side. The organizers invited a panel of experts to explain the building grant and design programs in detail and answer questions. When I spoke to the person to my left, she indicated that, now aging, she felt that she lived too far out of town, but that maybe she could live with her son in an ADU. Behind me there were people whose questions indicated a familiarity with building and contracting. The audience was excited and asked more questions than time would permit for. Everyone responsible for the launch event felt it was successful in exciting the residents of Kingston about building an ADU in their own backyard.

Rebecca Holderness is the founder and CEO of 2FtD—a SAAS business for the entrepreneurial developer and the capital investment that supports them, and has also founded and directed two celebrated not-for-profit corporations. She is deeply committed to the development of community, cities, and creative places, and is also an award-winning theater director and innovator, and winner of the Zelda Fichandler Award. She is a true original thinker grounded in the interaction between community, urban planning, education and the arts.