Mesh Architecture
Creating space(s) for meaningful connections
Powderhorn ADU
Leveraging land to create affordability.
Incrementally densifying a single family lot.
Type: Residential
Location: 11th Ave S, Minneapolis, MN
Status: hold
Scale: 1,100SF
Team: Molly Dalsin/mesh architecture, Diver Van Avery/client, Beth Pfeifer/consultant, Barb Jaeger/pricing contractor.
What is an Accessory Dwelling Unit?
An accessory dwelling unit (ADU) is a small residence that shares a single-family lot with a larger, primary dwelling. They provide additional housing for friends, family, caregivers, or renters. ADUs cannot be sold separately from the primary home and are typically managed by the homeowners themselves.
ADUs provide distributed and incremental density in existing single-family neighborhoods and can combat sprawl. They offer entry-level housing choices to young people, enable families to expand beyond their primary home, and provide empty nesters the option of moving to a smaller space. They can be an economical housing option as an affordable rental choice, as well as generate rental income to help home owners. Especially as a long-term investment, ADUs can limit foreclosures by providing options for rental income.
Although ADU size and type regulations vary across the country, ADUs are typically an independent living space with a kitchen, bathroom, and sleeping area that does not require the use of shared spaces or resources. While primarily developed in urban areas, ADUs can be found in both suburban and rural areas.
ADUs are not new! Forms of ADUs have been around for centuries including multigenerational homes, caretaker quarters, or carriage houses. However, zoning restrictions limited or banned ADU development until more recently. Interestingly, many recent ADU permit applications in the Twin Cities have been submitted to legalize existing ADUs in homes.
What is a Community Land Trust?
A Community Land Trust is a form of home ownership in which the Land Trust maintains ownership of the land property and the inhabitant owns the built home. Rooted in the 1960s civil rights movement, this model has been effective for communities fighting displacement as well as ensuring affordability in perpetuity through sale-restriction mechanisms.
The separate ownership structure creates a shared equity model that exists somewhere between home ownership and renting. The Land Trust is a non-profit organization governed by community members and experts. The organization guides long-term property acquisition and development, home owner education and resources, as well as financials to keep down payments and closing costs low. These tactics help people that can’t afford to purchase a home in the private, speculative housing market. The CLT dual tenure ownership model helps both the land trust and the home owner build equity and generational wealth.
The CLT model is adaptable enough to interfere in broader issues of housing discrimination, disinvestment, displacement and foreclosures, loss of affordability due to expiring public subsidy, and decreasing social capital. On a broader scale, the community-wide aggregation of CLTs seek to stabilize neighborhoods and promote environmental sustainability. CLTs are not limited to single family homes, but also rental buildings (to provide affordable rent in perpetuity), condos, co-ops, and commercial or office spaces.
The biggest challenge of CLTs are land and/or property acquisition. Because the organization must purchase properties at market-rate, the purchase must be subsidized through government funding and private grants, or private donations of properties such as being the beneficiary to a property in a will.
Similar housing models include limited equity cooperatives, mutual housing associations, and deed-restricted housing.