It’s nice that Ms. Lewis has had a good experience with her ADU, and there may be benefits to owners by adding an ADU, however, there is another side of the story that is not pleasant and which no one seems to discuss.
For more than 30 years, we have had illegal and a few legal rentals in our neighborhood. Owners have modified their homes to accommodate renters. In most cases, the owners provide no parking for their tenants, so they park on our street, often in front of our property. We even had owners, who in spite of having a two-car garage, a pull-out and a driveway, didn’t want the unsightliness of a car parked in one of their spaces, so they sent them to our street to park.
As a result of these rentals, our street has been turned into a parking lot with people coming and going all hours of day and night. The cacophony of noise from car doors slamming, engines starting up, remote locking and unlocking, music, conversations outside cars at midnight, has dramatically changed a formerly quiet, residential neighborhood. Add the visits from tenants’ friends and even more cars are in the mix.
These parking issues are problematic, not only because of the noise, unsightliness, etc., but should evacuation be necessary in our neighborhoods due to fire or earthquake, cars parked everywhere makes it extremely difficult for residents to escape. Adding to the density in our neighborhoods is not safe for anyone.
How do ADUs provide affordable housing? Perhaps incentives from the City may help at first to keep rents affordable, but eventually, the rents will rise to what the market will bear. Will the City create a new department that will oversee this and enforce rent control in Laguna’s ADUs?
Ms. Lewis’s new tenants may have melded seamlessly into their neighborhood, but did all the cars meld seamlessly, too?
Rosanne Beam, Laguna Beach
Editor’s Note: This letter appeared in the April 2 edition of the Independent.
