ADU rules in Hutchinson

Hutchinson allows one accessory dwelling unit per residential zoning lot, and since Ord. 2023-10 the unit may be built as its own accessory building. The Sec. 27-406.A use table marks the ADU 'D' (permitted with design standards) only in the R-3, R-4, R-5 and R-6 residential districts and the CR and EN mixed districts; it is 'N' (not permitted) in TA, R-1 and R-2 (the single household districts) and in MH, MP, commercial, industrial and P/I districts. A detached ADU must sit in the side or rear yard, may not project into the front yard or the required side street front yard, and must be separated from adjacent residential properties by a minimum 6-foot privacy fence. Planning staff restated the district split in 2025 rezoning reports: rezoning a lot from R-4 to R-1 means accessory dwelling units 'would no longer be permitted'.

Sec. 27-406.A.1.a (added by Ord. 2023-10, passed 6-20-2023) says an ADU 'may be within the principal building, within an accessary building, or constructed as an accessory building', so basement, addition and internal conversions qualify on the same terms as detached units. The same district limit applies: allowed with design standards in R-3, R-4, R-5, R-6, CR and EN, and not allowed in TA, R-1 and R-2. The unit must have its own kitchen, sleeping, restroom and bathing facilities not shared with the main house; a suite without its own kitchen is not an ADU. The side or rear yard rule and the privacy fence rule apply only to detached units (Ord. 2022-7 limited them to detached ADUs).

Sec. 27-406.A.1.b sets a 400 square foot minimum and a 960 square foot maximum, and the ADU may not exceed 50% of the size of the principal structure, so a 1,500 square foot house supports at most a 750 square foot ADU. In the R-3 district the maximum rises to 1,200 square feet, still capped at 50% of the principal structure. There is no ADU-specific height cap; the district tables allow accessory uses up to 35 feet in R-3, R-4, R-5, EN and CR, and R-6 lists no separate accessory height (principal buildings 35 feet). The ADU must also meet the district's setbacks and lot coverage (accessory setbacks 5 feet rear and side in R-3 to R-5 and EN, 3 feet in R-6; coverage 45% in R-3 to R-5, 60% in R-6).

Sec. 27-406.A.1.f permits an ADU only 'on zoning lots where the property owner resides in either the principal dwelling or ADU', so the owner may live in either unit. The rule is written as a standing condition of the use rather than an at-application check, and the code text names no deed restriction or affidavit. Kansas has no statute preempting local owner-occupancy rules, and 2026 SB 418 does not address owner occupancy.

Sec. 27-406.A.1.e requires at least one paved off-street space dedicated to ADU residents, in addition to the parking required for the main house, and the Sec. 27-702.A table lists the ADU at 1 space per unit against 2 spaces for single-unit living, so most lots need 3 spaces (the code's ADU diagram labels it '3 spaces minimum, unless R-6'). In R-6 the requirement may be reduced to one per dwelling unit, for 2 spaces on the lot. A space reachable only from an unpaved alley may be gravel under Sec. 27-701.C. There is no transit-proximity exemption.

In the use table an ADU is a 'D' use (permitted with design standards), and Sec. 27-405 states that design-standard uses 'are reviewed administratively by City Staff'; no Planning Commission or Board of Zoning Appeals hearing is involved where the use is listed. Under Sec. 27-1207 the zoning administrator certifies zoning compliance with a zoning certificate, issued or denied within five working days after a building permit application is received, and the unit then needs a building permit under the city's adopted 2018 International Residential Code. On a designated landmark or inside a historic district, any exterior construction needing a building permit also needs a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Landmarks Commission (City Code Sec. 4-401(b)(1)). In TA, R-1 and R-2 there is no ADU route at all; the nearest alternative there is two-unit living, which needs a special use permit from the Board of Zoning Appeals.

Because Sec. 27-406.A.1.f requires the owner to live in one of the two units, the other unit can be rented, but an owner cannot rent out both. Hutchinson has no rental registration or licensing program: Ord. 2020-12 (2-4-2020) repealed it and Chapter 21 Article XI now reads 'RESERVED'. Chapter 27 has no short-term rental use; its only residential transient-lodging use is the owner-occupied bed and breakfast (owner lives on site, 2,500 square foot minimum floor area, up to 3 guest rooms), so whole-unit nightly rental of an ADU is unlisted and falls to the zoning administrator's interpretation of unlisted uses under Sec. 27-405. The code defines the ADU as a dwelling 'located on the same zoning lot as the primary structure' and has no provision for selling it separately.