ADU rules in Hastings

Hastings allows a detached accessory dwelling only in the A Agricultural district, and only with a conditional use permit; Table 200-1 shows no entry for "Detached Dwelling, Accessory" in R-1, R-1A, R-1S, R-2, R-3 or any business or industrial district. Under §54-304(9) the lot must be at least five acres, the unit may house only the owner's parents or children, it may not be a mobile home, and it must share utility services with the main house. The A district is mostly the two-mile extraterritorial ring outside the city limits, so in practice no detached ADU is possible on an ordinary city lot.

The code has no attached or internal accessory dwelling use. The only route to a second unit inside or attached to a house is a two-unit building: the "Semi-attached dwelling (duplex)" use is permitted by right in R-2, R-3, C-O, C-1 and C-3 but not in the R-1, R-1A or R-1S single-family districts. In R-2 a two-family dwelling has its own lot standard (3,500 sq ft area and 35 ft width in the §54-205 table) and must meet the district's yards and 40 percent lot coverage.

The accessory detached dwelling must have at least 850 sq ft of habitable area and may not be larger than the principal dwelling on the lot; the code sets no other square-foot cap. It must sit on a lot of five acres or more, within the A district's 30 percent lot coverage limit, and an accessory structure may be no more than 25 percent taller than the principal structure (35 ft principal height limit). The council may impose stricter conditions in the conditional use permit.

The code has no express clause requiring the owner to live on the property. Instead it limits who may live in the unit: an accessory detached dwelling may house only "immediate family members", meaning the parent(s) or child(ren) of the owner of the principal dwelling, and the conditional use permit becomes void once no such family member lives there. Clause (a) also speaks of family members "who live in the principal detached dwelling", so the unit is tied to the owner's household in practice.

The parking table in §54-708 requires 2 off-street spaces per dwelling unit for "Residential: Detached, Semi-attached, and Attached Dwellings" and 1.5 spaces per unit for all other residential types. The code has no ADU-specific parking rule; read literally, an accessory detached dwelling is a detached dwelling unit needing 2 spaces, and each unit of a duplex also needs 2. The council may add conditions through the conditional use permit.

An accessory detached dwelling needs a conditional use permit: the Planning Commission holds a public hearing and recommends, and the City Council decides after its own public hearing (Table 200-1 footnote 2: "discretionary review by planning commission and city council"). Applications are due at Development Services four weeks before the commission's monthly meeting, with a site plan, building plans and a narrative, and a building permit follows. A duplex in R-2 or R-3 is a by-right use needing only a building permit, but that is a two-unit building, not an ADU.

Because §54-304(9)(a) limits an accessory detached dwelling to the owner's parents or children, the unit cannot be rented to anyone else long-term or short-term, and the permit lapses once family use ends (the holder must notify Development Services within 30 days). The city code has no short-term rental registration or licensing chapter; rentals of 30 days or less fall under the 3 percent lodging occupation tax in §48-401 to §48-403, and a bed and breakfast needs a conditional use permit and must be the owner's principal residence (§54-304(11)). Units of a by-right duplex may be rented like any dwelling.