ADU rules in Everett

Everett no longer regulates ADUs as a separate use. Table 5-1 lists a single residential use, 'Dwelling unit', permitted (P) in the Neighborhood Residential-Constrained (NR-C), Neighborhood Residential (NR), Urban Residential (UR4, UR7), Mixed-Use (MU4 through MU25), Light Industrial-Mixed Use (LI-MU, Metro Everett only) and Agriculture zones, so a detached backyard unit is permitted outright everywhere except the Light Industrial and Heavy Industrial zones. EMC 19.06.020(F) puts ADU setbacks on the same footing as principal buildings, which in NR means a 10-foot front setback, 5-foot interior side and no-alley rear setbacks, and no rear setback at all on an alley lot. Since Ord. 4102-25 repealed the maximum density provisions in EMC 19.06.100, the NR, UR and MU zones cap the number of dwelling units on a lot only through lot coverage, setbacks, height and yard standards; NR-C is the one zone with an explicit number, two ADUs per lot exempt from its 1-unit-per-9,000-square-foot density limit.

The EMC 19.04.030 definition measures an ADU by 'interior habitable area, including basements and attics', which is definitional recognition that a basement conversion, an attic conversion, an internal split or an addition all qualify. Nothing in Title 19 requires an ADU to be detached or attached, and the city's own ADU page states that 'Dwelling units, including attached and/or detached accessory dwelling units, are permitted in all zones except Light Industrial and Heavy Industrial'. Two other sections assume attached and internal ADUs exist: EMC 15.02.060(B)(3)(b) makes the 'Addition of an accessory dwelling unit to an existing single-family or two-unit dwelling' a Review Process I decision in historic overlays, and EMC 19.28.080(A)(6) sends to the Historical Commission only 'An accessory dwelling when not located entirely within an existing principal dwelling', which means a fully internal conversion in a historic overlay skips that review. Conversions that are mostly or only internal are also exempt from the Chapter 19.08 site and building design standards.

The 1,000 square foot ceiling lives in the definition (EMC 19.04.030), not in a development standard, because Ord. 4102-25 repealed the old ADU standards section EMC 19.08.100 outright in 2025. The practical consequence is unusual and worth understanding: size is what decides whether a unit is an ADU and therefore eligible for the ADU cost breaks (park impact fees halved, no frontage improvements), not whether it may be built at all. Bulk is instead controlled by lot coverage (50 percent by building in NR, rising to 55 percent on a lot with two dwelling units and 60 percent with three or more; 35 percent in NR-C), the Table 6-2 setbacks, the Table 22-1 height limit, and the private or shared yard requirement in EMC 19.08.030(C). Everett's three certified pre-approved ADU designs, published June 2026, run 820, 999 and 1,000 square feet, which shows where the line bites in practice.

No owner-occupancy requirement exists anywhere in the Everett Municipal Code. An exact-phrase search of the whole code for 'owner occupancy' and 'owner-occupied' returns only the inclusionary zoning chapter (EMC 19.54), the multifamily property tax exemption chapter (EMC 3.78), the aspirational purpose statements in EMC 19.27.010 and 19.03.030, and nothing about ADUs. Everett removed its owner-occupancy rule in the July 2023 ADU code amendments (Ord. 3963-23, effective August 5, 2023), and the 2025 rewrite that repealed EMC 19.08.100 did not reintroduce one. Nor is occupancy tied to short-term rental approval, unlike several other Washington cities: EMC 19.13.250 requires only a business license. RCW 36.70A.681(1)(b) independently bars Everett, as a Snohomish County GMA jurisdiction past its 12/31/2024 periodic update deadline, from requiring the owner to live in the ADU or in another unit on the lot.

Table 34-1 sets the general residential standard at one space per dwelling unit, then EMC 19.34.050 lists seven categories that need no off-street parking at all. Two of them cover ADUs: subsection (B) for Chapter 19.08 development within a half mile walking distance of a stop served by bus rapid transit or rail, and subsection (C) for dwelling units under 1,200 square feet of gross floor area, which reaches essentially every ADU in the city and is not conditioned on transit at all. The city's ADU page states the rule plainly and adds the two qualifiers that matter: bicycle space is still required, and parking may still be required for the other dwellings on the property. One reversal to watch: if the ADU is used as a short-term rental, Table 34-1 imposes three off-street spaces for a whole-unit rental on a site with on-street parking in front, four without, or one space per guest room for room rentals.

Because an ADU is simply a 'Dwelling unit' and that use is marked P in Table 5-1, EMC 15.02.060(B)(1) makes it a Review Process I decision: a minor administrative land use decision reviewed by planning department staff for compliance with the unified development code, with no hearing, no notice and no discretionary approval. A building permit is still required, and the project also draws water and side sewer utility permits (each dwelling unit needs its own service), electrical permits, and on-site stormwater review. Everett's Residential Basics program certifies pre-approved ADU plan sets that clear the design and structural review in advance so only site-specific permitting remains. Two situations add a step without changing the permit type: in a historic overlay a detached ADU, or any ADU not entirely inside the existing principal dwelling, goes to the Everett Historical Commission for a recommendation to the planning director, and a Review Process I application that is not categorically exempt under SEPA is bumped to Review Process II (planning director review, still no hearing).

EMC 19.13.250 is the entire short-term rental regime and it is four sentences long: a city business license, no more than two short-term rental sites per individual, marital group, group of people or corporate entity in the city, the use may be located in a dwelling unit, a total of eight guests per site 'including any site with an accessory dwelling unit', and no signs. There is no owner-occupancy condition and no separate short-term rental permit, which is unusually light for a Washington city of this size. Short-term rentals are a permitted (P) use in NR-C, NR, UR, MU and AG under Table 5-1. Long-term renting draws nothing at all from Title 19: a code-wide search finds no rental housing licensing or registration chapter. The one real cost of short-term renting is parking, since Table 34-1 reimposes three or four off-street spaces for a whole-unit short-term rental. Separate sale is not restricted locally either: the city's ADU page treats condominium creation as a matter of state law (chapter 64.34 RCW) administered by Snohomish County, and RCW 36.70A.681(1)(k) bars a city from blocking the conveyance of a condominium unit merely because it was built as an ADU.