Savannah has had ADUs since its inception.  Savannah was developed based on an elaborate grided layout championed by General James Oglethorpe. The Oglethorpe Plan called for the establishment of wards anchored by a square. The squares were surrounded with trust lots for public buildings and tithing lots to the north and south sides of each square. Tithing lots were reserved for the private estates of the colonists. 

The larger homes typically consisted of the main house and several outbuildings that were slated for specific purposes such as food storage, food processing, and other work areas. One of the more common outbuildings in an estate would be the carriage house or the coach house.

Originally, the carriage house provided a covered shelter for the homeowner’s horse-drawn carriage. Carriages were later replaced with motorized coaches and stored in the same carriage houses. The carriage house usually included a self-contained apartment above the storage bays. These apartments may have been assigned to groomsmen, chauffeurs, or other household workers. The living quarters were usually small, one bedroom or loft-style living spaces and were located close to the road or lane with their own entrance. 

As the city expanded south, the free-standing single family house became more and more common and carriage houses and garage apartments became less common. Then, in the middle of the 20th century, like much of the country, zoning and ordinances made it difficult for homeowners to build new structures or to renovate existing out-buildings into ADUs, but those that existed prior to those ordinances being put in place have enjoyed steady use as dwellings for extended family or as rental units. 

With the 2019 passage of a revised city zoning ordinance, known as NewZo, the law allowed ADUs in nine zoning districts: agricultural, residential single family, residential two family, residential multifamily, traditional residential, traditional neighborhood, traditional commercial, downtown and planned developments.

Beginning in April 2022, the City of Savannah began looking at making revisions to the regulations in an effort to make more affordable housing units available. After community input, in May 2023, the Savannah City Council voted to update its ADU ordinances to allow for smaller lot sizes and to allow for variance petitions.

The changes to the ordinance were designed to be an incremental change to the rules that govern ADUs. The goal was to make ADUs feasible housing options in more areas of the city, while also protecting adjacent properties from the impacts of over-building. But the biggest change in the approved ordinance revisions are to incentivize property owners to create ADUs to generate passive income ― and address the housing shortage.

You can learn more about the City of Savannah’s ADU ordinance by clicking on the button below.