Hi, I'd like to just begin by welcoming everyone to this meeting of the Accessory Dwelling Unit Task Force.

My name is Councilmember Sheila Adam Stafford.

And our committee director, I'd like to introduce her at this time, Miss Marina Hightower, and she will introduce our guests from parking planning today.

Thank you so much.

Good morning, everyone.

Welcome back to our accessory dwelling unit task force full task force meeting.

We have uh Miss Susan LaRuz and Mr.

Carter, Mr.

Carter.

I apologize if I mess up your name.

Ratman, I think I got it wrong.

They're here from the Maryland Department of Planning, and they're going to give us a presentation on ADUs and what they how they can help us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Would you like us to go ahead and get started?

Okay, all right.

Um, I'm going to cue up that presentation.

Uh, we did put this together on the quick fast.

We weren't sure exactly how long y'all wanted us to speak for.

But while I'm cueing that up, uh, Susan, would you like to give an introduction?

And I just also like to acknowledge we have uh Councilman Eric Olsen here on the call as well.

Hello.

Thanks, Shayla.

Everybody.

Miss LaRoos was speaking, but her mic was turned off.

So we didn't hear her at all.

Oh, okay.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Um I'm Susan LaRoose with Maryland Department of Planning.

Carter and I work um together as a unit with the planning best practices, and our work mainly involves uh working with local jurisdictions throughout the state on any um mandated requirements that come about in the ADU is one of that legislation is one of the uh items of work that we were um we've been working on for quite some time since before the task force even started in the legislation that originally occurred that mandated um ADUs in all the jurisdictions.

For those who don't know me, I am an alumni from the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission.

I spent 30 years working in development review um in Prince George's County.

So I really love the work that I did there, and it's my pleasure to continue serving the county in this in this position.

I'm a director of Central Maryland, so uh I'm now involved with 12 counties um in the um in the state and many, many jurisdictions who also have uh municipal authority in relating to planning and zoning authority.

And uh Carter, you can follow, please, with a few details of who you are and your area of specialty.

Thank you.

Sure, thank you.

Um, just to confirm uh as I get started, everyone able to see my presentation all right.

Yep.

Okay, great.

So my name is Carter Wrightman.

I am the lead housing planner at the Maryland Department of Planning, and I work for Susan.

Uh and we together, of course, work for Secretary Flora, uh, the Secretary of the Maryland Department of Planning, who is a uh, I believe the United States only cabinet level Secretary of Planning, but uh I haven't done a systemic analysis.

Uh, we were asked to give a presentation today about ADUs generally.

Um MDP was not tasked with designing a uh model ordinance or guidance, but because we had an instrumental role in uh the early movement with respect to ADUs, uh legislative movement, uh, we sort of organically fit into that space.

Um when we got the request from y'all, we uh were asked to identify uh, well, not asked to identify, but asked to address um these four topics benefits to Prince George's County, benefits to the county broadly, um, discussion on case studies of ADUs working well and ADU challenges.

Uh our presentation is somewhat standardized.

Maybe because of the quick turnaround, we'll address this in part, but we can't address it in full.

I think um some aspects of MDP's relationship to ADUs and the legislation will become apparent through the presentation.

So with that in mind, I just want to start with a note that all of the Maryland Department of Planning's guidance is informed by the eight sustainable growth planning principles recently adopted by the Maryland General Assembly.

And our housing principle is to enable a mix of quality housing types and affordability options to accommodate all who want to live in the state.

We see an accessory dwelling units as an essential component of that, both for uh because they are one such type and because they have uh strong affordability, usually.

Uh to give some sense of the context here that uh the sustainable growth planning principles as well as Maryland's new approach to accessory dwellings units emerged from.

Um, most much of this will not be news to y'all.

You'll be familiar with the the essentials of this, even if you're not um familiar with the statistics.

This was from a report published in 2025 from the Maryland um University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth identifying uh housing needs in Maryland.

Uh Maryland has a exceptionally bad affordability crisis when compared with other states across the nation, and they articulated exactly what that meant.

Uh Maryland must add approximately 590,000 new units to accommodate projected household growth through 2045.

Uh Maryland has a current shortage of 275,000 rental units that are affordable for households earning 80% or less of area median income.

And Maryland's population age 65 years or above is projected to grow from 16% of Maryland's total population in 2022 to 21% by 2040.