JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — You want grandma to move closer to your home, but there aren't any homes available and renting is too expensive.
You may be able to build your own solution right in your backyard.
"The whole idea is for this to be a proper unit in someone's backyard that is not a problem for the neighbors," said City Councilmember Rory Diamond, said. "Kind of small, matches the house, goes with the neighborhood, that way you can have grandma still living there you can have your kids after they get out of school come live there. The whole idea is to keep our families together in a way that makes the neighborhood better."
The proposal has passed through the land use and zoning committee. Diamond says the bill still needs to pass through a few more committees before it goes to vote later this month.
The criteria to build a small apartment can be viewed on the city's website.
The small apartments must be in the homeowner's backyard and the apartment must be 25 percent of the gross floor area of the home on the lot, or 750 square feet, whichever is less.
The homeowner must also live at the primary residence when renting out the small apartment.
However, Diamond said the homeowner doesn't have to be living at home during the duration of the renter's stay in their small apartment.
That raises the eyebrows of some residents.
"I think there's always a concern for that and that needs to be addressed in the ordinances and then enforced and a lot of the neighbors I think would call if they saw too much activity or different people coming and going," said San Marco resident Doug Sasser.
"Anytime you do something new people are a little worried but because it's so expensive and so intense to build one of these we'll have plenty of time to figure out if we've got any bit of this wrong, and we can make course corrections down the road." Diamond said.
Sasser is a general contractor and is actually working on building a small apartment for his mother-in-law. While he has his concerns, he and other residents are optimistic about the solutions the proposal could provide.
"It's getting very expensive and if they have the chance to live in the backyard of a family member, a close friend that gives them the opportunity to be helped," said Avondale resident Christyn Lindsey.
In years past, people were able to build small structures in their backyards. But Diamond said a law prevented them from being able to add a full kitchen, specifically an oven, to the unit.
Diamond's bill allows people in Jacksonville to build their small apartments with a full kitchen.
The bill applies to homeowners in Jacksonville except for those living in Baldwin and the Beaches.