We have been looking for a new property for several months. We want horse ready, with enough acreage/space to accommodate my husband’s construction & snow removal businesses, and a mother-in-law apartment for my mom.
We are currently considering a property that previously operated as a training & boarding facility. It has 20+ acres, several fenced paddocks, nice indoor & outdoor arenas. It has plenty of room to build a large shop & parking for my husband’s equipment. The property lost their barn to a fire several months ago and is no longer operating. The home on the property hasn’t been well maintained, and needs quite a bit of work. It is also a style that both my husband I dislike (honestly hate isn’t too strong of a word). We would prefer to build a new home on the property and turn the existing house into a MIL apartment for my mother to live in. Unfortunately, a 2nd house isn’t allowed by the city. Splitting the parcel is very expensive, and may not be an option (city requires over 400 feet of road frontage, and it looks like this property has just under 400 feet of road frontage).
I’m trying to think through what our options are.
Option one is that we could tear down the existing house and build a new one. But this seems like a waste – the house is livable, and can be fixed. We just really dislike the layout, and don’t want to live in a house we hate on a property we love.
The city does allow guesthouses, however, the city codes states: “Guesthouses, for purposes of this chapter shall be an accessory building detached from the principal building where accommodations for sleeping are provided, but no kitchen facility provision is made. The use is for persons visiting the occupants of this principal building.” Kitchen is defined by the city as: “Kitchen means a space which contains a sink with counter working space, space for installing cooking and refrigeration equipment, and space for the storage of cooking utensils.”
I’m not sure it makes sense to remove the kitchen from the existing house to classify it as a guesthouse. But it is an option. I suppose my mother could do all of her cooking in my kitchen.
Another option would be to try to classify the house as employee housing. City code states the following for a Commercial Horse Training Facility: “One full-time employee for the horse training facility may reside at the property, including the stable. Living quarters for the employee must meet the standards of the Uniform Building Code”
We had not planned to operate commercially. We had planned on building a smaller, private barn, but would consider taking in 1 or 2 boarders (as company for me to ride with, not as an income producing venture). Reading through the city code, it is not clear what the city considers commercial (and obviously if we move forward with the property I’ll get confirmation from the city).
We could “hire” my mother to sweep the barn or whatever to classify her as an employee, but again, not an optimal solution.
For reference, the property is priced very fairly. A nearby home, currently for sale, with a 1 bedroom MIL apartment in the basement, on 11 acres, no fencing or horse facilities is priced at $300,000 more than what this property is priced at. Another property we looked at in a neighboring community with a house with a 2 bedroom MIL apartment, 8.75 acres, small barn, a couple of fenced paddocks, no indoor or outdoor, no shop, is priced at $130,000 more than this property.
Thoughts? Would you just suck it up and tear the house down and build new? Try to work out one of the other options? Skip this property and keep looking?
