Boise, ID Accessory Structures: ADU Owner Occupancy (2026)

(12) sets the findings the Planning Director must make before approving an accessory dwelling within the Harris Ranch Specific Plan area, a planned community on the city's east side governed by its own use-standards chapter inside the Development Code. Beyond footprint limits (no larger than 10 percent of the lot or 750 square feet, whichever is less, and no more than one bedroom) and design-compatibility findings, subsection (g) imposes a distinct occupancy condition found nowhere in Boise's citywide accessory-dwelling standards at Chapter 11-04-012: on-going owner-occupancy of either the principal dwelling or the accessory dwelling is mandatory, and that promise must be enforced through a recorded deed restriction with the Ada County Recorder, not merely a permit condition.

The Planning Director can grant only a temporary waiver, capped at one year, and only for a documented need for the owner-occupant to leave the premises due to employment, illness, or other circumstances; there is no permanent exemption. Subsection (f) ties into the same deed restriction: if a garage conversion eliminates required parking, any parking waiver the Planning Director grants for unusual circumstances must also be documented in that recorded deed restriction. Because the requirement sits in the Harris Ranch chapter (Chapter 11-07), it binds accessory dwellings built under the Harris Ranch Specific Plan specifically and does not extend to ADUs elsewhere in Boise, which are reviewed under the separate citywide accessory dwelling unit standards.