Yes in My (Literal) Backyard: Unlocking Affordable Housing by Allowing ADUs in More Tulsa Neighborhoods
A growing national trend to expand housing affordability includes allowing for Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADUs) to be built by-right by homeowners. ADUs are smaller units that property owners build on their lots, whether for their own household or to generate rental income. Here in Tulsa in 2025, there were 21 applications for ADUs. Despite taking weeks and even months to approve, none of these applications were denied. As Tulsa works to meet the needs of its community, it’s important to evaluate barriers to all housing, especially small-scale housing options that are less likely to face neighborhood opposition.
If ADUs are not being denied, but the approval process requires significant time and resources, we can increase their popularity by decreasing review times and eliminating public hearing requirements. How many more units of housing could our community deliver if small developers and homeowners could build small backyard homes within the footprint of their existing lot? The City of Tulsa is poised to deliver the T-Town Home Catalog, a collection of pre-approved housing plans which will include standard ADU designs that any homeowner can use. To maximize the impact of this new tool, it’s important to also allow these flexible housing arrangements housing types to be built in more neighborhoods in Tulsa.
What is an ADU?
Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) are smaller, independent homes located on the same property as a single-family home. Alternatively called backyard cottages, granny flats, casitas, or in-law suites, these units have their own kitchen, bathroom, and living space. They offer a way to add a new home within existing neighborhoods without altering the way a neighborhood looks, feels, and functions. ADUs also provide flexible living arrangements for multi-generational families, caregivers, or young adults. For homeowners, building an ADU can generate rental income that makes their own mortgage more affordable and provides an additional avenue for wealth building. For renters, ADUs are a low-cost housing option in neighborhoods that would otherwise fall outside their price range.
Currently, Tulsa's zoning code creates significant hurdles for homeowners to build an ADU on their property. Tulsa’s Planning Office shared in a 2024 zoning analysis that 65% of land in Tulsa prohibits any housing except for conventional, detached housing. This means that ADUs require special approvals, effectively making ADUs prohibited in most of Tulsa.
If a homeowner wants to build an ADU, they need a special exception from the Board of Adjustment (BOA) – a local, 5-member discretionary body comprised of volunteer citizens that weigh appeals to deviate from typical zoning requirements. This process is slow and burdensome to applicants that must attend multiple, multi-hour, mid-day public hearings.
In 2025, 21 ADU applications to the BOA took up 28 separate agenda items and 15% of the BOA's total caseload. The average ADU took 3 weeks to approve. Some applications even took up to 3 months. Still, no ADUs were ever denied.
If 0% of these applications are ever denied, this requirement does not serve its purported purpose as a filter for bad projects. Instead, it becomes an administrative bottleneck that wastes valuable applicant and City staff time, offers neighbors an opportunity to oppose ADUs, and ultimately slows much-needed housing production by discouraging homeowners and developers. Fortunately, this is not Tulsa’s forever fate, as we can follow the lead of other pro-housing cities to replace cumbersome zoning requirements with straightforward solutions.
Several policy changes would create an environment where ADUs are easier to build:
Allow ADU construction in all residential single-family zones: This is achieved by updating the zoning code itself, versus the status quo process that requires property-by-property approvals, subject to discretionary public hearings. City Councilors or Planning Commissioners can initiate this change, followed by a staff review and public hearing at the Planning Commission. Lastly, the City Council would vote on the proposed zoning code amendment. If approved, this single measure would allow ADUs to be built citywide as long as designs conform with existing development standards, eliminating the risk and delay of discretionary hearings. Such a change would not be simple and may invite significant opposition by individuals that already oppose individual rezonings or ADUs. Still, because this process entails extensive involvement by public officials, political will can coalesce to prioritize such a reasonable reform that helps Tulsa meet its housing goals.
Expanding existing “overlays” into more residential single-family neighborhoods: An overlay is a special layer that can allow different types of housing otherwise not allowed by “base zoning.” In Tulsa, the Neighborhood Infill Overlay (NIO) is the vehicle that allows neighborhoods or Council Districts to allow ADUs. Expanding the NIO is a more gentle, incremental approach to wholesale allowing ADUs in more zoning categories, as described above. The process is similar but easier to pass and implement since City Council support may defer to the stance of the specific Councilor whose district includes the proposed overlay. Currently, several City Councilors are contemplating such an expansion of the NIO in parts of their districts in coordination with the Tulsa Planning Office.
Allowing ADU special exceptions to be issued through administrative review: Instead of waiting for a subjective public hearing, this solution would lean on City staff expertise to dictate whether ADU plans meet development standards, already-established within the zoning code (such as height limits or floorplan sizes). Put simply, if plans comply, plans get approved. This change would also require amending the zoning code, meaning the same type of risks apply as with Policy Change #1. Still, this key change would allow experts to decide whether a plan meets technical requirements instead of a citizen commission
Bottom line: allowing more ADUs to be built citywide would unlock significant additional acreage in Tulsa for new housing units. Not only would these changes implement a more customer-friendly approach for property owners to build an ADU, they better utilize finite City resources. BOA members could hold shorter meetings and focus on the more complex, substantive hardships that beleaguer development. City staff could check off other boxes on lengthy to-do lists.
Most importantly, Tulsans and prospective Tulsans would have more housing choices available that fit their needs, their life, and their future. These proposed solutions are not easy, but the status quo has not delivered housing units that Tulsa needs. Tulsa is ready for growth, and it is time to modernize our zoning code to support it.