The ADU Hour
Interviews with leading worldwide practitioners operating in the ADU space
ADU HOur
The ADU Hour is a series of engaging interviews with professionals and policy makers about some of the latest ADU trends
The ADU Hour is now available as an audio podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google, and Stitcher
Listen below, or subscribe directly on Apple, Google, Spotify, and Stitcher by searching for The ADU Hour on your podcast app.
Here's an episode about the middle housing state level middle housing policy making with with guest Ethan Stuckmayer, Senior Planner of Housing Programs at Oregon’s Department of Land Conservation and Development.
Past Guests
Alexis Stephens is the cofounder of Tiny House Expedition, a DIY tiny house dweller and advocate. Along with her partner, Christian Parsons, they inspire others to rethink housing through thought-provoking storytelling, educational events, and resource sharing. Their work includes the acclaimed educational documentary-series, Living Tiny Legally. Featured on Washington Post, NPR, Business Insider, Parade Magazine, Curbed, and TreeHugger. Alexis serves as the Tiny Home Industry Association Communications & Membership Director. Additionally, she manages TinyHousePlans.com, offering a curated directory of plans, and TinyHouseBuild.com, with DIY tiny house building workshops and guides.
Ethan Stuckmayer is the Senior Planner of Housing Programs at Oregon’s Department of Land Conservation and Development. In his role, Ethan leads the statewide implementation of two landmark housing bills passed in the 2019 Oregon Legislature – House Bill 2001 and House Bill 2003. Ethan’s background working as both a current and long range land use planner in Oregon allows him to bring a unique perspective to this housing work at the state level. Prior to joining DLCD, Ethan worked in affordable housing policy at Oregon Housing and Community Services and as a project planner at an Architecture and Engineering firm in Portland. Ethan holds a Master’s in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon.
Morgan, a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, has been actively involved in Oregon land use planning in both long range planning projects and development review for the past 25 years. He has worked for the cities of West Linn, Lake Oswego, Tigard, and has been with the City of Portland for the past 15 years in both the Bureau of Development Services and the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS). Currently he is the staff project manager for Portland’s Residential Infill Project, which seeks to increase the range of permitted housing types while lowering housing costs in single dwelling neighborhoods.
Michael Andersen writes about housing and transportation policy as a senior researcher for Sightline Institute, the Pacific Northwest's sustainability think tank. He lives with his family in Portland, Oregon, where he’s also active as a volunteer and co-founder of the grassroots advocacy group Portland: Neighbors Welcome. From 2016 to 2020 his family lived in an 800-square-foot ADU; where he now lives in a 1,000-square-foot triplex unit in a 23-home co-housing community.
Jake Wegmann has been on the faculty of the Community and Regional Planning program at the University of Texas at Austin since 2014. Jake completed his doctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley, with a dissertation entitled "'We Just Built It:' Code Enforcement, Local Politics, and the Informal Housing Market in Southeast Los Angeles County." His research lies at the nexus of housing, real estate development, and planning.
Katherine Levine Einstein, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of political science at Boston University, with research and teaching interests that broadly include local politics and policy, racial and ethnic politics, and American public policy. Her most recent book was Neighborhood Defenders: Participatory Politics and America’s Housing Crisis, which explores the politics of housing development.
Ashley is the founder and president of YEGarden Suites and Calgary Backyard Suites - Alberta’s only education and advocacy-based non-profits dedicated to informing citizens on the benefits, challenges, and regulations surrounding backyard housing. She is also the CEO of Municipaction Inc., a consulting firm that supports Edmontonians in their city-building endeavours. She has experience working across sectors on projects related to affordable housing, climate change, social isolation and inclusion, infill policy, seniors housing, and demographic change. Born and raised in Edmonton, Ashley holds a BA Honours in Sustainability and Sociology from Dalhousie University, and an MA Planning degree from the University of Waterloo.
Kol Peterson is an ADU expert based in Portland, Oregon, who has helped catalyze the exponential growth of ADUs in Portland over the last decade through ADU advocacy, education, consulting, policy work, and entrepreneurship. He is the author of Backdoor Revolution-The Definitive Guide to ADU Development. Kol’s show assistant, Kelcy King, will interview Kol with questions drawn in part on the attendee questions from the first ten episodes.
Umpqua Bank, Construction/renovation loan financing, GSE lending policy, underwriting, after-rehab valuation
Susan Brown is the senior vice president, Residential Construction and Renovation Loan Production Director with Umpqua Bank, is a seasoned financial services industry professional with 15 years executive leadership experience. Her role in construction loan production allows her to focus on two important initiatives: ADUs and manufactured homes. Susan is a Certified Mortgage Banker and Accredited Mortgage Professional. She has seats on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Advisory Boards, prominent roles on national Industry Panels and influence at the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Landlord tenant law, owner-occupied rental housing regulations, regulatory policy for ADUs as rentals
Kurt Lane is the owner of Chroma Property Management in Portland. Prior to starting Chroma in late 2019 he was a rental property owner in Portland and Detroit, Michigan for the better part of a decade. Chroma offers full-service property management for single-family and multi-unit properties as well as a suite of services for ADU owners including tenant screening, application processing, and lease preparation. His area of expertise includes state and local regulations impacting the ADU community.
Appraising ADUs, leading research on valuing contributory value of ADU
Abdur is a certified residential, FHA-approved appraiser at A Quality Appraisal. He takes progressive appraisal education seriously to stay abreast of the latest valuation methodologies. Abdur is a Candidate for Designation with the Appraisal Institute, is an associate member of the REAA, and a board member of the local ASA Portland, Oregon chapter. Abdur is currently leading an appraisal research team in an ongoing analysis of the resale value of Portland area properties that have legal ADUs.
Large scale ADU building in Portland, Oregon. Construction methods. Scaling building.
Joe owns Shelter Solutions, a small efficiently run building company with over 40 years of Homebuilding experience with a massive variety of projects. They started building ADUs in 1998 when the Portland Zoning code was modified to allow for ADUs. Since that time, we have built more high quality ADUs in the Portland Metro area than any other builder.
ADU design best practices, California and Oregon, prefab, standardized designs
Willie Dean founded Ground Up Design Works in 2013. He focuses on residential projects with creative and sustainable designs. Willie specializes in ADU design with extensive experience in new construction, as well as garage and basement conversion. With 38 (and counting) built ADUs Willie has experience with a diverse array of people’s housing journeys and is excited to share what he knows about helping them build their backyard dreams.
ADU policy, land use, urban growth boundaries, university and municipal interventions
ADU owner, advocate for ADUs in various capacities including elected official, university sustainability program administrator and advocate for zoning reform to increase housing choice as staff attorney and director of 1000 Friends of Oregon.
Portland Home Builders Association. ADU and Middle housing policy and advocacy
Ezra works at the Portland Home Builders Association, with a background in land use and housing policy. He most recently worked as an attorney at one of Los Angeles’ premier land use law firms, where his clients included local, regional, national, and international development companies entitling and building in the Southern California region.
Large-scale laneway home building, middle housing policy, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Jake started Smallworks in late 2005 and became a strong advocate for the introduction of laneway housing. He established Smallworks Studios and Laneway Housing Inc. and worked with the City of Vancouver and other municipalities to help develop zoning by-laws based on his experience and interaction with literally hundreds of potential small home clients.Today, Jake focuses on finding new ways to broaden the range of housing types in Vancouver to create affordable options for single-family home ownership.
Middle housing policy, ADU advocacy, condoization
Eli Spevak has been developing affordable housing communities in Oregon for over 20 years, starting as a volunteer construction supervisor with Habitat for Humanity. In 2006, he launched Orange Splot, LLC to build new models of community-oriented, affordable, green housing development – ideally within an easy bike ride of his house. Eli was awarded a Loeb Fellowship in Advanced Environmental Studies at the Harvard GSD, co-founded Accessorydwellings.org, co-founded Portland for Everyone, and now serves on Portland’s Planning and Sustainability Commission.
Large-scale granny flat building in Sydney, Australia
Timothy is CEO of RESCON Builders the largest dedicated Granny Flat, building company in Australia, and founder of Canibuild, a sales app changing how the world’s builders sell construction.
What is The ADU Hour?
We stepped into the Coronavirus vacuum in April and May, 2020, with some timely, educational and practically useful content about a topic that is near and dear to us, ADUs. The general objective of the ADU Hour program is to help increase the supply and demand for ADUs and other small, infill housing.
The program is hosted by Kol Peterson features a guest for each show. Kol interviews the guest for an initial interview portion of the program that lasts roughly 40 minutes. Then, we took questions for the attendees from guests for roughly 15 minutes.
I missed the live shows. How can I watch any of these sessions?
The video are now only available to ADU Specialists. Audio of the episodes is available as a free audio podcast from this page.
I bought a subscription to watch ADU Hour before March, 2023. How do I access the videos?
You can access them here, using the special code that Kol sent you by email on March 6th, 2023.
Here’s what other professional attendees had to say about the series when asked, “Would you suggest all or any part of the series to colleagues or friends?”
I would suggest this series to any jurisdiction interested in adopting or refining their ADU codes and policies.
Scott Guter, Senior Planner, City of Kirkland WA
I have recommended all of it to others. Very high quality content.
Gary Hanes, ADU Simplified
Yes, and clients too, depending on what kind of project they are seeking to build.
RJ Adler, NextDoor House, Wheel Pad
Absolutely, have sent to my network
Andy Tran - Suite Additions
I recommend it to all to anyone, design associates and even more so the common public, that has interest in ADU development.
Reuben Jacobs, Modern Designs Unlimited - Residential Designer & ADU specialist in L.A. County (Inglewood, CA)
We would recommend all to fellow architects and builders.
Ric Nora AIA CSI ICC - Ric Nora Studio
Lastly, check out what practitioners said about what they learned:
Who Hosted The ADU Hour?
The ADU Hour host- Kol Peterson, BuildinganADU.com
Kol Peterson was the host. Kol is owner of Accessory Dwelling Strategies LLC and editor of BuildinganADU.com
Kelcy King, an ADU Specialist broker based in Bellingham, WA will serve as production assistant for the live program.