Last week, Everett rolled out three detached accessory dwelling unit (DADU) designs - detached residences a homeowner can license and drop into a backyard without paying to design one from scratch. The city's pitch is simple: pick a plan off the shelf, skip the slowest part of permitting, and get a second home on your lot faster (and a little cheaper) than before.

A DADU is a second, independent home on a lot that already has a house. The three new designs run 820 to 1,000 square feet, and include a kitchen and bathroom. The Rose I is a two-bedroom. The Schooner is a two-bed, two-bath. The Si fits three bedrooms into 999 square feet. Each came from a different local firm, and the licensing required to build one costs up to $1,500.

That $1,500 buys the drawings, not the building. Construction of a 1,000-square-foot home runs into six figures, before water and sewer hookups and any impact fees. Building a home normally starts with designing it, which the city's permit services manager said can take up to a year, then months of city review after that. Mayor Franklin says the city can issue a pre-approved DADU permit in about three months, compared to a typical year or more.

A third of American adults between 25 and 35 now live with their parents, and the typical first-time homebuyer has hit 40. The city's 2025 comprehensive plan commits Everett to making room for about 36,500 new housing units by 2044, to absorb roughly 65,000 new residents. It assumes around 2,500 of those will be ADUs and DADUs.

Since Everett loosened its ADU rules under Rethink Zoning in November 2020, the city has issued 203 ADU permits. Fifty-one came in the first half of 2026 alone - the fastest pace on record - evidence of the 2023 rule changes. But in a five-year span, 203 permits represents slow progress against the projected 2,500 needed by 2044. And the time savings only applies for a buyer who builds the plan as-is. Move a window, resize a door, shift a wall, and the project falls out of the fast track into standard permitting.

That doesn't make the program a failure. It makes it small - one lever among many the city is rolling out. Everett has also floated simpler lot divisions, a tax exemption widened to cover smaller projects, and a $130,000 grant to pilot AI-assisted permit review.