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CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, OHIO— Cleveland Heights’ Planning, Neighborhoods, and Development (PND) Department is pleased to announce that winners of its Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) Design Competiton have been selected and will be presented their awards and cash prizes during an ADUs Awards Showcase on Wednesday, December 4, at 7 pm at Cleveland Heights City Hall.
Members of the media and the public are invited to attend the event, where the five winners will discuss their entries. The City received 28 submissions total, and all entries will be on display in the atrium that evening.
ADUs are small, self-contained units that may be detached, like a cottage in the backyard of a single-family home or attached above a garage. With the assistance of the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission, Cleveland Heights has been exploring allowing homeowners to build ADUs on their properties so older family members can “age in place” and not be forced to move elsewhere.
As part of this effort, in August, the City of Cleveland Heights launched the Cleveland Heights Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) Design Competition to encourage professional and amateur designers and architects to submit ideas for how ADUs in the city might look.
“Building an ADU for an aging relative is only an option if it can be built quickly,” PND Director Eric Zamft said. “That’s the problem the ADU Design Competition will help solve by giving homeowners free, pre-approved turnkey plans to build units on their properties.”
Adding an ADU to a property can be time-consuming. When a family has a family member with an immediate housing need, hiring an architect, creating a plan, and going through the City’s approval process can take too long. The City intends to use the winning drawings from the ADU Design Competition to develop blueprints and construction plans that will be pre-approved and freely available to Cleveland Heights homeowners who want to use them.
The competition accepted submissions in two categories: a juried competition for design professionals at all levels—from interns to licensed architects—who meet the necessary requirements, and a “People’s Choice” category for Cleveland Heights residents who may not be architects or designers.
The juried contest winners will receive a stipend for developing their concepts into construction-ready plans. The People’s Choice winner will receive a cash prize and be paired with a licensed architect to create a construction-ready plan
from their concept.
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