Spokane developer Jim Greenup knows something about multigenerational living.


When his father died 30-some years ago, Greenups mother moved into a duplex the family owned in Shelby, Mont., and her motherGreenups grandmothermoved into the other living unit.


The two women lived side-by-side for 22 years until Greenups grandmother died. A few years later, his uncle moved into the other unit, and he and Greenups mothersiblings both now in their 80shave lived side-by-side for the last six years.


This has allowed her to use her dwelling for the assistance of family, says Greenup. Multigenerational living germinates a higher quality of life.


Now, Greenup is developing two planned-unit developments on Five Mile Prairie, on Spokanes North Side, that will include some homes set up for multigenerational living. Two generations of his familyGreenup and his son, Dustin Greenup, both of whom work for Windermere Real Estate /North Wall Inc.will market the properties.


In some instances, homes that can accommodate multiple generations are said to have mother-in-law quarters, accessory dwelling units, or less formally, granny flats.


One of Greenups two projects, the 54-lot Vista Ridge development, is planned between Five Mile Road and A Street at the southern end of the Five Mile Prairie bluff, and is expected to include about 15 homes with living quarters for seniors.


The other project, East Horizon, a development planned on a site a short distance east of Vista Ridge, will include 78 units, 24 of which will include multigenerational living.


At both developments, infrastructure improvements are under way. Greenup says he expects to start construction of the first seven homes at Vista Ridge within two months. Design work on the homes for East Horizon isnt completed yet, and he doesnt know yet when construction of homes there will start.


The first phase of Vista Ridge will include nine homes with some sort of multigenerational living space. Five of the nine planned homes will have what are called attached accessory dwelling units. The lots for those homes are laid out so that both ends of each lot front on a street, so the front door and garage of each primary residence in the structure will face its own street. The smaller, secondary residence will be attached to the back of the main housewith one doorway that goes between the twoand will have a front door and garage facing the other street.


The other four multigenerational homes in the first phase at Vista Ridge will include two master bedrooms and two master bathrooms, which would be located on different levels of the home.


For the homes with accessory dwelling units, Greenup says the architect for the project, Kirkwood Rodell Associates PS, of Spokane, has developed two home designs. In one, both the primary and secondary homes are on the same level. In the other, the primary home includes an upstairs, but the smaller residence is on one level. Both designs include a courtyard to one side of the primary residence, in lieu of a backyard.


Those homes will vary in size from a total of 2,500 square feet of floor space to about 3,500 square feet of space and will range in price from the upper $400,000 range to the upper $500,000 range.


We think these will go very quickly, Greenup says.


Greenup says he expects the styles of housing to appeal mostly to empty nesterscouples with grown children who no longer live at homewho have an aging parent. In theory, he says, the primary homeowner eventually could move into the secondary home, and a grown childs family could move into the primary home.


At East Horizon, design work still is under way on some of the multigenerational housing options, but as envisioned, parts of the development would include what are called zero lot lines, where in this instance, two separate homes on adjacent lots are adjoined at the property line between them.


While the homes would be attached, they only could be sold either separately or jointly, Greenup says. The homes with accessory dwelling units could be sold as one unit, he says.


Homes at East Horizon likely will range in price from $220,000 to $300,000.


Some of the housing styles that Greenup is usingspecifically, accessory dwelling units and zero lot linesarent addressed in the city of Spokanes residential development code, but are allowed through the planned-unit development process.


The Spokane City Council, however, is considering proposed changes to the residential code that would allow a number of alternative forms of housing, including accessory dwelling units and zero lot lines. The council held a public hearing on the changes last month and could vote on whether to approve them later this month.


People are starting to look at these things differently, Greenup says. People are thinking dimensionally in ways theyve never thought before.


Contact Linn Parish at (509) 344-1266 or via e-mail at [email protected].