At Ten Seventy Architecture, we stay closely informed about San Diego's evolving accessory dwelling unit (ADU) regulations. Since their introduction in 2020, I've seen these regulations change dramatically, and understanding these updates is essential for property owners, developers, and architects. As the principal architect at Ten Seventy Architecture, I've designed and permitted over 50 ADUs, gaining substantial expertise in this area. Here's a comprehensive overview of the latest municipal code updates from February 2025, along with practical insights I've gathered through my experience.
Understanding ADUs and JADUs
Accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and junior accessory dwelling units (JADUs) give homeowners flexible options to add extra living spaces. ADUs are independent units complete with kitchens and bathrooms, while JADUs are smaller (up to 500 square feet), located within or attached to a primary residence, and typically require owner occupancy.
ADU Permitting Basics
ADUs and JADUs can be built in any San Diego zone permitting residential use. Single-family zones allow one ADU and one JADU per property, while multifamily zones typically permit two detached or attached ADUs plus additional conversions from spaces like garages or basements.
Importantly, these units must be rented out for at least 31 consecutive days, effectively eliminating the possibility of short-term rentals like Airbnb.
Setback and Size Requirements
Setback requirements depend on the height of your ADU:
- Single-story ADUs under 16 feet require no side or rear setbacks.
- ADUs taller than 16 feet or two-story ADUs require at least a four-foot setback from property lines.
The size limitations range from a minimum of 150 square feet to a maximum of 1,200 square feet. Notably, one ADU up to 800 square feet is always allowed, even if your property has reached the maximum floor area ratio (FAR), offering significant flexibility.
Floor Area Ratio (FAR) and Density
ADUs and JADUs don’t affect your property’s density limits but do count toward the total FAR. Thus, while you may exceed the usual limit on units, you can't exceed the lot’s FAR unless utilizing the special provision permitting one 800 square foot ADU beyond the FAR.
Existing Structures and Conversions
San Diego’s regulations greatly favor converting existing structures:
- Existing structures can maintain current setbacks if converted into an ADU.
- There’s no limit to ADUs created from non-habitable spaces.
However, adding more than 150 square feet for entrances negates these benefits, so careful planning is essential.
Parking Requirements
Generally, no additional parking is required for ADUs or JADUs, removing a significant barrier to construction. Exceptions exist for specific beach or parking impact zones outside transit priority areas, where one off-street parking space might be necessary.
Development Fees and Impact Costs
San Diego provides notable fee incentives for ADUs:
- The first two ADUs have no development impact fees.
- Additional ADUs under 750 square feet remain fee-exempt, while larger ADUs incur prorated impact fees.
Despite these incentives, developing ADUs remains costly due to land prices, construction materials, and labor.
Affordable Housing and Accessibility Bonuses
San Diego’s ADU Bonus Program currently allows unlimited ADUs in sustainable development areas, matched one-to-one with affordable units. However, this incentive is under review by the city council, potentially facing substantial changes or repeal.
Additionally, an accessibility bonus allows an extra ADU if you include units compliant with ADA standards. Eliminating or reducing this bonus could unintentionally reduce accessible housing options.
Junior Accessory Dwelling Units (JADUs)
JADUs have stricter limitations:
- Owner occupancy is required.
- Size ranges from 150 to 500 square feet.
- Must be within or attached to the primary dwelling.
Due to these constraints, I typically recommend traditional ADUs over JADUs unless owner occupancy is not an issue.
Practical Advice from Ten Seventy Architecture
Based on extensive experience, here are several recommendations for successful ADU projects:
- Provide off-street parking whenever possible to significantly boost rental value.
- Be cautious about driveway configurations; losing driveway access can result in substantial additional costs.
- Detached ADUs generally offer better privacy and rental potential.
- Converting existing structures, especially garages, typically provides the most cost-effective path due to favorable setbacks and regulations.
Conclusion
San Diego’s ADU regulations, while complex, present excellent opportunities for maximizing property value, addressing housing shortages, and achieving financial goals. Stay informed about ongoing changes and carefully plan your ADU developments to fully leverage current incentives.
Hi, my name is Sean Canning. I'm the principal architect of 10 70 Architecture. We're a San Diego based, modern and minimalist architecture studio that specializes in residential design. We are probably one of the leading experts in permitting within the city of San Diego, as well as accessory dwelling units.
I have about 15 years of experience in this industry, and I've been working with accessory dwelling units since they were established in 2020. I've designed over 50 accessory dwelling units, permitted them, financed some of them myself, and built some of them myself as well as lived in an accessory dwelling unit on one occasion for a period of about one year with my wife.
Needless to say, I'm. Pretty much an expert in accessory dwelling units, especially within the city of San Diego. So I wanted to do a video to go over line by line every single code of the accessory dwelling unit regulations from San Diego's municipal code. So this is gonna be a pretty long video.
If this is something you're interested in, I'm happy to share this information. Let's get started right now. So the first thing is the San Diego municipal code has the accessory dwelling units in chapter 14 of the general regulations. So if you click on this section here, you can click on residential use category, and that's where you're gonna find these codes.
So this is what that looks like when you open it. It's 11 pages. When the code came out, I think it was. Eight pages and I'm gonna do another video on another day where I compare the initial a DU code to what it is, what it has become today. So this is the municipal code from February of 2025, and today it's March 5th, 2025.
It's very important to look at this date when you open up this code because the accessory dwelling units in particular are a moving target when it comes to regulations in the city of San Diego, the state as well, but particularly in the city of San Diego. Okay, so let's just jump into this line by line and let's go through all 11 pages of this accessory dwelling unit code.
Okay, so it says accessory dwelling units and junior accessory dwelling units. So we'll also touch on junior accessory dwelling units as well. So this section here that we're in right now provides for the construction of accessory dwelling units and junior accessory dwelling units consistent with the requirements of state law, and is intended to encourage the construction of accessory dwelling units and junior accessory dwelling units through several local regulatory provisions, including eliminating parking requirements for ADUs and J ADUs.
That comes from the state, not the city by the way. Providing an affordable housing bonus of one A DU for every deed restricted, affordable, A DU constructed on the premises. City council just voted to repeal that six to three, so we're not sure where that. Stands right now, but we'll get into that a little bit more a little bit further in the video.
As specified in the regulations below, ADUs are permitted in all zones, allowing residential uses. So you have to check chapter 13 in the municipal code to make sure your use allows residential use. If you have anything besides RM, RS zone, maybe RX zone, but if you have any commercial zoning, you have to check chapter 13 in the use table to make sure that your zone allows residential uses.
And jds are permitted in all single dwelling unit zones by right as a limited use decided in accordance with the process. One, process one is your simple ministerial permit. It's the easiest permit you can get in the city of San Diego and it's ministerial, which means you don't have to get the community's buy-in, it's considered a buy right permit.
And that's indicated with an L in the use regulations table in chapter 13, what I was talking about earlier, and it's subject to the following. Regulations. So this is where we're really gonna get into the meat and potatoes of this code section. The following definitions apply to this section. Okay, so this is interesting.
They're gonna provide us with some definitions that we can leverage later on in the code. Single dwelling unit zone means a zone that permits single dwelling units, but does not permit multiple dwelling units. Okay, this is interesting because this is how they're clarifying the difference between the RX zones, the more strange single family zoning.
And that would also include the RM zone the RS zoning because RM zoning allows for multiple dwelling units. And here it is. Number two, multiple dwelling unit zone means a zone that permits multiple dwelling units. Lemme just jump into the residential zones real quick. So this is chapter 13 I just opened up, and you can take a look at the different zonings.
Here you have an rt, an rm. RT is pretty rare. I don't know if I've ever actually come across that in 15 years. If we go down to the use table here, we have an rs, an rx, an rt. So we can go down to residential uses right here and we should be able to see if this permits multiple accessory units. It's actually not even listed here, but here you can say, you can see where the accessory dwelling units are permitted in these zones.
And we can also see that the junior accessory dwelling units are permitted in these zones. And if we go down to the next use table, which should have the RM zones
right here are RM zones, we can look in the residential use and we can see that multiple dwelling units are permitted in these zones. You could also do a single dwelling unit if you wanted to. And because of that. We have accessory dwelling units permitted, but junior accessory dwelling units are not permitted.
So that was a long-winded way to say that the RM zone is basically what they're calling here as the multiple dwelling unit zone. And pretty much every other residential zone is gonna fall into this category with some, I don't think, I don't even know if there's any exceptions to that. Okay. So the next line, lowercase B, the following regulations are applicable to both ADUs and jdu.
So this is covering both of those typologies. One A DU and one JADU are permitted on a premises located within a single dwelling unit zone with an existing or proposed single dwelling unit. So premises just means a lot and anytime this is I. You see these italic words in the code? We can go to chapter 11 and look up the definition because sometimes this gets a little technical and we need to know the definition of these words.
We should in theory, also be able to look this up in chapter 11 and this up in chapter 11. Okay, so what this is saying is if your zone permits a single dwelling unit, then you can build one a DU and you can build one JADU An a DU or JADU shall not be used for rent for rental terms of less than 31 consecutive days.
This puts these typologies in the out of the short term rental category. So these are not made to be Airbnbs. Yes, the, it doesn't seem like there's any way around this that would be permittable by the code or that the city would allow. You just can't rent these for less than 31 days. So it could be like a midterm rental or a learn long-term rental, but it cannot be a short-term rental.
So the Airbnb thing is generally outta the question. Guest quarters and non habitable accessory structures shall be permitted in addition to ADUs and jds. This is an important clarification. Guest quarters is another typology. It's basically a independent structure. Could be attached, could be detached, but it provides for the sleeping for a guest of a family.
And you cannot rent a guest quarters. The guest quarters cannot encroach into the setbacks in the same way as ADUs. But you don't have to pay impact fees for a guest quarters. But what subsection C is saying is that you can do your a DU, you can do your JADU, but you could also do your guest quarters.
And that's interesting that they clarify that because that really opens up a lot of opportunities for the way you wanna design your lots, specifically for you. Okay. Then D here, an accessory dwelling unit or junior accessory dwelling unit shall not be permitted to be constructed on any premises that has utilized the provision of Chapter 14, article three, division 13, Multi-dwelling unit, and urban Lots split regulations for single family zoning except as provided in this section.
Without getting into the technical details of this, what this is saying is that if you used the municipal code to do what's called an urban lot split. Which is like when you take a lot and you subdivide it into substandard lots below, what is the minimum lot size? If you've done that on your lot, then you're not allowed to do accessory dwelling units or junior accessory dwelling units.
What this is basically preventing is somebody from taking a standard lot, subdividing it into substandard lots, using this urban lot split section of the code, and then building dwelling units and ADUs on each of those lots. It's preventing you from doing that. There's one more thing I wanna point out here.
This section A, I forgot to point out that you need an existing or proposed single dwelling unit before you can build these ADUs or jds. That means you need to have a house on the property before you build the A DU or you build the house at the same time as the A DU. And same for the JADU. Okay, let's check out subsection two here.
Development regulations, a minimum lot size is not required for the construction of an A DU or JDU. So that means if you have one of those substandard lots, not part of that wasn't built with this urban lot split. But if for some reason you have a really atypical lot that is below the minimum size of a standard lot in San Diego, which is listed in chapter 13, you can still build your A DU or your JADU.
ADUs and jds are not subject to the density limitation for the premises. Okay? So in chapter 13, the different zones have different densities, single family zoning. You can only build one unit, one dwelling unit. But because you're also allowed to build an A DU or A-J-A-D-U, they had to put this in here so that you can build beyond the one unit that the base zone allows multiple dwelling units.
Zoning. You can build more than one unit, but that limitation also doesn't cover ADUs and jds. So basically ADUs and jds are completely separate from the density listed by the base zone. So that's a really important clarification. The gross floor area of an A-D-U-N-J-A-D-U shall be included in the floor area ratio for the premises.
Okay. This is an important one to understand because this is one of the things that a lot of NIMBY communities do not understand. Gross floor area is the total area, the total square footage of everything built on your lot. In this scenario. The gross floor area of an A DU and JU shall be included in the floor area ratio for the premises.
Okay? In this scenario, gross floor area is actually just the size of the A DU and the JADU, but they're saying that even that you have to include the area of the A DU and JADU into the floor area ratio for the premises. So basically whatever the base zone allows for the maximum floor area ratio, which basically translates to the maximum square footage you can build on your lot, your A DU and JDU have to be included in that.
So if you can build 4,000 square feet on your lot and you have a 2000 square foot home, you can still build the remaining 2000 square foot for a DU and JDU, but in no scenario including your garage, by the way, can you go over. Maximum employer area ratio in my example was 4,000 square feet. So a lot of people talk about, all these A DU developments going up, but those could actually be just additions to the dwelling unit of the same size.
So you can't break through your FAR, at least not with this section of the code, but we may find out later on that you can. So stay tuned for that. Okay. Subsection D an A DU, or JADU, that is converted from an existing dwelling unit or accessory structure, or is constructed in the same location and within the same building envelope as an existing dwelling unit or accessory structure, may continue to observe the same setback as the existing dwelling unit or accessory structure.
An existing structure may. Not be converted or reconstructed as an A DU or JAU if the structure does not conform to the wetland regulations of this section, the sensitive coastal bluff regulations of this section and the coastal beaches regulations of this section or the supplemental regulations of the coastal overlay zone in this section.
Okay? Unless you're in a wetlands, coastal bluff, coastal beaches, or in the coastal zone, in which case you'd have to dive into these codes more. What this is basically saying is if you're going to be converting an existing dwelling U unit into an accessory dwelling unit, and that existing dwelling unit has a precon conform condition, like a set, like a reduced setback, the ad or JU.
Does not have to change that setback to the new setback. I'll show you an example of this. I built this model. Let's say in this scenario, this is the existing dwelling unit and we have a five foot setback. I'm gonna move this four feet over. Okay. So let's say we have a one foot setback, and this home was built sometime in the twenties.
If for some reason I wanted to make this an A DU and maybe build another unit in the back here, call this the dwelling unit for one reason or another. Now this one has to go back. Okay? So let's say I wanted to convert this dwelling unit into an A DU. I do not have to fix this condition. It's a preforming condition you can keep if you built a new dwelling unit.
Then you would have to respect the current setbacks. The other thing this does is if we had a existing garage like this, a garage is a type of accessory structure. Now, in my example here, this garage has a one foot setback. I can convert this into an A DU and I would not have to respect any new setback so I can keep this condition.
I think the intent of this code is to basically keep costs down for people converting accessory structures into ADUs. And in the scenario where your dwelling unit has a preforming condition sometimes it's impractical to have that corrected and you have to keep in mind that the code keeps changing.
So like something that was built in the 1920s wouldn't have been built to the same setbacks as the current code. So those older structures have these preforming conditions and we can't have them all fixed. Okay.
The following landscape regulations apply to the construction of an A DU or JADU.
If the construction of an A DU or JADU brings the number of ADUs on any end, any JADU on a premises to a total of two or more, two trees shall be provided on the premises for every 5,000 square feet of lot area with a minimum of one tree per premises. If planting of a new tree is required to comply with this section, the tree shall be selected in accordance with the landscape standards and the landscape development manual and the city's street tree selection guide.
If the premises is located in the OR zone, the lot area used to determine the tree re requirement shall be based on the allowable development area as described in this subsection. If. The premise contains environmentally sensitive land. The lot area used to determine the tree requirement shall be based on the allowable developments of as described in Chapter 14, article three, division one.
Okay, this one's a mouthful and I know they've built upon this code section for a while because it never was this long. So I'll just eliminate the last two sentences. If the premises is located in the OR zone, that's an open space residential zone, they're gonna be pretty big and they generally extend in the, into the canyon.
This allows you to have a slightly reduced amount of trees because otherwise you could end up planting 10 trees on a, the small area of the lot that's developable while the entire while the entire lot goes into the canyon. Okay. And then it seems like there's some other provision here where if you have environmentally sensitive lands.
Those lots are much more difficult to develop and it's no surprise that they're being more, they're maybe having an exemption here because of how challenging those lots are to develop. Okay. But basically what this is requiring is a certain amount of trees, if you have two or more ADU and J ADUs it's not too difficult to achieve this.
It's fairly reasonable to ask for this. I like this section of the code. Just make sure you plan enough space for these trees. And then Roman numeral two here, ADUs Construction constructed in accordance with Section 1 4 1. 0 3, 0 2 C. Two C shall comply with the street tree requirements. So this is just gonna kick you over to the landscaping section of the code.
And it's probably gonna say something about the size 24 inch box required the species, possibly maybe a watering schedule, those types of things. But you can look into the landscaping code for this, no big deal. And it says that. They're gonna basically match the street tree requirements. Street trees are the trees that are planted on the other side of your sidewalk.
And that's covered in a whole different section. Okay, let's go to f ADUs. And J ADUs shall not be required to provide fire sprinklers if they're not required for the primary dwelling unit. When located on premises where the primary dwelling unit is protected with an automatic fire sprinkler system in accordance with section R three 13 of the CRC and A DU or JADU shall be protected with an automatic fire sprinkler system.
This one's really easy to understand. If your existing home has fire sprinklers, your A DU needs fire sprinklers. If your existing home doesn't have fire sprinklers, your A DU does not need fire sprinklers. If you're proposing a new home at the same time of as an A DU, the code will require the dwelling unit to have fire sprinklers.
Therefore, your A DU needs to have fire sprinklers if you have an existing home with no fire sprinklers and you demolish that home when you rebuild the home. The new code requires fire sprinklers. So the ADUs would require fire sprinklers. If you have an existing home with no fire sprinklers and you build an A DU, you do not need fire sprinklers.
You can then demolish the existing home, rebuild the existing home, which would require fire sprinklers, but you don't have to add fire sprinklers to your A DU. Okay? So that's basically how it breaks down and you can figure out different development angles from that. Let's take a look at G here.
Construction of an A DU or A-J-A-D-U shall not require the construction of previously conforming conditions on the premises. So this is basically the same thing as what it was saying earlier. If you have a previously conforming setback, a previously conforming height, a previously conforming density that the new code has surpassed as they make these code changes, just because you're construction A DU or JDU does not mean you have to fix that pre-con conform condition.
Okay? Here's H ADUs and J ADUs constructed within. Areas of future sea level rise must comply with the regulations. 1 3, 1 0.0 4, 0 4. So if you're in one of these areas by the coast, you gotta look into that. I don't want it, this video to be like 10 hours long, so just look into that section right there.
These are generally gonna apply to coastal areas. And then here's another coastal section here. Within the coastal overlay zone, ADUs and JDS shall comply with the wetland regulations, sensitive coastal bluff regulations, coastal beach regulations, and supplemental coastal overlay zone. Sometimes the code repeats itself, other times it's not clear at all.
That's just how it works. Okay, here's the parking regulations. I know everybody is very frustrated about the lack of required parking or maybe just the lack of parking in San Diego in certain areas in particular before accessory dwelling units were required by the state of California. San Diego had a similar typology, which was called a companion unit.
People weren't building companion units the way the city wanted people to build companion units because you had to have the required parking for a companion unit. Most dwelling units require two parking spaces, and then the companion units would generally require one and a half parking spaces. So that rounds up to four parking spaces.
Most lots cannot accommodate four, four parking spaces, especially since you're not allowed to park in your front yard setback. And sometimes you're not allowed to park tandem, at least back then you weren't. So parking. Was actually a major obstruction, one of the top two obstructions to these companion units.
And if the accessory dwelling units were rolled out requiring parking, we'd be in the same exact circumstance. The second reason nobody was building those companion units were because they required the same impact fees as dwelling units. So the companion units were a little bit of a failed typology.
The accessory dwelling units fixed what the companion units did wrong. Okay, so no on-street parking spaces or off street parking spaces are required for ADUs and J adu, except specified in this section. So this is probably, I don't know where this is going, the parking regulations or something in chapter 14, but in general, your A DU and your J ADUs do not require parking.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't provide parking. In fact, whenever possible, you should provide parking. Off street parking is the least expensive thing you can do to rent a unit for more money. People will pay an extra $50 a month for an off street parking spot in an area that parking is challenging.
Maybe they'll even pay a hundred dollars a month, and it costs you essentially zero aside from some three quarter gravel off your alley to provide parking. So it's the least expensive upgrade to any rental unit you can do in off street parking space. Doesn't have to be car covered, doesn't have to be in a garage when an A DU or JADU is proposed on a premises located both within the Beach impacts area of the parking impact overlay zone and outside the transit priority area.
One off street parking space located consistent with this section shall be required per A DU or JADU, unless any of the following apply. Okay. Now I think I know where this goes. I think this is sending you over to one of these park over parking overlay zones where they want you to have more parking. So that's basically what this is saying here.
So it's saying if you're in the beach impact area, which is a designated area in certain areas, probably Pacific Beach or Mission Beach would have these areas where parking is a huge challenge or. A parking impact overlay zone, which is another overlay zone the city has. They have a hundred overlay zones where they're really trying to encourage parking because it's already gotten too bad.
And you're not also in the transit priority area, which is one half mile from any major transit stop. Then you have to provide one off street parking space, and it needs to meet the requirements of this, which is gonna give you some general dimensions. Typically eight by 18 with a 21 foot backup distance.
If you have a 20 foot alley, watch out for that extra foot. But if you do these things here, you can avoid that parking. So if you're in the scenario where you just can't fit the parking, then here's your criteria. You gotta be less than 500 square foot for the a d or JADU. 99% of jdu are less than 500 square feet anyway.
The lot, what they call premises is located within a historical district that is a designated historical resource. The premises located. So you'd have to have a designated historical resource, which is a very specific historic designation that gives you a tax break. The A DU or JADU is attached to the proposed existing dwelling unit or accessory structure.
Okay? So I guess if you attach it, you can avoid this. The premises is located within a residential permit parking district, so you'd know if you were in one of those. There's a car share vehicle located within one block of the premises. I don't know what that is. Car share vehicle. I don't know what that is.
That's a weird one. And I don't know any circumstances where you're within one block of a car share vehicle. So it seems to be very that would be a very small percentage. Okay. Let's go to see when a garage carport or covered parking structure is demolished. In conjunction with the construction of an accessory dwelling unit or JADU or converted to an A DU or JADU.
Replacement of those off street parking spaces is not required unless the premises is located both within the beach impact area and the parking impact overlay zone and outside of the transit priority area. Because sometimes these zones overlap, in which case the parking shall be replaced in a location consistent with this section.
Okay. So what this is saying is if you fall into the criteria where you're in both the Beach Impacts area and the parking impact overlay zone, and you're also outside of the transit priority area, um, then you have to follow this section here. But in other scenarios, if you're converting a garage, you do not have to replace the parking spaces that would've been in the garage.
Yeah. Okay. Here's d If an off street park, if off street parking spaces are required in accordance with these sections, or if the applicant chooses to provide off street parking spaces for ADUs and or jds locate on the premises, those spaces shall comply with the following. So this basically says that even if you're not required to provide these, if you choose to provide them, you have to comply with this off street.
Off street parking spaces may be located in any configuration, maybe within the setback areas, and may include tandem spaces or mechanical lifts. So this is pretty huge I would say. So you can locate now your parking within the setbacks in many zones. You cannot park in the front yard setback, so that gives you about 15 to 20 feet to work with.
It also makes the driveway from the front work nicely and they can be tandem spaces. So if you want if you want four parking spaces, you have one of those long North Park driveways, you can do four parking spaces and you can do a mechanical lift. And that would work in like a garage situation or downtown.
Okay. And then here's Roman numeral two off street parking spaces shall be located within hardscape areas and shall comply with the minimum standards and guidelines to provide safe and efficient means of vehicular access to lot. So what this is saying is you have to have the required spacing for parking the required sizes.
You probably need the visibility triangle, which makes sure that as you're backing out of the driveway or potentially alley, you can see in both directions. Minimum standards, and you have to park on some sort of what they describe. Describe as hardscape, and you can look that up in chapter 11. There's a definition of that.
Okay, let's go to letter E, notwithstanding 1 4 1 0 3, 0 2 B, two H. If the construction of an A D or JDU causes an existing driveway curb cut to no longer comply with the dimensions required in the table in the parking regulations for an off street parking space, the driveway shall be closed to the satisfaction of the city engineer.
This is a very important one to understand. If you have an alley access and a driveway, you're very lucky if you propose a zero parking condition, they will make you close up the driveway access and under the new code, you can never get the driveway back if you have alley access. So if you have both the alley in the driveway, be very careful about this because you want to keep that condition.
So also if you have any driveway you want to make sure you show at least one off street parking space that utilizes that driveway, because otherwise it says here, the driveway shall be closed to the satisfaction of the city engineer. And what that means is you have to hire a civil engineer to do the drawings for this.
That's about $3,500. You have to pay for the right of way permit, which is about $3,500. And then you have to pay for the work with a class a contractor to tear up your existing driveway and replace it with a curb to the city standards, which could cost you $20,000. So this could be a $35,000 swing if you're not careful.
If you have a driveway, just make sure one car is always parked using that driveway. Okay. Number four, development impact fees for ADUs and J ADUs shall comply with the section here and what that is going to what that's gonna tell you is your first two ADUs are exempt from impact fees adu after the first two are exempt from impact fees if they're 750 square feet or less.
And ADUs after the first two that are 750 square feet or more are based on the square footage over the maximum square footage. So actual square footage of your A DU over 1200 square feet. And then that percentage is applied to the development fee is the neighborhood. Look up impact fee schedule to understand the impact fees for your neighborhood.
This was the other thing that was preventing companion units from being built and they removed these for ADUs. And then they put them back on after the second, A DU. So that was a new section of the code that was added. Okay. In addition to the requirements of this section, the following additional regulations show apply to ADUs.
Okay? So this is ADUs only. The record owner is not required to live on the premises of the A DU, and the inverse of that is the record owner of an JADU is required to live on the premises if they rent the unit. But we'll stay in this section here. So you could build ADUs for rent it. They can be part of an investment property.
You don't have to live on that lot. The A DU may not be sold or conveyed separately from the primary dwelling unit unless all of the following apply. So this is interesting. Usually we think of ADUs and dwelling units as always perpetually tied together. You have to sell them both because you sell the whole lot.
But I seems like there could be a scenario where you can sell the A DU. It says the A DU was built or developed by a qualified non-profit corporation for the purposes of this section, A qualified non. Profit Corporation means a non-profit corporation organized pursuant to this section of the Internal Revenue Code.
Okay, so this gets technical but if you have a non-profit corporation and you're looking to sell ADUs in individually, look into this more. There's another way you can do it. If there's an enforceable restriction on the use of the premises on which the A DU is located pursuant to a recorded contract between the qualified buyer ends the qualified nonprofit corporation for the purpose of this section, a qualified buyer means very low income, median income, or moderate income households.
So that's interesting. It still requires a nonprofit apparently. And somebody who has a low income with the city San Diego Housing Commission defines as low income. Here's another scenario where you can do this a lot, where the A DU is located. Is held pursuant to a recorded tenancy in common agreement that includes an allocation to each qualified buyer of an individualized, unequal interest in the lot.
Based on the size of the A DU, each qualified buyer occupies a repurchase agreement that requires the qualified buyer to first purchase the qualified nonprofit corporation to buy the property. If the buyer, Desi, this is really technical, but if you're looking to sell ADUs separately from dwelling units, take a look at that.
Here's another one. A grant deed naming the grant, tour grantee and describing the property interest being transferred shall be recorded by the county. Okay? So you have to record it. And if requested, by a utility providing service to the primary residence, the A DU has a separate water, sewer, or electrical connection to that utility.
So most of the ADUs that we design. Do not have a separate water utility. They usually share the same water meter. All of these five bullet points here are very rare scenarios that would require a high level of specialty to fall into this category and then to process this. Also unsure if you, under any circumstance can sell a structure independent of the lot.
So you may need a lot split to do this. So if you're interested in this, look into it more. It's a little bit beyond my beyond my expertise as an architect. Okay, so here's some development regulations for ADUs. ADU shall be permitted in all zones, allowing residential uses consistent with the use table of the applicable base zone.
So we looked into that already. You know what that is by now. One A DU shall be permitted in a single dwelling unit zone. On a premises with an existing or proposed single dwelling unit. Okay? So existing or proposed single dwelling unit. And then you can build one a DU on a single dwelling unit zone. So we covered that one in the beginning, so you already knew about that one.
On a premises located in a single dwelling unit zone with an existing multiple dwelling unit, a premises, or located in the multiple dwelling unit zone with an existing or proposed dwelling unit, ADUs shall be permitted as follows. Okay, so hold on, let's break this down. If you're in a single dwelling unit zone, but you have a precon conform multiple dwelling unit structure, that's one scenario.
Or another scenario is where you have a multiple dwelling unit zone and you have existing or proposed dwelling unit. So it could even be a vacant lot. A DU shall be permitted as followed, follows. Two ADUs that are attached to and or detached from an existing or proposed structure are permitted. So that's the first two ADUs you get by, right on any multiple dwelling unit zone or a precon conform single dwelling unit zone, which wasn't mentioned up above at the beginning of this, the number of ADUs permitted within the habitable area of an existing dwelling unit structure is limited to 25% of the total number of existing dwelling units in the structure.
But in no case, sh, it shall be less than one. It'd be less than one. Okay? So the number of ADUs permitted within the habitable area of an existing dwelling unit structure is limited to 25% of the total number of existing dwelling units. So let's say you have two dwelling units on a lot. Let's use our example here in this example.
In this example, we have two dwelling units on this lot. We can take two, divide by four, and we're gonna get 0.5. But in no scenario can we have less than one. So we could take this dwelling unit and convert this into a duplex, which would be half proper dwelling unit and half accessory dwelling unit. And then this could remain I suppose in this scenario here where you have one dwelling unit on a lot, we could also just subdivide this into a duplex of 180 U and one dwelling unit proper.
So that's what this is saying here. Okay. There is no limit on the number of ADUs permitted within the portions of existing dwelling unit structures and accessory structures that are not used as livable space, including storage rooms, boiler rooms, passageways, attics. Basements or garages if each a DU complies with state building standards for dwelling units.
So if it's a not, if it's not a livable area, that could be like this garage. If there was enough space in this garage, we could put one a DU two ADUs. There's no limit to the number of ADUs that you can put in this garage. Garages generally aren't that big, so this may not work well, but let's say one of this, these structures here had a huge basement and we can get some egress windows in there, then that could be a good scenario where you can maybe put.
1, 2, 3, 4 Aus down there, if that's what you're looking to do. Couple things to be considerate about if you're cons, if you're looking to do something like this, number one, check your water meter. If you have a three quarter inch water meter, that's typically gonna support three to four units, and after that, you're gonna have to upgrade your water meter.
That's about a $40,000 cost. It's very complicated. You don't wanna have to do that if you don't have to. So in most scenarios, you're gonna stop at three or four units unless you're gonna go well past that. The other thing to consider is once you put three units in one structure, you're gonna kick yourself into California building code, which triggers fire sprinklers immediately on a project like that.
A DA accessibility more restrictive fire separation distances, and then your permits are gonna require mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering. So it gets much, much more complicated at that point. Okay, but you could say these three points. Here are the key three bullet points to understand for developing multiple dwelling unit properties with ADUs.
And now letter D here, a maximum of one A DU with a gross floor area of 800 square feet or less shall be permitted on a premises with an existing or proposed dwelling unit. Regardless of maximum lock coverage, maximum floor area ratio, front yard setback, and minimum open space requirements, the development shall comply with the floor area ratio of the underlying base zone unless the development incorporates an existing structure that exceeds allowable floor area ratio or is under the allowable floor area ratio by less than 800 square feet, in which case an A DU that does not exceed 800 square feet shall be permitted.
This is a big one. This has, this code section says so much, even though it's very difficult to understand. The first thing you need to be aware about here is the. What I've been told is the intent of this code section and this was not part of the original A DU codes, it was added about a year or two years later.
But the intent, as I've been told, is to allow for equity of everyone in California to build at least one 800 square foot a DU. So they're saying you're, regardless of the maximum lot coverage, so that's gonna apply to your single family zoning, the maximum floor area ratio. So every zone is gonna have a floor area ratio, and if you max that out, you can still build in 800 square foot a DU, so you can.
In all scenarios go 800 square feet past your FAR with an A DU. This is the new section of this code. You can now build that A D, that a DU right in your front yard setback. Now you should definitely be considerate of your neighborhood and your neighbors if you're gonna do that, but I will say it's enticing to be allowed to do this because usually your utilities are right there.
So it could actually reduce your utility cost by doing that. And they used to tell us that you could only do this if that was the only area you could build that a DU. But it seems now this code section allows you to do it anytime. And minimum open space requirements. So there's four criteria there that this code section allows you to blaze right past.
Now, I know it doesn't say this here in this section, but. Or maybe it does here a maximum of 180 U. Now you could interpret that to say, okay, I have three Aus in the back, or let's just say two Aus in the back and now I get a maximum of one in the front yard setback. That's not how the city of San Diego's interpreting this.
They're saying only if you have a maximum of one on the premises, it should really say that a maximum of one a DU on your lot. If you're only gonna build one a DU on your lot, you can build it in the front yard setback. But if you're trying to build your second A DU, they're not gonna allow this in the front yard setback and your limit is 800 square feet.
Okay, A couple other really key things to understand about this. The development shall comply. With the floor area ratio of the underlying base zone, unless the development incorporates the existing structure that exceeds the allowable floor area ratio. Okay, so this is one that caught us on a project.
I still disagree with the way this code is written. It's should be clarified at the very least. But there're saying you can do this you can break past that FAR or you can yeah this is specific for the FAR. So they're saying if you have an extra 800 square feet in your FAR, you can build an 800 square foot a DU.
We already knew that. They didn't have to say that. They also say that if you exceed the allowable floor area ratio, so if you're already maxed out, you can still build this 800 square foot a DU. However, this is where it gets tricky. It says.
It says the development shall comply with the floor air ratio underlying base zone, unless the development incorporates an existing structure that exceeds the allowable floor air ratio. So we had a project where we proposed an addition to the dwelling unit and the A DU over 800 square feet, and they said we would have to permit the addition before we permit the A DU because the addition is not part of the existing structure.
So I know that seems. Simple on the surface. But if you think about it, there's so many scenarios where you can get caught up doing a minor addition on a dwelling unit while you're building the a DU and push your, put yourself out of one of these categories. So you gotta be really careful if you're going to do that.
Long story short, this is a great opportunity to build an A DU if you're maxed out in FAR. If you are on a super low budget and the front yard is more cost effective, or if you have nowhere else to build this a DU except in your front yard setback. If you don't wanna go up a story which can be expensive and risky.
So this is a cool section that lets you do a lot of things. It should be reworded though. Okay. Section E here. An A DU may be attached to, located, within, or detached from an existing or proposed primary dwelling unit, including garages, inhabitable or non inhabitable accessory structures. Okay, so what this is saying is you can just build an addition to your dwelling unit and then at, and that, that is your attached a DU.
You can take an existing two bedroom, two bath and turn it into a one bedroom, one bath, and another one bedroom, one bath, a DU. So that's without adding more square footage, take an existing home and making it into duplex. You could also detach from the existing or proposed dwelling unit, which in most scenarios is the way to go, unless your lot is very tight.
But anytime you detach a structure, I think you're providing more value, more privacy, and more independent living. So that would be my recommendation. You could also attach these things to garages build it within the garage, or build it detached from the garage, or any other non inhabitable accessory structure, which could be like a shed.
Keep in mind. More than two units in one structure bumps you into a big boy development of CB, C. So generally you're gonna wanna keep these to singles or duplexes unless you want to get into a much bigger project. Okay, here's letter F. The minimum gross floor area of an A DU shall not be less than 150 square feet.
And the maximum gross floor area of an A DU shall not exceed 1200 square feet. An A DU constructed within an existing dwelling unit or accessory structure does not have a maximum gross floor area and may construct an additional 150 square feet for ingress and egress only. Okay, so here's where they're giving us like the bookends of square footage, 150 square foot minimum.
So that's. Generally gonna be a studio with a very small bathroom and very small kitchen. The bathroom is probably gonna be one of the largest rooms in that or you have to get the bathroom. Most bathrooms are gonna be about 40 square feet at a minimum, and you can go up to 1200 square feet. Keep in mind on your third a DU over 12 over 750 square feet, you're going to hit impact fees.
So seven 50 is the magic number. If you're doing multiple ADUs, 1200 would make a really awesome project. If you have a single family lot where you have the space for 1200 square foot a DU, then you can move into the a DU, like its new home, rent out the existing home. Or if you have a multifamily zone lot and you can fit two 1200 square foot ADUs, that would be a cool project.
Or one duplex of 240 square feet. That would be a cool project on a multifamily zone. But over here it also says this is a interesting quirk. If you construct the a DU within an existing dwelling unit or an accessory struc structure, you do not have a max gross floor area ratio. So that means, in our example here, let's say that's a 2000 square foot home, you could, in theory, convert this to an A DU and then build another home over here and not be limited to the 1200 square feet.
Also, if you had a situation where you had a giant, let's say this is a barn. You could, let's say it's a 3000 square foot barn. You can convert that 3000 square foot barn into an A DU. Here's one that needs more. This is the line that needs more work. Okay. So if you're going to try to leverage this to construct an existing dwelling unit inside, like an existing structure, if you do an addition to that existing structure of more than 150 square feet, the city's not gonna see that as an existing structure.
So they're giving like a maximum addition here before it's no longer considered an existing structure, and the limit is 150 square feet, but this is where it gets a little weird, 150 square feet for ingress or egress only. So I'll translate this to entrance and exit only. Now, these are undefined words because they're not an italic here.
Ingress, I would take to mean a door, maybe a front door, maybe a back door. I think the city would have a hard time arguing. A front door is for ingress. I think the planning department with how specific they can get here, even though this code does not define it well, could say a back door is not for ingress, so you have to be careful.
I don't know how they're gonna interpret that, but egress is one that is very misleading because egress is a well-defined term. In the California building code. Every architect knows what egress means. It's the way out of a building. And in residential design, it's generally the way out of a window or more technically maybe the window that a fireman would use to entran enter into a bedroom requiring a certain clearance for all his equipment.
But egress is exiting. Now if you add an, if you add an egress window. That does not constitute egress. I don't understand why. It's very confusing. It's confusing and misleading. I don't know why they would even say ingress if it, and egress if they're not two different things, but it does. So I think what they're trying to do here is saying you can make a foyer space that you can enter a building with.
And in the past we have tried to use egress windows to meet egress and we've been rejected, but also we've actually had some projects where that was acceptable. So it totally depends on who you get at the planning department, and they should really do a better job of defining what ingress and egress are for the sake of this code section.
Okay. Subsection G. Here, a DU structures shall comply with the front yard and street. Side yard setbacks of the base zone interior side yard and rear yard setbacks for new ad A DU structures shall be provided as follows. Okay, so first off, this actually conflicts the previous code which told us we could build an A DU if it's 800 square feet or less in the front yard.
But I guess they're saying here ADUs in general, meaning it could be if you have an A DU, it's your second A DU or if you have an A DU that's 801 square feet to 1200 square feet, it falls into this category. So what all this is saying is the a DU needs to comply with the base zone, front yard setback.
If you're a corner lot, your front yard setback is the more narrow lot line, side and street side yard setback, which is the other lot frontage. The other street frontage, if you have a corner lot but into your side yard. And rear yard setbacks for new a DU structures shall be provided as follows. If your a DU is one story the structure height and the structure height is 16 feet or less, you may observe a zero foot setback at the interior side yard.
On rear yard. Usually you don't want to do that because then you're gonna have trouble maintaining that structure unless you have access to the neighbor's lot or you have some sort of condition where you have a, you're next to a park or something. So generally you wanna leave yourself at least three feet.
In some scenarios you take it down to two. But basically for interior side yards and rear yards, you can go down to zero, a zero foot setback. If the a DU is one story and less than 16 feet in real life, you really never get closer to two inches. 'cause you have to allow for some building sway so your building doesn't sway over the property line.
Okay. Roman num Rule two here says one story, a DU with a structure height that exceeds 16 feet. And also multi-story a DU structures, basically the exact opposite of what Roman Numer one said may observe zero foot interior side yard and rear yard setbacks unless the property line abuts another premises that is residential zoned or developed with exclusively residential use, in which case a forefoot setback or the minimum setbacks of the applicable base zone whichever is less apply.
Okay, lemme break this one down a little bit. In 99% of the situations, you're gonna be adjacent to a residential zone. So you could have a 20 foot front yard setback, you could have a five foot side yard setback on both sides, and you could have a 15 foot rear yard setback. So this area here. Would be your buildable area.
Remember we have this preforming condition here, but now what the A DU regulations are saying is if we are two stories or more than 16 feet, we can use a 48 inch setback here, a 48 or four foot setback here, and a four foot setback here, meaning that this area here, which I'll paint in orange, that is the area we can build our ADUs.
So you can see we have more ability to build these ADUs here and the more restrictive the base zone setbacks are. So if this was a 20 foot rear yard setback, the more helpful the A DU setbacks can become because otherwise you wouldn't be able to build too much in these areas. I think there's one more thing I wanted to mention about this.
Okay. Yeah. So in certain scenarios, your base zone setback could be less than four feet. So that would be like if the base zone setback here was three feet. So this happens to certain RM zones. Okay. So I just reset that. So that's three feet right there. If your base zone allows a three foot setback, the A DU setbacks now are allowed to match the base zone.
This was one also that caught that. That was a strange interpretation before it was reworded right here. When ADUs first came out, they could have a zero lot line condition, even if they were 30 feet tall. Then all of a sudden the city said, Hey, these have to be four feet from the property line. And then we had a project where we had a three foot base zone requirement.
So we assumed, okay, if they used to have a zero out line condition, now they have a four foot condition, then surely they would be allowed to have to respect the same setback as the base zone, which would be three feet. I reached out to the planning department for confirmation on this. They agreed with my interpretation, so we moved forward with the design and we submitted it.
A different planner got the project and that planner said that the A DU needs to have a four foot setback. Luckily we were granted a special exemption on that project, and me and the couple colleagues complained about this quite a bit, and it looks like they've finally revised this in the code. So we're happy about that.
Okay, hopefully that's clear on the setbacks. Let me just undo this.
Okay, now we're gonna get into the a DU bonus section. I'm not sure this is worth talking about because city council just voted three to six with the majority wanting to eliminate or at least reform this part of the program. But I'm gonna go into it anyway because you should understand what is going on with this a DU bonus program.
Okay? So by the way, we're on page eight of 11 right now, so we're more than halfway done with this. Thanks for staying tuned for this long. This I understand this can be a little bit dry, but if you're building an A DU or if you're a developer in San Diego, or you're looking to get into this type of career, these things are really important to understand.
So that's why I'm, that's why I make these videos. Okay, so letter H. The A DU bonus for affordable ADUs, often referred to as the a DU bonus program. One additional, a DU shall be permitted for every a DU on the premises that is set aside as affordable to very low income and low income households for a period of not less than 10 years or affordable to moderate income households for a period of not less than 15 years guaranteed through a written agreement and a deed of trust securing the agreement entered into the, entered into by the applicant and the president and chief executive offer officer of San Diego Housing Commission.
You pay for this, by the way, if you want to designate affordable units. It's expensive. Cost a couple thousand dollars to get into the program. If the city was serious about affordable housing, they would cover those fees or at least drastically reduce those fees. Okay? But in a nutshell, what this is saying is if you, if designate one of your ADUs as either.
Very low income and low income for 10 years. And by the way, you'd never do. Why would you ever do very low income? If low income is an option or moderate income for less than 15, for 15 years? If you do either one of those two options, you're gonna qualify for this program. There is no limit on the number of ADUs within the sustainable development area, and this is what has really created all the controversy.
The sustainable development area is an overlay zone in the city of San Diego. When you have one mile walking distance to mass transit, and mass transit is not just one bus stop. You have to have at least two major bus stops intersecting, or a trolley or a train things like that. So sustainable development area, you can Google that and you can see the overlay map that's about one of the, it's one of the hundreds of overlay zones the city has.
So there's no limit to the amount of a dus you can do if you use this program. There is a limit. It's the floor area ratio. Spoiler alert, you can never go past the floor area, RA area ratio with these ADUs, but this is the code section that is allowing people to make what NIMBYs are calling a DU apartments one.
Now, if you're not in the sustainable development area, you can still do one bonus, a DU for ADUs to be counted as affordable and meet the requirement of this section. The qualifying criteria in this table should be met and then they give you some criteria about. The affordable program, the way affordable housing works, by the way, is it's set up by San Diego Housing Commission.
Every year they update the median income in San Diego, and then they use this formula here to determine what these levels of household would be earning. And I guess they base it on your tax returns, there's slight variation for rent and for sale in most scenarios. We're not doing for sale ad's, we're doing for Rent a DU.
So this is the category I'm more familiar with. And I think every year this gets updated as the median income gets updated. Okay, so now they say a DU bonus for, wait, did I miss one section?
Okay here's the section I missed. Every time you do an 80 an affordable A DU, which they call the bonus A DU, then you get an additional A DU, which is market rate. So let's say you have a multifamily zone lot with two dwelling units on the lot, on that lot, you can now do two accessory dwelling units that are market rate.
After those first two ADUs, you can then use this a DU bonus program provided you're in the sustainable development area or with limited use if you're not in the sustainable development area. And then you can build an affordable A DU. And then because you built that affordable A DU, you can build a market rate a DU and an affordable market rate.
As much as you want to do right up until you reach the maximum floor area ratio, you have the same setbacks that the ADUs are allowed. If for the ADUs, the dwelling units would have the base zone setbacks. You have the same floor area ratio and you have the same height limit as the base zone allows.
So it does, the program is misunderstood because it doesn't allow you to build these giant four story, five story structures unless the base zone already allows four story, five story structures. Also, if the base zone allows you to build a 10,000 square foot home, you could only build 10,000 total square feet using this program.
So that could be two dwelling units and eight 80 u all 1000 square feet. So you can't, it doesn't allow you to build more volume. All it really allows you to do is build more density and the other section of the code allows you to build with slightly reduced setbacks, I guess the challenge. Here is that a lot of people complain about parking because these ADUs do not require parking, and that is a concern and the city needs to really up their mass transit game to make all this work.
But this was a very interesting program and I hope they don't change it too much. What I suspect is gonna happen before if I'm just theorizing, I think they're gonna remove this from the single family zones. That's another important thing to note here. You can use this in a single family zone. So you can effectively take a single family zoned lot, which only permits one dwelling unit, and you can do 20 small micro ADUs or 10 small micro ADUs.
Now, one more thing I'll mention about this. You're gonna have to upgrade your utilities. You're gonna have to provide a DA units unless you're divid designing all this in duplexes, you're gonna have to have two means of egress. You're gonna have stricter fire separation distances, you're gonna have more fire protection, you're gonna have fire sprinklers.
You're gonna pay a ton of fees. This is a very expensive project. In the city council meeting. People were saying that this is a windfall for developers. That is not the case if you try to pencil these things out with the fees that the city charges, with the cost of land, with the interest rates right now, the cost of construction, the cost of construction, material, labor, these do not, these are very hard to get to pencil out.
So this gives developers a slight advantage, but it's not a windfall the way it was described in that city council meeting. I'll probably make a whole nother video about this because I do have some strong opinions about this. Okay, let's go a little further. So this is a new one here. I don't think this, I don't know if this will be removed, but they just added this, A DU bonus for accessible ADUs for development, utilizing the a DU bonus for affordable a d.
In accordance with the section here, which is I think the section above a maximum of one additional accessible a DU shall be permitted if the development includes at least two ADUs shall be afford affordable to very low income or moderate. So you're probably at this point, a few ADUs into your development when you're hitting that.
And then the accessible a DU shall comply with the following accessible requirements of this is where all the a DA stuff is located in CBC. You need at least one accessible bathroom kitchen and one accessible bedroom, and the accessible A DU. So be located on an accessible route. That means you have to find a way to the sidewalk with a limited slope and limited stairs.
So this isn't, I never consider this from this perspective, but if City Council Repe repeals the A DU bonus program outright without making modifications very. Are also going to be repealing these ex these, this option for developers to build these successful ADUs. So basically what this does is it allows you to have one more a DU if you meet these a DA requirements.
Also I should mention the a DA. A lot of people think about it as somebody in a wheelchair, but it act actually extends quite further than that. It covers somebody who's blind. It covers somebody who can't hear. So there's a lot of different types of disabilities that are part of the American for American disability Act.
It's generally thought of as just wheelchair accessibility and that's not the case. Okay, so now we're on page 10 here. In addition to the requirements of this section, JAD is subject to var, the following additional regulations. Okay, so this page and the next section here, this is all JADU. So we've actually gone through all the A DU section.
This is just J ADUs and I'll just finish this up here. One JADU is permitted on a premises located within a single dwelling unit zone with an existing or a proposed primary single dwelling unit. Okay, so that goes back to what we said at the beginning of the video. You need a single dwelling unit zone, and you need an existing or proposed primary dwelling unit.
That means you can buy a lot with a home, make A-J-A-D-U. You can buy a vacant lot, build a home, build a JAU at the same time. You can't sell the JADU separate from the primary dwelling unit. Before a building permit may be issued for A JDU, the record owner shall enter into an agreement with the city in the form that is approved by the city attorney.
The agreement shall include the following provision. The JADU may not be sold conveyed separately from the primary dwelling unit. The agreement may be enforced against future purchasers, and the record owner shall reside on the premises. The city shall submit the agreement to the county recorder. For recordation, the agreement shall run with the land for the life of the JDU.
Okay, so this is the bad part about JAD. This is why I'm usually not recommending A-J-A-D-U to my clients. And if you're considering building A-J-A-D-U, you should probably just build it as an A DU because then you can avoid this agreement with the city, which is gonna get passed to the next homeowner, which may.
Slightly reduce the value of the home or put off a potential buyer. So I'm not crazy about J ADUs for that reason. Here it says one JADU is permitted on a premises located within a single dwelling unit zone with an existing or proposed primary dwelling unit. So I don't know why it's saying that again, that's like literally the same thing it says right here, but okay, they said it again just in case you were not sure about it.
It says it three times in this code. So I don't think there's any situations where you can do more than one JADU on a lot. If A-J-A-D-U is A-J-A-D-U of not less than 150 square feet and not more than 500 square feet is permitted with an existing or proposed single dwelling unit or an attached garage.
Okay, so this was a key change. Now the JADU is within the dwelling unit or with, or within an attached garage. This means that the JADU has to respect the same setbacks as the single dwelling unit, or I guess in theory, the garage. So the JADU no longer can have the reduced setbacks that the A DU can, the J ADUs used to be allowed to do that, but they cannot do that anymore.
A-J-A-D-U shall have a separate exterior entry from the primary dwelling unit. That's usually pretty easy to achieve. And then this is the kitchen. The JADU shall include the following, a cooking facility with appliances, a food preparation counter of a reasonable size in relation to the size of the JADU.
So I hate the way this code is so vague because if you're designing A-J-A-D-U, a lot of times you're very limited in space. There's a reason you're doing it. Sometimes you want the smallest kitchen possible, and you can get somebody in the planning department that thinks that the kitchen that you're designing for your home, for your property.
It's not a reasonable size for your own property and I don't like that gray area. I really think they should define this better. And then lastly, you need storage cabinets that are a reasonable size in relationship to the size of the JADU. So same thing, it leaves a little gray area and that is the end of the A DU and JADU code section.
So I'm not I'm not sure how long this video is, but that's 11 pages of San Diego's municipal code dated February, 2025, chapter 14. Separately rated regulated use residential use category. Couple things to say here, this code will change. Be careful that you make sure you submit your pro, you're governed under the project code that you submit the project under.
So when you submit that project, whatever code is relevant at that time, I. That's the one you're supposed to be held responsible for. We may lose the a DU bonus program. The Los Angeles fires may eliminate the fire sprinkler exemption here. This is very, this is subject to change. It's plastic and it's moving faster than any other part of the municipal code.
I also wanna say this is the city of San Diego's municipal code. Every municipality, every jurisdiction has their own municipal code. The city of San Diego has a particularly liberal interpretation of the A DU code, and they took the state's code, which is a requirement. You have to at least take the state's code as a baseline, but then the municipalities can choose to push it forward.
So in theory, you could use the state code as much as you want to permit an A DU in the city of San Diego. But the municipal code in the city of San Diego has taken it a step further that. The best example of that is the a DU bonus program, which is now up in the year. Okay. I hope you enjoyed this video.
I know it's a long video. I know it gets pretty technical and pretty dry. But as you can tell, I've been doing this work on ADUs for quite a while. I've been working in the city of San Diego as an architect for 15 years. If you want more information about this, you can probably check my website, 10 70 architecture.com.
If you're considering your own a DU projects we do great A DU work. Our fees are better used on mid to higher end ADUs, but we do quite a lot of four rents units for rental adu. We're also very good at helping people strategize how to best develop their lot, and we have a specific hourly consulting service for that, if that's all you need.
And then you want to take your project to somebody who's gonna be less expensive than a licensed architect for a small project like an A DU. And otherwise if you just like the video, put a comment like the video share the video or shoot me an email at SEAN at 1 0 7 0 architecture.com.
Okay. Thanks for watching. Good luck with your a ADU project.