Hey everyone, Sean here. I’m excited to share the very first episode of the new Ten Seventy Architecture YouTube Show — a casual, long-form video series where I’ll be chatting about architecture, permitting, and housing in San Diego (and maybe beyond). In this first episode, I’m joined by Bailey Canning, our marketing strategist who’s been working with us for a few years now. We sat down to talk about a topic that’s become central to my work: how ADUs can actually help solve San Diego’s housing crisis.
To kick things off, I walk through a recent project we completed in Golden Hill — the 24th & F Street project. This one’s a great case study for how you can use the City of San Diego’s ADU Bonus Program to add density while still keeping things contextual and well-designed. It’s a two-lot property that ended up with 12 total units, including three affordable housing units, all while keeping the existing buildings in place. If you’re looking for a real-world example of how thoughtful infill housing can work, this is it.
Beyond the project spotlight, we also dig into some of the bigger issues:
- Why ADUs are (in my opinion) one of the most effective tools we have for adding housing in San Diego.
- The key differences between standard ADUs and Junior ADUs (JADUs), and why the latter aren’t as useful in most cases.
- How economic conditions like interest rates and construction costs are making these projects tougher — but not impossible.
- The role permitting plays in slowing down or stopping otherwise viable ADU projects, and how we’ve learned to navigate it.
- Why ADUs don’t just help the city — they can solve real problems for individual homeowners, from multigenerational living to creating office or studio space.
We also touch on two new services we’ve recently launched:
- Permit Facilitation – We’ll help you manage the permitting process with the city (which, trust me, is no walk in the park). Whether you’re a homeowner or developer, we can step in to keep things moving.
- On-Demand Consulting – If you’re already working with a designer or trying to DIY your plans (whether for a custom home, ADU or major renovation/remodel project) I’ll review your project and let you know what’s likely to get flagged, how to reduce your fees, and what to watch out for.
If you’re interested in ADUs or just want to get smarter about what’s going on with housing in San Diego, give this one a watch. And if you have a project you’re considering, feel free to reach out.
Thanks for tuning in. More episodes coming soon.
Bailey: [00:00:00] Alright everyone, welcome to the inaugural edition of the 10 70 Architecture YouTube Show, which we are calling for lack of a better term as of this moment.
Bailey: But basically the idea is this, for this to be a casual conversation talking about. Various different architecture topics, as you will shortly see. So my name is Bailey Canning and I'm joined by the principal architect of 10 70 Architecture. Sean Canning. Sean, how are you doing on this Friday morning? I.
Sean Canning, Architect: Very good, Bailey. Thanks for setting this up and looking forward to discussing architecture and other architecture related things going on in San Diego.
Bailey: Totally. So on that note, why don't you kick things off. We are gonna start with a project spotlight here, and then based on the particular project we are gonna be looking at today, then we're gonna transition into the broader topic surrounding ADUs, for example, in this case. So Sean, why don't you kick things [00:01:00] off by highlighting the project you've selected for today?
Sean Canning, Architect: Okay, sounds good. I'm just gonna share the screen here.
Sean Canning, Architect: Can you see this, Billy?
Bailey: I can see the Google Map street view.
Sean Canning, Architect: Okay, perfect. I wanted to give you a quick overestimate of this project. So this was the property before we started the project here. I. It's actually two lots in the Golden Hill neighborhood. So for reference here, is the highway right behind us and that's downtown. And this particular project actually had two lots.
Sean Canning, Architect: This was one lot. It's kind of a long, skinny lot that goes all the way to the back. this was a corner lot here. And you can see I'm all the way back in June of 2008. And this was a fourplex which had burned down. So by February of 2009. That was completely demolished.
Bailey: I was gonna say it didn't look very good.
Sean Canning, Architect: yeah. But there's actually a lot of benefits to having. A property like that where there was a home and [00:02:00] then there's no longer a home. So as part of that, we were able to leverage that existing home and recap all the fees that were paid when that home was built. So we were able to reduce the fees and our client on this project didn't even realize that there was a home there. So it was, it was the research that we did, which led to. Tens of thousands of dollars of reduced fees on this project. here's the project as we designed it. And the model may, the model we're looking at right now may not have all the details because we actually do like a full set of construction drawings, which does have all the details, but this is good for orientation. So the existing lot here. this entire lot right here. then we also had this adjacent lot, which is that narrow skinny one I mentioned earlier. And there was an existing triplex structure here. And then on this lot here, there was just an existing home, which you see, you see right here. So on this project we used the A DU bonus program, which has become a really contentious part of the municipal code in San Diego.
Sean Canning, Architect: It's actually currently. Up for debate whether the program will continue. But I would say this project is a good [00:03:00] example of how you can use that program and add more density to these older neighborhoods in a way that's respectful to the scale of the neighborhood and the general style and lifestyle of the neighborhood. we left the existing triplex. We did a little bit of a lipstick remodel on that one, and then in the front over here. Each of these structures is an A DU duplex. So each structure has two units, one on the ground floor, one on the second floor, and then in the back here we have an A DU on the top floor, and we have a shared laundry room for the entire site below.
Sean Canning, Architect: It also has some storage there too, on the adjacent lot. Here we remodeled the existing dwelling unit, so the unit on the bottom. Is a remodel where we left two wall standing and we then added an a DU on top. Then using the a DU bonus program, we were able to add two more units. So when you use the A DU bonus program, after the initial ADUs that you're permitted by the base zone, every other a DU has to be affordable. So [00:04:00] on this lot here, you get two ADUs, and then one of these units is affordable and. One of the, this unit here is affordable, so we added two affordable units here and then using the a DU bonus program on this lot, since they're independent lots, the calculation is independent. One unit is affordable.
Sean Canning, Architect: So in total we had three affordable units and we have 2, 4, 6, and nine new units added to this lot, plus the three that was here. So we ended up with 12 total units, and I'll give you a quick overview.
Bailey: Just to be clear, for the people watching, this is the 24th and F Street project and we'll link the portfolio. We will link the portfolio project on the website if people wanna check out the full project later on. But continue on with the presentation here.
Sean Canning, Architect: So just to show you the spacing of the, of these units. So the larger structures are two bedroom, one baths. So we have a bedroom here, bedroom here, bathroom, and then this is the kitchen and living room space. And we like to provide exterior space whenever possible for all the units. So the upstairs units have balconies and the downstairs units have these larger patios. In terms of parking, this was an existing curb cut, so we were [00:05:00] able to maintain the existing curb cut. And we actually ended up improving this with a right of way permit, and we have. One parking space here. I think by the end of the project we ended up doing two. One here and one here. And then we have two more parking spaces here.
Sean Canning, Architect: So four total parking spaces, but there's plenty of street parking along here. And since the highway is right over here, there's there's no homes here to try to take up the street parking. So in this location there's plenty of, plenty of parking. This is how the project ended up looking. So you can see that the. The color of the siding has had been changed. But that's okay. That's pretty frequent when we're exploring just materials in the architectural and permitting phase. And then later on, the materials change. And here's a grander zoom out from a, with a, we used a drone to take this photo and you can see the two parking spaces here, all of the landscaping and exterior space allotted to the tenants. And then this control joint here is actually the line that splits the two lots. So this becomes kind of a grander entrance, but there's actually three ways to enter the lot from the street over here. And you can also enter the lot from the side over here. So lemme just go through these photos [00:06:00] real quick. Is Stucco and James Hardy, aspire Siding, which gets that vertical look. And we have the three panel door system here, so you can get more open space into that living room and kitchen area. And we use a simple shed roof design here because it's it's low cost, it's easy to build. It's really a, a good roof system for a rental unit. But overall, the project came out really nice. The design looks great and these are currently on the market for rent. Actually, I have the rental. is the finished kitchen here, and these are currently renting for $3,000 each in Golden Hill. So that's the, that's the entire project right there, Billy,
Bailey: $3,000 a month for one unit? Is that what it is?
Sean Canning, Architect: for one unit, for a two bedroom, one bath.
Bailey: Okay, I see. Then you did touch on it briefly. Why don't you go slightly more in depth, if you don't mind, and that would be the A DU bonus program. What exactly is that? Just so people understand.
Sean Canning, Architect: So I think anybody watching this video probably knows what the a DU bonus [00:07:00] program is because it's been such a hot topic over the last month. But basically, I. The state establishes a minimum baseline for adu, for ADUs within the state of California, and then all of the municipalities have to adopt the minimum requirements, but they are able to go. what the state requires. city of San Diego did this, and the majority of that is in the A DU bonus program. if you, if you have a multifamily zoned lot, you get two ADUs without using the program. If you have a single family zoned lot, you get one A DU without using the program. But then beyond that, if you're in the sustainable development overlay zone, sustainable development area. is one mile walking distance from any MA major transit. Then the city is in encouraging is maybe too, too hard of a word, but the city would allow you to the A DU BO bonus program, which means the next A DU has to be rented at affordable rates. And then by adding that a DU, you get one more market rate A DU, and then you can continue to do that until you basically reach your maximum floor area ratio, which is the maximum. square [00:08:00] footage on any, any zoned lot. So could in theory, have one dwelling unit, or let's, let's just say two dwelling units in a multifamily zone lot. Then do two ADUs, then do an affordable a market rate, and affordable a market rate, and on and on until you reach that limit.
Bailey: Gotcha. Okay, so I think that brings us to a good transition point, if you will, and that is to talk about how this is the main topic we wanted to cover today. That is how ADUs can be. A solution to housing shortages, not just in San Diego. Although for today's video, we're gonna be obviously primarily discussing San Diego, but really across the country, I think in every major city, because basically in every major city, rents are very high, likely, for the most part, I would say due to, you know, supply and demand factors, low housing.
Bailey: You know, capacity, et cetera. So why don't you lay out the case for why you believe ADUs are a solution to the housing crisis, if you will. Because it's not just the shortage of housing, which increases rent prices, but it's also a significant factor of it is, you know, people being displaced and becoming homeless as a result of these high housing costs.
Bailey: And so why don't you give us the case for why you believe ADUs are a solution to this problem?
Sean Canning, Architect: Okay, well this is certainly a broad topic. So let me. Let me start by saying I think ADU are one of the solutions that needs to occur, I think there has to be a lot of creative solutions [00:09:00] really combat the housing crisis we have in California. far as I understand, ADUs are something that's going on right now in all of the Western United States. but I don't think, I don't know if they extend. Beyond the Western coast of the United States. They could have like different names and different terminologies. I also think that when we're talking about ADUs as a solution for housing, I don't know if we should really lump homelessness into this because I think homelessness comes with its its own series of challenges and, and it's a very, that's an even more difficult topic to, to discuss. But I guess when you talk specifically about ADUs. It's important to like, understand the regulations so that you can then kind of work around those regulations so you can get something that, you can get a product a housing unit that really works for your needs. that could be something that helps reduce housing prices, but it could also be something that just serves your family's needs. So in general, I would say the more housing units we can install, the less cost everything would be to rent. So I, I think that's a pretty fair generalization. As a matter of supply and demand. So I, I think that's the basis for the whole thing. But then you run into the how the code restricts you from building more units, and that's where ADUs are supposed to kind of fill that gap. Because if you have a single family zone there's entire communities of single family zoning throughout the entire country, but in San Diego in particular, there's lots of single family [00:10:00] zoning. So you could only build one home on. those lots. But using the a DU regulations in the most simplistic form, you could then build a second home on those lots. So if you had a thousand single family zone lots without using ADUs, that's a thousand homes. But using the A DU regulations, now you can have 2000 homes. So at, at its most simplistic, you can double the density of all the single family all the single family zoned. Areas, which would be huge. Now in reality, not everybody who has a single family home is gonna want to build a second unit. So it doesn't work exactly the way I just explained it, but in theory it could.
Bailey: Hmm.
Sean Canning, Architect: and then in
Bailey: Or they might wanna build an A DU.
Sean Canning, Architect: would say that.
Bailey: Alright, we can wait, we can edit this part.
Sean Canning, Architect: Okay.
Bailey: We'll, we'll have, we can edit this part out. Is there a delay on your end? Maybe
Sean Canning, Architect: Maybe my wifi connection can be a little weak sometimes.
Bailey: I. All right, now we, we can edit it in so it seems natural. I was going to say, so we'll begin here, but,
Sean Canning, Architect: Mm-hmm.
Bailey: but part of, so in theory that also makes sense, but also the use cases for ADUs are things like, you know, you could build one and have. A exterior building here for like an office space or like, you know, like a pool house or something like that.
Bailey: Like there's, it's not just necessarily increased housing in that way, if that makes sense. The office example being a primary example.
Sean Canning, Architect: [00:11:00] Yeah. And I feel like that's where it really gets interesting and that's where it, A DU could really serve the homeowner in a way that not only could add more housing, or potentially add it in the future, but also serve the needs of the homeowner better. So if. At the, at the surface level, a lot of people who are opposed to ADUs, they think more density means more people living, which ruins the character of the neighborhood. More density could also ruin the scale of the neighborhood, but also the thing that everybody falls back on is more people means more parking. And we don't really have enough parking in a lot of neighborhoods. So that's, that's what the naysayers would say, what they, what they would call the nimby. I think. If you look deeper into this, what an A DU could be is so much more than just more housing units. Like it could be you own a single family home, now work from home post Covid. So you can build this A DU, which could serve essentially as a guest house and when it's not being used by your guests, it could be used as a home office. You could also use it as a a home gym. It could be a pool [00:12:00] house, it could be it, it could be, it could be a true rental unit where your tenants approach from the alley and you approach from your driveway in the front completely separate. But without the a DU regulations, I. You are not, you're not able to do this.
Sean Canning, Architect: The best you can get is maybe what they would call a guest quarters. But that has more restrictions. You can't build, you can't build that in your rear yard setback. So it could be difficult to really separate them and, and design the lot the way you want. So what you brought up Bailey, is really interesting because you, you're already thinking a little bit more deeper about the way these regulations can be kind of geared towards what the homeowner needs.
Bailey: Totally. And then many people probably also know about J adds as well here. But can you briefly explain what that is and how that can also potentially play into solving the housing shortage in San Diego?
Sean Canning, Architect: Well, the JADU while it's another opportunity, I, I don't really see it as. A great solution in a lot of cases because the JADU comes [00:13:00] with an owner, occupant, owner occupancy restriction on your deed. So if you have a single family home and you build A-J-A-D-U, which has to be attached to your single family home, can rent out the JADU.
Sean Canning, Architect: You can basically do all of those things you could do with the A DU, You have to sign an agreement with the city that you'd only rent out the JADU if you live in on the lot. So that's gonna exclude a whole bunch of people from building those, particularly the developers. There's less incentive for a developer to build A-J-A-D-U because most developers don't live on the, on the lot. So, A JDU would be a great solution you wanted your, your parents to live in the same home as you, and you needed some more square footage. or it could be a great solution if you're buying your first home and you're, and you wanted to split it up and rent it out to kind of offset the mortgage, but in almost all scenarios, you're better off building the A DU before the JADU.
Bailey: Got it. And then just for people watching, if they don't already know, the J stands for Junior a DU. So that's an easy way to think about it when it comes to, so you've been in San [00:14:00] Diego, I wanna say since like what, 2008, 2009, something like that. I. How have, so in theory, this is a great solution to solve the housing shortage, but how has that played out in practice since the entire time you've been, not just living personally in San Diego, but practicing architecture in the city as well?
Bailey: I.
Sean Canning, Architect: Well, that's really interesting. Be I would say, okay, so let's, let's take this back a little bit before. were a thing, and ADUs basically came out in 2020. The city of San Diego had a typology, which was very similar to ADUs. It was called a companion unit. And people wanted to build these companion units. Behind their homes, but they were extremely restrictive and there was like three, two or three thing, two or three reasons why people wouldn't build them or couldn't build them. So the companion unit had to be maximum of 50% of the size of your dwelling unit. In some neighborhoods out here, you could have a 700 square foot home.
Sean Canning, Architect: I actually, I live in a 700 square foot home. first home I bought was 500 square feet. So these are like old bungalows, [00:15:00] which were built like in the twenties or thirties, and they're just common all over San Diego. So that's gonna really limit the size of that second unit sometimes to the point where it's just not financially viable. But the other two major hurdles with the companion units were impact fees, which were set at the same level as the dwelling unit. So a lot of people who are considering an A DU may not even understand what an impact fee is, If you're looking to build a new home, there's a series of fees that you're gonna pay to the city, and one of the highest fees is what they call the impact fee. The impact fee covers everything you're already paying for with your property tax, and it's specific from neighborhood to neighborhood. So Barrier Logan, for example, has one of the highest impact fees any neighborhood. I think it's like just south of $20,000 per unit. And that's not a fee that helps you as the homeowner or the.
Sean Canning, Architect: Builder or the developer, money that you're paying to the city to like cover your [00:16:00] infrastructure, your parks management and things like that. And actually the parks is the reason why the barrier Logan impact fees are so high. but. The compan units were subject to these impact fees. So if you were in a neighborhood where there's a $15,000 impact fee you wanted to build a companion unit, but your maximum size for that companion unit was 350 square feet, you still had to pay that full impact fee. And a lot of people just were not willing to do that. so that was a decision people were making that. They were saying, Hey, this is too expensive. But then there was one more regulation that was just way over encompassing, and that was the parking regulations. you can go to chapter 14 of the municipal code and you can, you can, there's a table it'll tell you how many off street parking spaces you need to have before they would approve the permit. Most single family homes are gonna need two off street parking spaces. And then when you go to build a one bedroom companion unit, that sometimes would also require two off street parking spaces and a lot of lots cannot fit for [00:17:00] off streett parking spaces. So they were just com they were just disqualified building the units.
Sean Canning, Architect: So it's those three things which. Were the reason why the companion units were not as successful as they could have been. And in 2020 when the state made the A DU regulations, they eliminated all three of those things so you were no longer limited. the size of the A DU based on the size of the existing dwelling unit. almost all scenarios, parking was eliminated or at least de decoupled from the building of the A DU, and they insisted that impact fees were eliminated for a period of five years. And in San Diego. Now the first one or two ADUs, depending if you're single family zoning or multifamily zoning, you won't pay impact fees.
Sean Canning, Architect: And then after that, they've now added impact fees. But there are scaled impact fees when the A DU is larger than 750 square feet. So there's still like some incentive for developers. To build these things, and there's still some leeway for homeowners who are [00:18:00] generally on a tighter budget to, to build these things. So that's the major difference. Okay. Now we're kind of caught up to present day. So the question is. In the last five years from 2020 when the advent of ADUs occurred to where we are now, early 2025, have they been successful? And I think there's one critical thing that nobody's really talking about here.
Sean Canning, Architect: I haven't heard anybody talk about this, but. You have to look at the way the interest rates have increased from 2020 to 2025, and in 2020 we had like 3% to 4% interest rates, you could take out a loan. Build your a DU behind your existing home then refinance your mortgage into a 4% interest rate and that project would cash flow.
Sean Canning, Architect: So that was a great decision for a lot of homeowners. Margaret and I did, did that. And it, it was, it was really awesome. But about midway through that five year period, interest rates and you had a 7% or 8% interest [00:19:00] rate. at this point. no longer really pencil out, especially if you're, if you have to buy the lot first or if you don't have cash. So what that did was an A DU went from something that anybody could have built and should have built on their lot because the financial incentive was really obvious to now where we are today in 2025, where ADUs do not make sense if you're gonna buy the lot. and if, especially if you're stretching your budget to buy the lot and you're gonna end up with a six and a half percent interest rate it's not gonna be financially feasible to build that a DU. So the people who can build ADUs now and make it work are people who already own the land and probably got the land for a lot less expensive than it is today. People who have cash and can avoid the high interest rates, people who can find a way to avoid the high construction prices right now, because we went from building at $200 a square foot in 2020 to building at $400 a square foot in 2025. if you're a [00:20:00] contractor, you may be able to beat those prices, but a nutshell. ADUs were very financially viable in 2020 to maybe 2022, and now they're only available to a select group of people. So I don't think they have been as successful as the state wanted them to be, but by no fault of the state. And I think that's kind of the market condition we're in right now. When you talk about building ADUs.
Bailey: Okay. Very interesting. I think it is worth noting, I believe the Fed recently said, and we're recording this at the end of March, 2025, that they are expecting slash hoping for two rate cuts throughout the year so that can make them a bit more financially viable. One thing you haven't mentioned yet. But I know you're very, you know, you know, I know you know a lot about this topic in particular, of course is the permitting aspect of ADUs.
Bailey: So how do you think that is? So you've talked about like the macro economic factors, but why don't you talk about the permitting and how that's impacting [00:21:00] ADUs, because that is one of the major factors in terms of cost, timeline to build these things, that sort of thing.
Sean Canning, Architect: Yeah. Well, I can, as you know, I can talk forever about permitting in the city of San Diego my firm, 10 70 Architecture is. Probably one of the leading experts in permitting these types of projects in the city of San Diego. Margaret was a city of San Diego employee. For five years and she went from plan check to development project manager. So we've seen it on both, both ends. I've been permitting projects in the city of San Diego for 15 years, so I've seen when it used to take two months to permit a project to where we are right now, where it takes eight months to permanent project. The permitting process in the city of San Diego and probably most of California for that matter, is so incredibly complicated that. We are now in, we're now running into problems just because of how complicated it is. So like there's always challenges to permit a [00:22:00] project, but now there's challenges to get the permit because of how complicated the permitting. Procedures have become, so it's like com. There's compounds of problems. A lot of times when I talk to clients about permitting ADUs, the first thing they mention to me is that the city of San Diego is encouraging us to build these ADUs. But I don't believe that's actually true. I think the. Development services department, which is the, the organization that gives the permits so compartmentalized that maybe at the top, maybe the top guy who's adding these types of like the A DU bonus program into the municipal code. Maybe they're pro housing, but then you're dealing with levels and levels of management below. Then you deal with like the plan checkers at the bottom, which is actually like the saddest part of the whole thing because these plan checkers are right out of, right out of college and the way they the permit process, they actually are only obstructing their own ability to buy affordable real estate.
Sean Canning, Architect: And [00:23:00] I don't even know if they look at it. holistically. So let me first talk about why I am saying like there's compounds of problems in the permitting process. So when you submit a project to the city, it gets routed to like six or six to eight different departments depending on where that project is and what type of of project it is.
Sean Canning, Architect: And all of those departments are gonna individually review the plans, and then they're gonna issue comments, and then we have to respond to the comments, and then we go through, that's one cycle. We'll usually go through two to three cycles on most projects, but regulations and code, they. Nobody pulls code out.
Bailey: Nobody takes a 500 page code document and says, we don't need 200 pages of this anymore. The codes only grow. the people who are coming out of college and taking these entry level positions as plan checkers, they're a much different situation than somebody doing that 10 years ago was because now they have so much more code [00:24:00] to learn, and it's impossible for them to do that. While you would think that the development service development services department would be training these people, I think what really occurs is they train them on the job. So we get a bunch of comments especially when the projects get a little bit more technical that are not, that are not relevant, and then it can be difficult to resolve them. So instead of the building department being responsible to issue the correct comments, they kind of just. Throw everything at the wall, and then it becomes our responsibility to go through those comments and figure out which is correct or which is not correct. So rather than the labor being done by the building department, the labor ends up being done by the architects and engineers and the designers on the project, which means then we have to increase our fees. So. The, the cost is passed on in the overall cost of these ADUs, where really it should be absorbed by the building department. The cost is passed on. D does that make sense? I feel like it's a little bit of a difficult thing to explain.
I think, I think that's very clear. I think that makes a lot of sense. I think that might be,
Sean Canning, Architect: I.
Bailey: you know, other than [00:25:00] the financial. Items you mentioned. I think the permitting process, which you know, for lack of a better term, I would say can often be like a nightmare for the homeowners is maybe the highest barrier because it's one thing that people.
Bailey: Think they're gonna have financial challenges, but those could be overcome. But if they think this is gonna be like a year long plus process that like takes over their life and just causes a lot more stress and anxiety I think that is one of the biggest, you know, impediments to getting people to actually build more ADUs.
Bailey: Just that whole nightmare process. Especially, 'cause I know you've begun to bill hourly for that. So it's also something that people can't necessarily budget for either. Both in terms of time and money.
Sean Canning, Architect: Yeah, and just looking at that 24th and F Street project, we submitted that project, it's two adjacent lots, and we submitted essentially the same structure on both lots, and it got routed to two different people in the same department and the. The plan checks that came in, two independent plan checks [00:26:00] were completely different from each other. So there's, it's just a case study that the building department is incredibly inconsistent, and while I would love to offer a flat fee permitting, I. it's so variable, you get one reviewer versus a, a second reviewer. It's just impossible to know what to expect. So that's why the only way to fairly bill is to, to pass that off with hourly bill billing. But I guess the one thing we do try to do when we permit projects is we try to take all of the. out of the client's life. So we're really taking that stress on like, head on and we're shielding the clients from it. But I think the, the one thing I do wanna mention is I don't, I think the city of San Diego can do quite a lot of things if they really are serious about adding more housing. I don't understand why it could take eight months to permit a simple a DU. It doesn't make any sense to me. When you submit your plans, it goes into, you kind of like get in the back of the line. But if somebody's gonna review a drawing six months, or let's say [00:27:00] four months after we submit it and then send it back off to us, and then we send it back to them, and then it takes them another month to get to it, it's like you're, you're forgetting all of the things that you reviewed in the. In the first review. So it may, it's more efficient to just review it as quickly as it comes in, and that would save us time and that would save them time. So to just like draw these things out for eight months is like, it's not really helping anybody. And, and also one other thing about out a permit for eight months. In other states, if the permitting process is faster, you can get a, there's different loan types where you can buy a property and then they, loan you the money for construction. But when you initiate the loan, you're starting your interest from the time you're, you're initiating the loan when you're trying to do something like that in San Diego. You can't start a loan before you finish a permit the risk that the permit takes eight months or longer, or maybe you don't even get the permit, is so substantial that it disqualifies developers or ambitious homeowners from getting these types of loans to do these projects. [00:28:00] So what you end up doing is you have to finance the design and the engineering and the permitting out of pocket, and then get the loan. The, the development services department taking this long really hinders the ability for development financing. And I don't think there's, I, I don't see how anybody can argue otherwise. So that's, that's very frustrating.
Bailey: Well, as frustrating as permit can be in San Diego, you recently have begun to offer a new service to help people with this. Why don't you talk a little bit about that briefly. I.
Sean Canning, Architect: Yeah, thanks for bringing that up. so I was totally against this for years and years. My logic was I'm just gonna do I, the less permitting I have to do the better it is probably the most stressful part of my day to day. And also, you know, the other thing I should mention is like, nobody goes to architecture school and is like, man, one day I'm gonna permit all these projects and I can't wait for that. It's like, it's just kind of a, it's kind of the worst part of our job. Like, I don't know, there's no other way to put it. But at 15 years into this architecture business in the city of San [00:29:00] Diego, I feel like I've almost seen everything that could happen. On a permit, as you know, Margaret's an expert in permitting.
Sean Canning, Architect: So we, we just kind of became experts in this as a support of the designs we were providing. So I realized maybe it would be a good idea to help people with their permits. So we have a service now where you can basically pay hourly and we can give you advice on how to permit the project if you end up with a. A permitting issue. We can advise you on which way to go, depending on your timeline and your budget. We can review invoices from the building department from you, and we find that like at least half of the invoices issued are incorrect. We found invoices issued for over $10,000 that should not have been issued to our clients. And if you're, if you're kind of naive about these fees, like. I, I'm sure a lot of people just pay these fees and, you know, you could overpay by $10,000 on a project, which is just insane to think of. so yeah, we [00:30:00] have different levels of this permit facilitation service from basically just helping you out for one hour and giving you advice all the way to permitting your entire project. And the goal is to just kind of take the stress out of the process for the homeowner, for the developer.
Bailey: Yeah, and to to be clear, it's not just for ADUs, it's also for other types of residential projects.
Sean Canning, Architect: Yeah, we can help you with permitting on pretty much every project within the city of San Diego.
Bailey: Okay. So as we, as we wrap up here, I don't know if there's anything you wanna talk about that we haven't already talked about, but is there anything you would like to say as we, as we kind of wrap up the conversation here?
Sean Canning, Architect: Well, I think I just want to bring back the point of the creative use of the A DU because like sometimes the expression is like
Bailey: I.
Sean Canning, Architect: to understand the rules so you can break the rules. I'm not suggesting you. the rules. I'm saying you, if you understand the code, you can know how to build these ADUs to serve your purpose.
Sean Canning, Architect: And even if this a DU is just serving your purpose as maybe maybe you need a place for [00:31:00] kids to live because you know, it's too expensive to buy a home. So you're considering building an A DU in the backyard. Even by building this a DU to serve your own purpose, you are actually helping housing crisis here in California because if you, if you're a homeowner, you build an a DU in your backyard for your let's say for a son and then your son.
Sean Canning, Architect: Gets married and has a family and now you can, now you have two families on one lot, then as you get older and you retire, maybe you move out of San Diego. That opens up one more unit of housing for San Diego. So I, I think the A DU is a great solution. As I mentioned earlier. I think there needs to be more solutions and I think the state is working on that. In all fairness but. If you understand the technical rules of the ADUs and how you can build them within the constraints of the code, there is creative ways where you can apply them to your specific needs, and by doing that, you're really helping out the housing crisis in San Diego.
Bailey: Yeah, you're talking about finding a loophole, not necessarily breaking the rules.
Sean Canning, Architect: [00:32:00] Well, I. know, we've discussed this with my with my company, like with the team are these loopholes. And I, I would have to completely disagree that there are, that this is a loophole. Because if you're saying this is a loophole, you're assuming that the person who wrote the code was not, not t like he's, he left a loophole by mistake. But you have to start with the premise that the people writing the code are. Very intelligent people that are not leaving loopholes. The way they're writing the code black and white, but within that gray area, they're leaving us space so that we can make things work for the, for the people who the code serves. So I completely disagree with the premise that these are loopholes. These are things intentionally left in the code so that we can help out homeowners and, and developers.
Bailey: Okay. And then as we wrap up here, why don't you also talk about the other new service? You recently launched the consulting service. So if people feel like, you know, they've enjoyed listening to your expertise here, maybe they have an A DU project or any other type of project in San [00:33:00] Diego, I. Remodel, addition, custom home, those sorts of things.
Bailey: You are now available in a different type of capacity than a full on project capacity. So why don't you talk a little bit about that as well.
Sean Canning, Architect: Yeah, so this is kind of another service we fell into.
Bailey: I.
Sean Canning, Architect: as we were and permitting and building these ADUs, we found so many different, like. So much gray area in the code that we had to keep reaching out to the planning departments to be like, Hey, here's what the code says. What does this actually mean?
Sean Canning, Architect: Or, Hey, I'm looking to do this. It doesn't seem like it's covered anywhere in the code. So we found out by trial and error, by basically, by trial and error, by building our own ADUs and, and permitting ADUs for our clients. Kind of where that gray area falls within the city of San Diego's interpretation. So. There's so much, so many things they don't tell you. Like, for example, here's one. You wanna build an A DU, you're allowed to build an a DU in your rear yard setback. But what they don't tell you is if you have an exterior staircase or an exterior balcony or a roof deck, those cannot be in the rear yard setback. That doesn't say this anywhere in the code. So you would just go into [00:34:00] it assuming, well, the balcony, the roof deck, and the stairs are all part of the A DU. But that's not the way it's been interpreted by the city of San Diego. So through all this nuance, I was getting calls from who are already designing ADUs from colleagues who were working on their own a DU projects, who, who didn't know the answers to this.
Sean Canning, Architect: And we just became kind of the experts in these like intricate. City of San Diego, a DU regulations. so this year we unrolled the architectural consulting service where if you just need me to review a an a DU, you've been designing something that a drafter has done for you or a designer's done for, for you. I. So we can, we can take a look at that and usually in about one hour, maybe an hour and a half, I can identify any challenges that you're gonna have when you make that submittal. The further you go along the process, the more expensive and harder things are to change. So while it's in design, everything's pretty plastic.
Sean Canning, Architect: Once you get the engineering done, now have to pay that engineer to redo the engineering. And then once you go into [00:35:00] permitting, it can be even more difficult to make changes. And then obviously once you get the permit, it's even more difficult to make changes. So the service allows me to look at other people's work and provide insight and advice on the, for the benefit of the, the homeowner or the developer.
Bailey: Yeah, and I think when it comes to the A DU projects in particular, whether someone needs like consulting work with you or permitting help with Margaret, the. You know, it's not just the expertise, the professional expertise, you've gathered over a decade doing this for clients, but I think it's also the fact that you've done it yourself multiple times as a homeowner, so you understand both sides of the equation.
Sean Canning, Architect: It's one thing to just design a project for people. And you know, the first we built our first a DU in 2020. So basically the first 10 years of my architecture practice, I was just doing design and I had never built, well actually we had, we had renovated our, first home we built, but we. Designed in a DU.
Sean Canning, Architect: We've financed, gone through the process of financing that a DU permitting, that a [00:36:00] DU building, that a DU ourselves and living in that a DU. So all of that provides way more like. Context for how these things should work. You know, what size every, what size rooms should we should be designing, what the angles for, permitting to reduce the fees are. So yeah, we really do leverage that experience quite a bit.
Bailey: Okay. So we're pretty much at time. I think we've covered everything that we wanted to cover. So I'd say we wrap up here, but yeah, basically if you're already still watching at this point, the idea here is just for it to be like a casual conversation about different architectural topics around San Diego or just maybe more broadly, so probably, you know, highlighting specific projects and then diving deep into some sort of.
Bailey: Architectural topic, maybe even bring guests on in the, in the future, who knows what will happen. But that's the idea for it to be like an authentic conversation, kinda like behind the scenes, if you will. So hopefully people enjoy it. They should definitely subscribe to the channel if they do. 'cause as of now, we're probably trying to get one of these every other week or so.[00:37:00]
Bailey: So that's the idea. But yeah. Sean, is there anything you wanna say before we wrap up?
Sean Canning, Architect: No, thanks for your time, man. This was fun. I'm also interested in, in your perspective, as we have these conversations, because, you know, you represent the generation, the next generation who's going to try to get into the housing market. So it will also be interesting me to hear your perspective on some of these things.
Bailey: Because I'm, I'm basically, I'm on the borderline, but I'm basically, I would say Gen Z as you're the older millennial. So I would say
Sean Canning, Architect: Mm-hmm.
Bailey: yeah, I mean, it's definitely challenging if you're trying to buy a home in a major metro area, pretty much anywhere in the us. Like I'm in Denver, the starting price for a home in my neighborhood is over a million dollars, which is crazy.
Bailey: So. This is where we're at.
Sean Canning, Architect: Well
Bailey: with challenges come, opportunities one could argue.
Sean Canning, Architect: Yes. And the, and the state of California is launching different like initiatives now to allow you to subdivide lots, to, to be smaller lots, which then you can develop into, into housing, smaller housing. I think that's headed in the right direction. And maybe in one of the future in the future, we could probably discuss that [00:38:00] regulation a little bit more.
Bailey: All right. Will do. Alright. Thanks for watching everyone. Hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to leave a comment, subscribe. We'll see you the next one. Take it easy. Bye.