“Granny Flats” Are Back Before City Commission This Week

City staff will provide an update on the existing Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) regulations to the Planning Commission at 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

The meeting will include a recap of the actions completed by the Planning Commission and City Council related to ADUs.

An ADU — also known as a ‘granny flat’ — is a “secondary housing unit on a single-family residential lot.”

Since April 2018, the city has received 142 applications for ADUs, 35 permits have been issued, 74 applications are currently being reviewed. Four additional applications have been approved and can advance after the applicants complete the permit process. In addition, 20 projects have been inspected and completed, and nine permits have been canceled.

Over the previous 10 years, the city only issued permits for five additional dwelling units.

New laws allow some homeowners to build as many as three units on a single-family lot.

ADUs were a major part of the March 3 election, while many candidates supported laws easing restriction on ADUs and saw the additional units as possible affordable housing, incumbents saw a batch of laws signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom softening city powers to control housing ordinances as problematic.

“I think the state has dramatically overreached in terms of how they have intervened in local regulatory practice, land use practice,” Mayor Terry Tornek told Pasadena Now earlier this year when asked about the matter.

In 2017, Gov. Jerry Brown signed two bills to promote ADUs in California that allowed ADUs to be built concurrently with a single-family residence, easing utility fees and parking restrictions.

Last year, Newson signed SB330, AB68, SB13, AB 881 and AB 671.

Under these laws, homeowners can build a 1,200 square foot ADU, or granny flat, on their property and an additional ADU.

AB 881, restricts the ability of local governments to issue permits. It requires the streamlining of ADU approval processes when built-in existing garages. It also eliminates a local jurisdiction’s prerogative to require owner-occupancy for five years before engaging in ADU construction.

AB 671 forces local governments to encourage affordable ADU rentals in their housing plans. It also requires the state to develop a list of state grants and financial incentives for affordable ADUs

SB 330, which will remain in effect until 2025, limits the city’s ability to impose new building standards that drive up construction costs.

AB 68 limits the city’s ability to prevent homeowners from building second and third units less than 16 feet tall provided there is enough space to build them at least four feet from property lines.

SB 13 limits fees cities and counties charge people who want to build additional units.

California rents are among the highest in the nation and in Pasadena rental units go for more than $2,000.