Accessory Dwelling Units

Please contact your water provider and/or PG&E to determine whether these are needed.

Yes. The County Assessor appraises all new construction and remodels, including ADUs, at fair market value. Please visit www.sccassessor.org for more information.

ADUs < 750 sq. ft. in size will not incur City impact fees such as park or storm drain impact fees. ADUs larger than this size will still incur these impact fees. Please contact the Public Works Department at (408) 777-3354 for information. School impact fees are determined by the School District. Please contact CUSD at (408) 252-3000 ext. 61-373 and FUHSD at 408.522.2200 for more information.

No. The relaxed floor area and lot coverage standards are to allow additional housing units to become available, not to allow larger principal dwelling units.

Yes, as long as the garage and/or covered patio proposed meet(s) the necessary size, height, and setback regulations; as well as, the Floor Area Ratio and lot coverage restrictions for the property (excluding the livable areas of the ADUs)

A JADU is created by converting space within a principal dwelling unit. An attached garage is an accessory use and therefore, not a part of the principal dwelling unit. Therefor, the garage conversion would have to be the property's only ADU and can not be considered a JADU. In this situation, for this single family property, you could have a detached ADU and a JADU (located within your home).

Existing garages can be converted into an ADU, but no portion of the existing garage may be converted for use as livable/usable space by the principal dwelling unit.

You do not need to provide replacement parking when converting a garage into an ADU.

Yes! You may construct any combination of JADU, attached ADU (≤ 800 sq. ft.), detached ADU (≤ 800 sq. ft.), as long as there are no more than 3 total ADUs on your property.

A detached ADU is required to have its own address. All other types of ADUs may have their own address but are not required to.

A two-story ADU is allowed on most single family property. Please contact the Planning Department to check if this is allowable on your lot.

No internal access is allowed except for a JADU that has a shared bathroom with the principal dwelling unit on property with single family uses. All other ADUs must be completely separated from the principal dwelling unit or other units (in a multi-family development.)

An ADU may be rented, but not sold, separately from the principal dwelling unit. However, ADUs, including JADUs, may not be used for short-term rental activity. 

For JADUs, the owner must occupy either the principal dwelling unit or the JADU. Additionally, the owner shall record a deed restriction prohibiting the sale of the JADU separate from the principal dwelling unit and restricting the size and attributes of the JADU to conform with JADU regulations.

There is no limit on the number of bedrooms in an ADU. However, for single family property, there are size restrictions depending on the number of bedrooms proposed. For a studio or one-bedroom unit, the maximum size allowable is 850 sq. ft. while for any ADU with two or more bedrooms, the maximum allowable size is 1,000 sq. ft.

For single family property, you can construct a maximum of three streamlined attached or detached ADU (≤ 800 sq. ft.) or JADUs for a total of three ADUs. 

For duplex property, you can construct a maximum of two streamlined attached or detached ADUs (≤ 800 sq. ft.) or JADUs for a total of two ADUs.

For multi-family property, you can construct up to two detached ADUs and convert non-habitable spaces to construct up to 25% of the number of existing units (minimum one) as ADUs.