City relaxes attitude toward granny flats




The state wants municipalities to make it easier for property owners to build accessory dwelling units

The state wants municipalities to make it easier for property owners to build accessory dwelling units

Part of California’s housing crisis can be blamed on wary residents fed up with development. While locals may object to the construction of new housing in their midst, the state is taking a different approach in meeting the growing demand for homes by fast-tracking the availability of so-called accessory dwelling units.

Sometimes the granny flats don’t even require new construction; they’re already a part of the home.

Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed several pieces of legislation that limit local control over the use of granny flats—which are self-contained apartments or cottages on private property that can be offered for rent. An accessory unit, or ADU, can be a standalone structure on the property or a dwelling attached to the main house, such as an apartment over the garage or the garage itself.

The new laws make it easier to get a permit for an ADU while restricting local jurisdictions’ permitting criteria, and they give local governments incentives to encourage affordable ADU rentals. Local governments, including Westlake Village and Calabasas, are amending their ordinances to comply with the state law.

At its Jan. 22 meeting the Calabasas City Council adopted an ordinance amending the city’s code regarding accessory dwelling units.

Maureen Tamuri, the city’s community development director, said the state’s changes are “eroding local control.” But ADUs are one of many tools the state has to address the need for more housing. There are pros and cons to building them, Tamuri said.

“(ADUs) blend into a single family residential community, so in lieu of putting 300 units in a five-story building, you can spread this like peanut butter throughout your community,” she said. “But an ADU is nothing more than a glorified duplex. What that does is: now you take a community like Calabasas, which is primarily residential, and now you have an almost unlimited interruption of new people in the community and there’s no opportunity to anticipate how that community is going to look in the distant future.”

The problem with added occupancy on a single-family lot is that it could lead to higher population density in an area that wasn’t built to support it, Tamuri said.

The new state laws remove restrictions on how many ADUs can be built within a city, and where. But adding an ADU could also mean more cars parked on residential streets, which may cause problems for other residents and areas that have homeowner associations.

The requirements could come into conflict with HOA rules. Where the community organizations might have banned the addition of ADUs, the state now says they must be allowed.

The change could create a clash if an ADU brings additional cars to an area where HOA parking has been banned.

Under state law, city control over ADUs is now limited to simple aesthetic decisions and other basic restrictions, Tamuri said.

“There are some provisions for water and septic access that would affect some areas of our city, but I think that was the prior iteration of the ADU ordinance we adopted— it said that it wasn’t fair that communities served by septic are prohibited from enjoying the benefit of an ADU, so we did not take advantage of that particular component, but the planning commission and council said if those communities can meet their septic requirements with a new ADU, so be it,” Tamuri said.

With the change in tone, Tamuri said she expects the number of applications for accessory dwelling units in Calabasas to increase.

ADUs can be beneficial to homeowners—especially those in retirement—as a way to make ends meet. Once an owner has made the initial investment in ADU construction, they will have a new income stream on which they can rely.