SLO County city wants to make it easier to build ADUs. Here’s how it could make that happen
A southern San Luis Obispo County city is considering making changes that would streamline the process for building accessory dwelling units and accommodate some updates to state guidance.
At Tuesday’s Arroyo Grande Planning Commission meeting, the commissioners voted 4-0 to recommend an update to the city’s ADU ordinance to the City Council, with commissioner Kevin Buchanan absent.
According to planning manager Andrew Perez, the planned updates to the local ADU ordinance are meant to bring it in line with new statewide legislation that streamlines the application and building process.
“I think this past year in 2023 was the first year we met our (ADU) goal,” Perez said during the meeting.
The city’s annual goal is 32 ADUs per year, he said, and the city received 33 applications.
“So that was encouraging,” Perez said “We do rely heavily on ADUs to meet our (Regional Housing Needs Assessment goals), so we really want to streamline and make that process as easy as possible.”
Here’s how updates to the city’s ADU ordinance could shape the look of Arroyo Grande going forward.
What could change in Arroyo Grande’s ADU ordinance?
Statewide, ADUs have become easier to build in higher numbers thanks to legislation that streamlined the application and building process in 2017.
The new changes to the city’s ADU ordinance are intended to bring the rules in line with half a dozen state and assembly bills signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2022 and 2023.
The updated ordinance would require agencies to approve certain types of ADUs with only a building permit.
These include units that were created by converting existing space in a single-family home or non-habitable spaces on multi-family lots and small detached ADUs on single-family lots.
Meanwhile, ADUs that require a permit are subject to the city’s objective design standards, which would be updated to eliminate some subjectivity in the text and improve overall privacy.
The new standards require an independent exterior entrance set apart from the primary dwelling, and also prevent windows and doors from having a direct line of sight to an adjacent residential property.
Those ADUs must also use the same colors and materials for the exterior walls, roof, windows and doors as the primary residence, according to the new ordinance.
The update to the ordinance would also allow some ADUs to be slightly taller, raising the height limit from 16 feet to 18 feet for detached units on lots with an existing or proposed multi-family home that has more than one story. Detached ADUs could also be up to 18 feet tall if they are within a half-mile walking distanced of a major transit stop.
Under the proposed update, ADUs attached to a primary home cannot be taller than 25 feet or can’t exceed the existing home’s zoning height limitation, whichever is lower.
The ordinance update also eliminates front yard setback requirements that would otherwise prohibit the construction of ADUs up to 800 square feet in size.
Finally, the update prohibits ADUs that are within 500 feet of a property listed in the California Register of Historic Places from being visible from public right of ways.
The Arroyo Grande City Council is expected to vote on the draft ordinance in February. If approved, the ordinance would become effective 30 days after adoption.
