Does Your ADU Need Its Own Parking Spot?
If you’re adding an accessory dwelling unit in California, Oregon, or any other state that allows ADUs, you’ll need to know about the local parking requirements. New state laws regarding your rights as a California homeowner went into effect in 2020, making it easier to add an accessory dwelling to your property. Meanwhile, this state law made many of the local ordinances that made it difficult to add ADUs be eliminated. That includes certain parking limitations.
What’s changed in the parking rules?
Before 2020, municipalities would often place onerous parking requirements on new ADUs. If you couldn’t add the parking the city wanted, you couldn’t add the ADU. This caused many people to not be able to develop Accessory Dwelling Units on their properties. That all changed on January 1, 2020.
Here’s what Section 65852.2 of the amended California government code currently says about parking requirements for ADUs:
The city can only require one parking space per ADU or per bedroom, whichever is less.
Parking spaces may be tandem (one space in front of the other) on a driveway.
Off street parking is allowed in setbacks or through tandem parking, except where topography or safety issues make parking in these areas unfeasible.
If a garage, carport, or covered parking structure is demolished or converted as part of the ADU project, you do not have to replace that parking.
Additionally, the city cannot require you to add to or change the parking on your property if any of the following is true:
The ADU is within a half mile of public transportation.
The ADU is in a district that has been deemed architecturally and historically significant.
The ADU is part of the primary home or an accessory structure.
On-street parking permits are required but not issued to ADU occupants.
When a car-share vehicle is located within one block of the ADU.
In January, the Department of Housing and Community Development issued a memorandum outlining these and other changes to California law. You can view the full memorandum here:
https://www.hcd.ca.gov/community-development/housing-element/docs/ADU_TA_Memo_Final_01-10-20.pdf
Why is this important?
If you’re adding an accessory dwelling to your property, it’s important to understand your rights. City officials permit many different kinds of projects, and they can’t always keep up with rapidly changing rules. It helps if you know the laws that pertain to your particular project. If you’re armed with the right knowledge, the city officials will be able to help you faster and make sure you only pay for permits you actually need.
Of course, parking is just a small part of the permitting process. No matter how well you know the rules, it really helps to take it a step further and have an experienced design professional on your side.
With years of local experience and ADU-specific knowledge, New Avenue design professionals are experts at dealing with city permitting offices. We’ve saved some clients thousands of dollars in unnecessary fees and gotten projects green-lit even after the city rejected them. (Here’s one example of how we saved a client $20,000.)
