All Forum Posts by: Alex Otto

@Alfred Moon Lots of great advice in this thread, so I'll just add that our company designs, permits, and construction manages ADUs across LA -- we've done about 40 in the last 2-3 years at this point. We'd be happy to take a look at your property and give you a better sense of what you can do on it, how you might maintain parking spots (per @Rick Albert's comment), etc.

Send me a DM and I can give you our contact information, or you can look us up yourself -- we're Otto ADU.

Hey @Anthony Denaro! Exciting times -- sounds like you've gotten through a lot of the pre-con hurdles.

In terms of LADBS, we haven't been experiencing many delays on our ADU jobs. I would be more concerned about the GC being prepared for the inspections, and then for you and your GC (and designer, if you have one) to be quick with responding to any inspector feedback (either by making changes or by calmly explaining how what you did is actually correct/permitted -- you'd be surprised by the things inspectors ask for that aren't actually required).

For LADWP, are you upgrading your main house meter or adding a second meter? Or are you just installing a subpanel on your ADU? If the former, yes, there can be delays, but if you're on the phone w/ LADWP and diligent, you'll get through it. If the latter, you shouldn't have any issues.

For neighbors, we always hand out a small leaflet explaining what we are doing, what the working hours are, and who to contact (e.g. GC, owner, designer, etc.) if you have a question. If you don't feel comfortable doing that, then I would just follow @Rick Albert's advice. The one thing I would add is to take a bunch of photos before construction starts of your site, the fences around your property line, and even of any neighboring building walls that are around your property. If a neighbor makes any claim, at least you've got evidence of how things were before construction started.

I'd also keep taking photos throughout the construction process so you have a detailed log of what work was done, when it was done, and how it was done. You could make it into a Google Photos folder that you share with the GC -- everyone involved in your project should be happy to have this record, and they could even add photos to it too.

@Zachary Freeman Nice, that's great to hear. Good luck with the project, & let me know if you have other questions.

Thanks @Andrew Tyree -- just sent a message.

@Christian Cambridge if you have any questions about ADU design, permitting, or construction, please feel free to reach out. Happy to help if we can -- we've done a bunch of garage conversions throughout the city/county.

@Andrew Tyree Mind if I send a DM and get that contact as well? We are always looking for good people to send our ADU clients to.

@Zachary Freeman Happy to help

1. That seems promising! I would ask whoever you speak with at the city to confirm, but it sounds like AB 2097 will apply.

2. Sorry, I am not sure on this one. If you discuss this with someone more knowledgeable, I'd be interested to hear what you learn. My hunch is that it depends on the city/inspector, but that a signed final permit would be pretty strong evidence that the modifications were made to the property... I would love to be wrong though.

3, 5. Too bad that they have to be attached. Any chance you would just rebuild the carport and add a second story w/ 2 units on top? It might be difficult to squeeze 2 stories in under the height limit, and to make the added second story conform to the required setbacks, but it's not impossible.

4. This process sounds tricky -- both from a permitting perspective and from a spatial/design perspective -- but powerful if you can make it work. Definitely share some updates if the city says they will allow it + you decide to proceed!

@Zachary Freeman

1. Based on our experience in LA City, I think that AB 2097 would apply whenever you are adding units (whether that be through alteration, addition, or new construction). However, you need to make sure that the property in question really does sit within a 1/2 mile of public transit, per whatever definition Inglewood has set for public transit. 

I don't see a clear definition from the state on what constitutes public transit, which makes this tricky. Here's an example from LA City showing why it's tricky: In LA City, for AB 2097, the LADBS determines "public transit" using their Transit Oriented Communities map, which has a more convoluted way of determining what counts as a "public transit" stop. However, for ADU parking requirements, they just let measure 1/2 mile to any sort of transit stop. The former applies to far less properties than the latter.

2. I would love to be wrong on this, but my understanding is that you can't grandfather any nonconforming condition that has already been remedied to make it conforming. 

In terms of the ADU, I'm reading Inglewood's guidance and it seems to contradict the state law. In short, the state says you should be able to build 2 detached units.

The state laws say that a multifamily property can have 2 detached ADUs, regardless of the unit count on the site. The 25% limit only applies to conversions of portions of multifam structures not used as livable space. (See page 20 of the 2022 HCD ADU Handbook and 65852.2(e)(1)(D) of the CA Gov Code)

Inglewood's "ADU/JADU Development Standards" PDF says that the 25% rule applies to detached ADUs... 

So, Inglewood might put up a bit of a fight, but I don't think they can stop you from building, say, a detached duplex w/ 2 ADUs, especially if each ADU is <800 sq ft.

@Erin T. the exact line in the updated ADU laws that @Dan H. and @Eddie Torres is 65852.2(d)(2), which says "The local agency shall not deny an application for a permit to create an accessory dwelling unit due to the correction of nonconforming zoning conditions, building code violations, or unpermitted structures that do not present a threat to public health and safety and are not affected by the construction of the accessory dwelling unit."

We design, permit, and build ADUs in LA City all the time, and so I feel pretty confident in saying that you have a good chance at getting this new unit permitted without having to do anything to your main house (beyond potentially upgrading some utilities so your ADU can be served).

Hopefully this is just an honest mistake by your contractor, or a situation where an LADBS employee is giving out bad information (it happens all the time and you really need to be educated on all of the laws in order to realize when this is happening to you)!

@Erika Williams

We design, permit, and build a lot of ADUs in LA, so I hope I can help with some basic advice.

First off, as others have said, you need to sort out what zoning and State ADU law allows. The state ADU laws only allow 2 ADUs on a multifamily zoned lot w/ a multifamily structure (by their definition, 2+ units attached to one another) on it or proposed for it. 

So, if your property only has a single house on it, you likely cannot build two ADUs.

As @Dan H. pointed out, you could do a JADU and an ADU, however there are limitations here too. A JADU is only allowed on a single family zoned property w/ a single family unit on it. Otherwise, he's right that you need to convert it from existing, permitted square footage, but note that it needs to be attached to the main house. 

To start, you can check this map out to find your zoning & determine which strategy you can even legally proceed with: https://www.cityoflamirada.org...

As suggested previously, talking to the Building Dept would also be a great idea (if you can get an in-person appointment).

Good luck! ADUs and JADUs can make a lot of sense in certain contexts, and it sounds like they could be a great fit for your situation.

@Melanie Middien If you're in LA City, take a look at their ADU memo: https://planning.lacity.org/od... Scroll to page 4 and look at the column on the far right.

If you are outside of LA City, take a look at HCD's handbook on ADUs: https://www.hcd.ca.gov/sites/d... Scroll to page 24.

Unfortunately, JADUs can only be done on single family properties, so right away, if you have a duplex, a JADU isn't going to work legally (unless there is some local ordinance in your jurisdiction that has found a way around the state law -- if so, that would be great).

Otherwise, the owner occupancy requirement that @Rick Albert mentioned is another reason to avoid JADUs if you can.

There may be alternate ADU-related development options for your property (e.g. one attached ADU per LA City ordinance, a detached ADU duplex per state law) but it doens't sound like that's what you're looking for.