All Forum Posts by: James M.

Hi Jonathan,

I am a licensed architect in LA, I might be able to help you with some of these questions.

1. The type of project will most likely be determined by two factors: A) what is allowed by your local zoning (I am assuming Amador County) on your land and B) what your local market can support. In a more rural area, it might be more appropriate to build small cabins/homes, RV hook-ups, mobile home sites, etc. You will need to figure out what makes sense based on the local economy and your overall goals.

2. There are a slew of affordable housing bonuses available at the federal, state, and local level. An example is the California Multifamily Housing Program

3. This an interesting question. I think it's good to think about prefabrication on two levels: A) can we prefabricate larger building components that can slide into typical construction practices? This would include things like prefab bathrooms or SIPS. B) Full scale prefabricated dwellings. These can range from mobile-home like units to higher end products from companies like Connect Homes or Cover. I think a great model to look at is Impact Housing, a developer that designs and builds modular housing units that they assemble into large multi-family projects.

Let me know what you think! Sounds like a great project.

Hi Kelvin,

I am an architect in LA that has worked on a number of ADUs, some involving tricky garage issues.

-the fire affected your garage?

-you discovered that the garage itself was not permitted?

Depending on your local zoning, you may be required to provide a certain amount of covered parking. If your garage is not currently permitted you may be in violation of your local parking requirements. That being said, your non-compliance may be grandfathered in, in which case you should be able to convert the un-permitted accessory structure to an ADU as long as it fits within the existing footprint.

I would contact the folks at the Fairfield Department of Building Safety to ask them about this particular issue. Their contact info is here: https://www.fairfield.ca.gov/g...

Generally speaking, an architect would be able to help identify and resolve any zoning issues, as well as aid you in the design. That being said, an architect's stamp is not required for an ADU, and you might be able to find a local contractor to help you with the entire process. It's also good to call around various contractors and design/build companies to get a sense of construction costs in your area. Good luck!

Hi Drew, I am an architect in LA that has worked on a number of ADUs. The state has overarching ADU guidelines, each municipality then creates their own ADU regulations. You need to determine if your property is subject to county or municipal zoning. If county, you can find the ADU regulations here: https://www.sandiegocounty.gov...
Once you know what zoning applies to your house, you can determine the max size of your ADU and required setbacks.

In regards to prefab, I know they are affected quite a bit by supply chain issues. It might be worth reaching out to a few contractors as it might be cheaper and faster to go custom (sounds unlikely I know). Also worth looking at design-build firms as I know that is a popular option for some.

Permits are typically pulled by your contractor. In addition to a construction permit, you may also need approvals for power line or utility encroachments or easements on or near your property.

Thanks for the tip, @Alicia Marks! I will look for some meet ups.

Thanks everyone for reaching out! And good to know about the meetups, @Robert Reynolds, I'll check them out.

I've been lurking on the BiggerPockets forums for a few years but wanted to take the opportunity to introduce myself. I'm an architect based in Los Angeles with licenses in California and Massachusetts. I currently run a practice in North East LA with experience in commercial, mixed use, and residential projects. We've worked on RTI land projects, high-end spec homes in Palm Springs, as well as custom ADU's in LA county. I'm personally interested in the investment/development space and would love to connect with anyone that would like to chat with an architect. Hit me up!

@Curtis Shapiro

Curtis, any updates on this data in the last year or so? How big is the differential between Mammoth and June Lake? I assume June just doesn't pencil out after considering construction costs.

@Mike R. what is the sweet spot in terms of size, location, and amenities for these high yielding STRs in Big Bear?

@Mark Futalan Palm Desert has geographic restrictions, but still permits STR in a lot of condo areas. I think there are opportunities there. Rancho Mirage's restrictions are based on density of STRs per district (no more than 10% permitted) which seems a little more opaque to me. Also a non-STR property can only have one STR neighbor. Seems like kind of a roll of the dice. Any idea how to know if a property will be permitted as STR before buying it?

@Mike R. JT and big bear both look promising. There certainly is a lot of housing stock in Big Bear. Personally I've always liked Idyllwild but it seems to lack all of the activities year round in Big Bear. There also seem to be some good deals in Mammoth, and from what I've heard it does quite well in the summer with mountaineering, mountain biking, and people stopping en route to Yosemite.

After the dust has settled with a lot of the STR regulations in the valley, what cities seem to have the greatest potential? Palm Springs is limited to 36 stays per year. Is it feasible to offset this by increasing the minimum stay length? What impact does this have on overall occupancy rates? I noticed Palm Desert is more accepting of STRs. As far as I can tell there is no stay cap, just a limit to which communities are able to STR (mostly condo areas), as well as a minimum number of nights per stay (I think two nights). Are the STR rates in Palm Desert at all affected by not being as recognizable to outsiders as Palm Springs? Does El Paseo and the zoo prop up Palm Springs as being similarly desirable to visitors as Palm Springs? From my own experience, I've enjoyed stays in Palm Desert as much as Palm Springs, but don't have the perspective of a current investor in the area.

How could we rank the communities on the south side of the valley in terms of STR regulations and potential?