The Del Mar City Council approved multiple updates to the city’s policies for accessory dwelling units on Dec. 4, including a provision that requires them to be used as housing units.
Council members have discussed a possible requirement for accessory dwelling units to be used for housing, as opposed to home offices or other purposes, multiple times in recent years. The city’s Planning Commission also voted 3-2 back in September to recommend that provision.
“The Planning Commission and City Council noted that this type of ADU development is in direct conflict with the legislative intent of ADU law, which is to create additional dwelling units and a net-increase in California’s housing stock that can accommodate additional households and provide new housing choices including lower cost dwelling units,” Del Mar City Manager Ashley Jones said in an email.
The ordinance, which makes other modifications to the city’s ADU policy, is still subject to approval by the California Coastal Commission.
California Department of Housing and Community Development spokesperson Alicia Murillo said in an email that the agency “has not discouraged the city from taking this route or indicated a lack of support” – even though state law does not require ADUs to have tenants. They are, however, required to have bathrooms, kitchens and other specifications for dwelling units.
There are also implications for meeting state housing goals. Several new state laws have been approved to streamline ADU construction, usually overriding or limiting local laws, for the purpose of creating more housing units to address the statewide housing crisis. But there is no process to verify if newly constructed ADUs actually are serving that purpose.
“While the creation of ADUs contributes to the development of more safe, affordable housing, State ADU Law does not compel homeowners who add ADUs to occupy them with residents,” Murillo said. “If a local jurisdiction included such a requirement in its ordinance, HCD would evaluate that requirement during its review of the ordinance.”
The council also approved an amendment to the city’s ADU Incentive Program with the goal of creating 15 low-income units. The ordinance that authorizes the amendment was spurred by Del Mar’s Housing Element, which set a December 2023 deadline for the city to create a program that incentivizes new low-income units.
“The goal of the amended ADU Incentive Program,” read a city staff report, “is to encourage property owners of multi-unit sites to deed restrict a portion of the units on-site for rent to low-income households in exchange for the ability to build a specified number of new market rate units on-site (up to a maximum size of 500 square feet per dwelling unit).”
Council members also approved an ADU Amnesty Program “to supplement the ADU Incentive Program,” according to the city staff report.
“The City is proposing to use incentives to encourage voluntary participation in the program for owners who are willing to deed restrict their unpermitted unit as an income-restricted rental to a moderate or low-income household,” according to the staff report. “This would include a courtesy 30-minute confidential consultation with City staff prior to submittal of an application.”