Marin County has extended its offer to lower fees for people interested in building new accessory dwelling units.
The Board of Supervisors, which met Tuesday, extended a building permit fee reduction of $2,500 per accessory dwelling unit (ADU) and $1,500 per junior accessory dwelling unit (JADU) through Dec. 31. The supervisors also extended a fee reduction of up to $10,000 for ADUs that are deed-restricted to be rented at affordable rates, and a waiver of road-impact fees for JADUs.
Both local and state governments view the creation of such apartments as low-hanging fruit when it comes to addressing California’s housing shortage.
The state has mandated that Marin County and its municipalities facilitate the creation of 14,210 new residences by 2031. In its housing element, the county projects that 280 of the 3,569 residences it must plan for will be ADUs.
Bowing to state edicts, the county now allows owners of single-family properties to split their lots and build one main residence, two ADUs and one junior accessory dwelling unit on each half, for a total of eight residences. If an ADU is 800 square feet or smaller, it must be approved ministerially, so no local subjective criteria may be used to deny it.
Due to objections from the state, the county also had to lift a requirement that ADUs have direct vehicle access to a paved street, if located on a property in a very high fire hazard severity zone, and remove a requirement that barred ADUs from sensitive habitat areas.
Aline Tanielian, a county planner, said the county received 416 applications for ADUs from 2019 to 2023. Demand peaked at 154 in 2021 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and dropped back to 81 in 2023.
“I’d love to know how many of those applications got to completion and were built,” Supervisor Mary Sackett said on Tuesday.
Leelee Thomas, deputy director of the Marin County Community Development Agency, “We’d have to get back to you on that.”
From 2017 to 2022, 180 ADUs were built in the county. The number grew from seven in 2017 to a high of 54 in 2022.
Thomas said many people who submit ADU applications are deterred by the cost of construction.
“They’re really expensive,” she said.
Thomas also mentioned the requirement for a licensed septic system as a hurdle, particularly in western Marin.
Supervisor Eric Lucan asked how much in county fees someone building a state-exempted ADU would have to pay. State law prohibits development impact fees on ADUs smaller than 750 square feet.
Tanielian said ADUs that qualify for the state exemption would normally still be required to pay the county about $10,000 in building fees, roughly half of what they would otherwise be required to pay in county fees.
To receive a fee reduction for an ADU or JADU, an owner must commit to not using the apartment as a short-term rental. To receive the higher, $10,000 reduction, the property owner must place a deed-restriction on the property confirming the apartment will be rented to a household at the income level specified.
Thomas said that is a significant disincentive when someone is considering spending $400,000 to build an ADU.
“I think we’ve only had one taker on that,” Thomas said, “so we’ve been thinking about how we can restructure the program to make it more effective.”
Thomas said the Community Development Agency is also exploring strategies for addressing the high cost of construction. She said Napa County has been working with Bank of Marin to provide a loan program to people seeking to build ADUs.
“We’re hoping that we’ll be able to replicate something like that,” Thomas said.
The county has been offering reduced fees for people building ADUs and JADUs since 2017. In 2022, the county processed 39 ADU waivers and one JADU fee waiver, totaling $97,500 and $1,500 respectively. Last year, the county processed 47 ADU and two JADU fee waivers, totaling $117,500 and $4,000 respectively.
In December, county supervisors approved a three-year trial merger between ADU Marin — a collaboration involving the county and 10 Marin municipalities — and the Napa Sonoma ADU Center, a project sponsored by the Napa Valley Community Foundation, Community Foundation Sonoma County and other entities.
The pilot program will provide a one-stop-shop to assist property owners in planning and developing ADUs.