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Hi there and welcome to the Building an ADU blog. We put out periodic posts that delve into more nuanced aspects of ADU development than what you'll find elsewhere. Sign up to be notified when new posts come out.
This article will explain how side and rear yard setbacks are preventing the development of ADUs, and provide a prescription for how to fix these common standards. In part I, I’ll review the appropriate intervention as a legislative matter in the broader context of the ADU movement, and give guidance that will hopefully trigger appropriate changes to municipal codes. Then, in part II, I’ll explore other facets of ADU setbacks.
This may seem weird, but I’m giddy to share this big new ADU dataset from the West Coast with you. This is the first time that this big dataset has been presented to the public. Here, I will show why this particular data is so important, and explain why I’m proud to release it.
Getting my hands on this data from California, Oregon, and Washington was difficult. Making it presentable was also a challenge.
Over the last few years, there have been significant innovations in terms of ADU financing and more experimentation occurring with enabling ADUs to help address the Affordable housing crisis. One of my jobs is doing consulting work on various ADU policies issues. Recently, I got to dig into a topic that has piqued my interest: Mission-Driven Affordable ADU Programs.
Over the holidays, I was fortunate enough to spend a couple of weeks in the East Bay area of California. The East Bay area, primarily Oakland and Berkeley, is overflowing with current ADU activity that makes it a place with fascinating sites, organizations and people and who helped to interpret what I was seeing.
So, here’s a brief sketch of the people I met and the things I saw and learned from my winter workcation.
This is a granular, city-by-city, annual chart depiction of ADU permit trends in California. In California at large, the permit numbers increased from 1,269 ADU permits in 2016 to 14,702 in 2019—-a remarkable 11-fold increase in ADU permits in 3 years, due largely to changes in state legislation over that time span
Homeowners, consider this a call to action.
Build an ADU, now. If you’re a homeowner in a west coast market, and have been sitting on the fence about developing an ADU, the next 1-2 years is the time to do it.
If you know another homeowner who you think should build an ADU, send this post to them.
The week after publishing this post, the nation’s second largest city, the City of Los Angeles, passed an ADU code that allows for mobile ADUs. You can read L.A.’s new ADU ordinance here.
This post offers a first-hand inquiry into the relative ease, flexibility, and affordability of mobile ADUs over all other housing forms allowed in residential zones, including conventional ADUs.
Back in June, 2017, Los Angeles burst onto the ADU scene a record-breaking number of ADUs in the first quarter of that year. It was the beginning of an explosion of ADUs in Los Angeles.…..As a result of this suite of 2019 state legislation, California is now bound to be part of the largest backdoor revolution that the US has seen.
This is Part III of ADUs from an Investor's Perspective. This third installment is written by an investor who builds and holds ADUs on some of his residential properties. Arthur Donaghey is a real estate investor, general contractor and landlord in Portland, Oregon. He has built and manages four ADUs. All of them generate positive cash flow every month.
While small space design almost has a dedicated language that has been formed for the design of liveaboard boats, tiny houses on wheels, apartments, and ADUs, good principles for ADU landscape design simply haven’t been codified yet.
I visited an ADU site with a fantastic and beautifully integrated landscape, and immediately realized the potential that landscaping had to accentuate and augment the relationship of two structures on a lot. Here’s an interview in which we explore this matter in some depth.
Steve Vallejo is the owner of a company called Prefab ADU. His company has now built roughly 120 ADUs, making him the most prolific builder of ADUs in the country (I believe). This alone merits an interview with Steve, but what made me want to interview Steve specifically, was his knowledge about manufactured housing. Steve’s company builds ADUs with manufactured, modular, panelized, and site built, stick-framed homes.
Most homeowners are not professional real estate investors however, so I wanted to dive into a deeper understanding of how a professional investor would think about ADUs as an investment option. While investment isn't the sole reason that people build ADUs, it is commonly a large driver. To gain some perspective on how ADUs perform as a real estate asset, I interviewed a local real estate investor in Portland, Oregon, Dani Zeghbib. This is a complex topic, so this will be a multipart post. This is Part II
Most homeowners are not professional real estate investors however, so I wanted to dive into a deeper understanding of how a professional investor would think about ADUs as an investment option. While investment isn't the sole reason that people build ADUs, it is commonly a large driver. To gain some perspective on how ADUs perform as a real estate asset, I interviewed a local real estate investor in Portland, Oregon, Dani Zeghbib. This is a complex topic, so this will be a multipart post.
I'm pleased announce that my book, Backdoor Revolution: The Definitive Guide to ADU Development, is going to be available in January, 2018.
In a previous post, we discussed how City of L.A. was making a dramatic appearance on the national ADU scene in the first quarter of 2017. But, 2017 has entirely changed the landscape for ADUs in California at large. And, L.A. has done something that no one expected.
Drum roll......
The Build Small Live Large Summit is the first ever national gathering of leaders in ADU policymaking, design and development. ADU industry practicioners across the country will convene to share and showcase emerging best practices regarding the development of this rare housing type. If you are an ADU enterprenuer, designer, builder, policy-maker, or advocate, you should attend.
While building a new detached ADU is almost always very expensive, there are some rare occasions where homeowners are able to convent a pre-existing structure into a legal permitted ADU at a cost that is significantly less than the average cost of building an ADU from the ground up. This post is going to dive into the factors that can help a homeowner feasibly convert the garage into ADU for a modest out of pocket cost, $40K-70K for a 325-600 sq ft ADU.
All signs point to Los Angeles becoming the next great frontier for the development of ADUs. Here's the backstory and an interview with one of the pioneers of the movement in L.A.
Salvaged materials can be a great way to be eco-friendly during the building process. Here's an example of how I used salvaged materials when I built my ADU.
Having headspace puts you in a better headspace. The higher the ceilings, the bigger a space feels. This is especially true in smaller spaces.
In cold weather environments, it's all about getting plenty of good insulation into the roof, which is where the majority of heat escapes a structure. That's why you're well served by having wide ceiling joists. See what that means right there.
When it comes to plumbing, there's nothing pretty about it. And never is it uglier than when you're running a main sewer line through the yard. Here's a glimpse of this nasty project in its full glory.
When it comes to heating and cooling ADUs, there's a trend towards ductless mini-splits. Here's an overview.
The further you can see, the better. Creating long site lines from one corner of the space to another–and ideally out through a window–gives the sensation of being in a large space.