Board of Supervisors Approve Program to Assist Unpermitted “In Law Units” Get Legalized

On Tuesday, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors voted to establish a system for property owners to legalize, previously unpermitted Accessory Dwelling Units, without proper permits and waived fees.

The intent of the ADU Incentive Program (in-law units) is to encourage property owners to obtain required planning and building permits for previously unpermitted ADUs by waiving financial penalties for such permits and providing the maximum allowable and appropriate flexibility to enable property owners to permit their existing ADUs while maintaining required standards for health and safety of building occupants.  

The program is only available for ADUs that are already constructed, those currently under construction without permits are not eligible for the program and must apply for permits as new projects.

According to the agenda item:

The Board of Supervisors hereby directs the County Department of Conservation and Development (DCD) to establish a program that encourages property owners to apply for planning and/or building permits for ADUs already in existence but built without required permits. The Building and Community Development Divisions of the Department of Conservation and Development (DCD) collaborated in the development of this proposal and DCD recommends its approval.  

This “ADU Incentive Program” would provide property owners an opportunity to have one or more free pre-application consultations with County staff to review their situation and determine the process and scope of improvements needed to legalize the unit. If, after consulting with County staff, the property owner decides not to pursue a project, there will be no penalty to the property owner.

If the property owner decides to pursue permits to legalize the ADU, all penalty fees associated with the owner having previously built the unit without permits will be waived. The property owner will only pay normal permit fees, as if it were a new ADU.  

Jason Crapo with the county Department of Conservation and Development, explained they are all aware of the housing shortage and how ADU’s assist with that noting they do not disrupt the neighborhoods and take advantage of existing public infrastructure.

“The proposed ADU incentive program seeks to promote the use and occupancy of ADU’s by providing incentives for property owners to obtain required permits necessary to legalize existing unpermitted ADU’s,” said Crapo. “Our Department is proposing a program that includes waiving the penalty fees normally charged for building ADU’s without permits and complimentary consultation with property owners concerning the conditions on their property and improvements needed to meet zoning requirements.”

Crapo further highlighted how the County has seen an increase in ADU permit requests in recent years following state regulations that streamlined the ADU process.

“However, we believe that there are man more existing, unpermitted ADU’s out there and we would like owners to obtain permits to ensure they meet safety standards for occupancy,” said Crapo who hoped their goal would be to minimize changes and construction along with expenses with bringing ADU to code compliance.

Supervisor John Gioia stated the he hoped this program would allow for alternative ways to meet building code requirements.

“It gives the building inspector the ability to exercise some discretion,” stated Gioia.

Crapo explained that the California Building Code established the minimum safety standards in construction. He noted that it was necessary to achieve levels of safety within the code.

“The challenge with unpermitted ADU’s, particularly older construction is bringing those units into compliance with building code, even though the unit may have been constructed a long time ago and may not have been built to code requirements,” explained Crapo. “This is not something new, we have done for quite a while, when we have an applicant that has an unpermitted unit, we work with them to make improvements that are necessary so that unit achieves a level of safety to what the building code requires and try to do it in a way to limit the amount of alterations and construction they have to do to that existing unit acknowledging the cost to the inconvenience and cost to the property owner.”

Supervisor Candace Andersen highlighted she was supportive of this moving forward and getting as many ADU’s on the market as they can, but asked about the process.

Gioia noted this program is not pursuing code enforcement, but an amnesty of compliance and some certificate other than a building permit.  This just waives fines and penalties.

Crapo added that this only waives the county fees but would not waive any other agency fees.

“I don’t want to put the impression out there that it is going to be inexpensive because we all know that any of us who have built or added on to our homes that you are paying a lot in fees… is there anyway we can just say you just pay our fees and you are brought into the fold as acceptable units,” said Andersen.

Supervisor Gioia then asked staff to watch the pilot program out of San Mateo.

Supervisors then voted 5-0 in favor of moving the program forward.

Here is a look at the number of ADU applications over the past few years:

For the staff report: click here