A new Marin nonprofit organization is promoting accessory dwelling units as a solution to the state housing shortage.
ADU Marin is working with officials in San Anselmo, Mill Valley, Fairfax, Larkspur, Sausalito, Novato, San Rafael, Corte Madera, Ross and the county to provide information on developing the apartments, also known as granny flats or in-law units.
The organization launched a website, ADUMarin.org, on April 1. A series of recorded webinars featuring local building and planning officials has been uploaded to the site.
“We think ADUs are a really good solution for Marin,” said Scott Johnson, the nonprofit’s director. “It’s not the only solution, but we think it is a very powerful one.”
An ADU is an independent apartment on a lot with a primary residence or where one is proposed. ADUs are generally smaller than primary residences and can function as rental housing or housing for family members.
The webinars aim to inform residents about the rules in each municipality. State laws regulate the development of ADUs in terms of size, height and other objective development standards, but each municipality is allowed to pass ordinances modifying ADU rules.
Since the website launched, nearly 50 residents of Marin have sought consultations with the nonprofit for more information on how to build ADUs, Johnson said.
“Homeowners aren’t developers. It is a complex process and the organization is here to help homeowners get up to speed,” he said. “This in-depth support wasn’t around before we were here.”
Various municipalities have pushed for ADUs as a potential solution to limited space and burdensome state requirements for housing development, and as a way for homeowners to generate additional income.
Under a state mandate, the county and its municipalities must facilitate the development of 14,405 new homes in the 2023-31 planning cycle. If ADUs can take a sizable chunk out of that number, all the better, officials said.
Steve Marshall, a city planner in Novato, said during a webinar that the city is updating its ordinance to better align with the state mandate. The edict requires Novato to accommodate 2,090 new dwellings during the planning cycle.
Marshall said ADUs could proliferate as residents become more comfortable with them.
“We took a perspective that what we wanted to do was to distill state law into a usable format,” he said.
Margaret Kavanaugh-Lynch, a planner in San Rafael, called the effort a continuous task to align local codes with state law in order to better facilitate development. San Rafael’s share of the state mandate is 3,220 new residences.
“We are a pro-housing city,” she said. “We are trying to find ways to get to yes using the development standards laid out in our municipal code and as augmented by HCD, by the state of California.” HCD is the California Department of Housing and Community Development.
Bill Hansell, chief building official for Larkspur, which must accommodate 979 new residences, said one of the biggest hurdles is informing the public about planning requirements and building laws.
“They still need to comply with basic building safety codes,” he said.
ADU Marin is a spinoff of a larger group, Napa Sonoma ADU, which has performed about 600 consultations since 2020, Johnson said. About 73% of people engaged with the nonprofit are in the process of getting an ADU or have completed one.
Johnson hopes that the group can see the same success in Marin.
“The market is just not building this stuff,” he said. “Construction is hard enough. ADUs are a fundamentally different development model and they lead to different outcomes than the traditional market. There’s nothing else like it.”
