The Los Angeles City Planning Department has announced that it has discontinued work on ADU’s, per a letter from Gail Goldberg. The text of the letter follows. It is critical that Neighborhood Councils understand that without a City Ordinance, the permissive state standards will continue to apply. Watch for additional updates on the ADU issue.

DEPARTMENT OF CITY PLANNING
200 N. SPRING STREET, ROOM 525 Los ANGELES, CA 90012-4801
AND
6262 VAN NUYS BLVD., Sun 351VAN NUYS, CA 91401
CITY PLANNING COMMISSION

December 17, 2009

To: Neighborhood Councils, City Council Members Interested Parties

Subject: Status Report on Accessory Dwelling Unit Ordinance

Because of impending staff reductions through the Early Retirement Incentive Program and ongoing required staff furloughs, the Planning Department must reduce our policy work program.

One of the programs that will go on indefinite hold is the creation and adoption of a local ordinance for Accessory Dwelling Units.

The Department of City Planning recently began a public process to discuss issues related to the development of an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) ordinance. As a first step in this process, staff held several workshops across the city to hear community views and perspectives in different parts of the city. We frequently hold such workshops at the beginning of a new planning effort as a way to gather input, to assess perspectives, and to identify issues that may be unique to different geographies or interest groups. No draft ordinance was created.

State law (AB 1866) requires that all cities allow second units by right in single family and multi family residential zones. This law establishes standards for ADUs which all cities must follow unless a city adopts its own ordinance to establish different standards (provided they do not conflict with specifically identified standards in the law). The state law is clear that in the absence of a local ordinance, the city must follow the State default standards for ADUs. The City Attorney’s office advised that if the Department wanted to impose restrictions beyond the state law, an ordinance would be required.

The Planning Department began that process to develop an ADU ordinance that would be tailored to Los Angeles. However, it has become abundantly clear from the public input that this work program would be extremely time consuming and labor intensive. The Department of City Planning does not have the resources to devote to such an undertaking at this time. As such, the Department of City Planning has put the development of a City ADU ordinance on hold indefinitely; the city will comply with the parameters established by State law.

Sincerely,

Gail Goldberg, AICP

Planning Director