Santa Barbara County Pushes For More Housing With Streamlined ADU Plans
Jarrod Zinn
ORCUTT, Calif. (KEYT) – Unincorporated areas of Santa Barbara County can help California’s housing crisis by building more ADU’s, or Accessory Dwelling Units.
The state is mandating a streamlining of the permit process.
New, free, and pre-approved options are coming from the county’s planning department.
“Prior to the state creating ADUs as a type of unit, different jurisdictions had in-law suites or ‘granny units’ that they called them,” says Joe Dargel, deputy director of the Permanent Resources Division for the County Of Santa Barbara.
Officials say an Accessory Dwelling Unit can come in different forms, such as a separated modular home or by converting a garage into a living space.
“It’s a dwelling unit that a property owner can build in addition to their existing single family dwelling or a multi-family dwelling on a residential as a lot or a lot that allows residential,” says Dargel.
Officials specify an ADU is a home designed for permanent, independent living, but is associated with an existing or planned primary residence.
“You can’t have an Accessory Dwelling Unit on a property without a primary dwelling that’s already established,” says Dargel.
Cities such as Santa Maria and Lompoc have their own permitting processes.
“We are working on model plans, but currently there are no approved free plans for residents at this time or homeowners that they can use,” says Carol Ziesenhenne, senior planner for the City Of Santa Maria.
Unincorporated jurisdictions such as Guadalupe and Orcutt. However, can now utilize these free, pre-approved, and pre-designed options from the County of Santa Barbara.
“The state continues to try to make housing stock available and construction of new units come online as fast and as efficiently as possible,” says Dargel. “And our pre-approved ADU program is certainly in line with that.”
The goal of the state mandates is to ease the ongoing housing crisis in California.
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