It’s Time to Become Informed on What ADUs Mean to LB Homeowners

Attention Long Beach homeowners, and those thinking about becoming one: Now is the time to become informed about the city’s accessory dwelling unit (ADU) policies – and what’s coming next.

An ADU will be very familiar to homeowners who’ve added one of these units to their property for additional income, or to make room for family or friends who need housing. It’s also quite familiar to their neighbors affected by all of it.

An ADU might be called a granny flat, a backyard home, a carriage house, a guest house, or something similar. ADUs can be attached or detached from the main house, and are a separate living unit complete with their own entrance, living, kitchen, and sleeping areas. 

It’s a recent development, and it’s just going to continue growing – according to the city. It’s such a significant development for Long Beach, that the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College focused on the city in a recent study.

According to that study, the City of Long Beach has issued 1,431 ADU permits in the last five years. These ADUs account for two-thirds of new housing in Long Beach, according to the report. The city says that its goal is to facilitate 400–500 ADUs per year throughout the coming decade – and it all comes from housing demand and recent state laws that have been implemented and driven more ADUs to be available to owners and renters.

Go to Conquista to get a good look.

Tom Pazdernik is a lifelong Long Beach resident who’s been watching ADUs come to his neighborhood. From his house on Conquista Avenue, right near the intersection of Palo Verde Avenue and Stearns Street in the Los Altos neighborhood, Pazdernik and his neighbors have seen two ADUs built out in the past two years.

You can go to 2204 Conquista Ave. and 2226 Conquista Ave. and see that two-story rental units have been added to their backyards. They’re now being rented by students at Cal State Long Beach, who drive cars they park out on the street. As Pazdernik said, the street now looks like every day is Thanksgiving with all the parked cars; and you sometimes have to move your trash and recycling bins out into the street to get them emptied.

Pazdernik, and another one of his neighbors we spoke to who would like to remain anonymous, have some serious concerns about it: curb parking is going away; noise can be disruptive, especially if there’s a late-night party coming from an upstairs apartment with its windows open; privacy in your own home can be invaded, especially when living next to two-story units; and getting in and out of the neighborhood is not always easy to do.

It’s especially challenging for families with children who want them to live in a quiet, safe neighborhood – and for elderly residents who still live there.

The house at 2226 Conquista sold for $850,000 in 2022, and 2204 Conquista sold for $1,075,000 in 2023, according to the Redfin real estate website. Pazdernik said that these former homeowners passed away and their family members sold these two houses to buyers. These buyers converted them to ADUs and had the rental units built in their large backyards.

Zoning Regulations, State Laws

Under the current zoning regulations governing development in Long Beach, owner occupancy on the property is not required, unless in combination with a Junior Accessory Dwelling Unit (JADU) from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2024. A JADU is basically a room rental in your house – a unit that is no more than 500 square feet and contained within or attached to an existing or proposed single-family residence.

What happens after the end of this year on this question is not clearly spelled out in the city’s summary of these zoning regulations. That would be a good question to bring to an upcoming housing policy forum. The next one is Saturday, Aug. 24, and there are other dates and locations. Check here for more details: https://longbeach.gov/lbcd/hn/housing-policies/

As for the ordinance on ADU, which is tied to SB 9, the Community Development Department staff is making additional outreach at these housing policy forums. The staff is coming to completion on “a draft ordinance that will be available for public review in the early fall, after which the department intends to bring the ordinance forward for adoption to the Planning Commission and then to the City Council,” said Richard F. (Rick) de la Torre, community information officer, in an email.

There are a number of state laws governing these ADU policies in cities across California. Changes coming from state laws such as AB 2221 and SB 897 that became effective on Jan. 1, 2023, are being incorporated into the city ordinance. The permits will vary based on where that dwelling unit is located and how it would be affected by other zoning regulations such as properties that lie within the Coastal Zone.

One part of the ADU process that’s being worked out is integrating pre-approved ADU designs and streamlined garage conversions to speed up the construction process. You can visit this website to learn more, and to see examples of pre-approved plans: https://www.longbeach.gov/lbcd/building/lbpaadu/

Jon LeSage is a resident of Long Beach and a veteran business media reporter and editor. You can reach him at jtlesage1@yahoo.com.