City planners are reminding the community of the upcoming deadline for their preapproved ADU program, which gives architects and designers a chance to submit designs that are 70% complete for permitting. The submission deadline is Oct. 1 at 5:30 p.m., and plans must adhere to the city’s existing design guidelines to be considered.
Through this new program, the city hopes to increase new construction to comply with its housing element and Governor Gavin Newsom’s mandate that cities develop a preapproved ADU program. “I think the idea behind it is just to help facilitate and encourage the construction of ADUs,” Chloe Chen, the city’s Principal Planner of Long-Range Planning told the Courier.
Newsom’s mandate requires cities to comply by the end of the year to increase affordable housing, and he has a close eye on Beverly Hills. In a recent comment on the online news site Politico, he scrutinized the city for denying the construction of a 165-unit project on Linden Drive. “We can’t solve homelessness without addressing our housing shortage,” wrote Newsom. The city also received a letter from the California Department of Housing and Community Development alleging a violation of housing law.
Beverly Hills’ 2021-2029 Housing Element also encourages ADU development through policy H 2.4, which states that the city must “promote ADUs through various programs, including regulatory incentives, as a means of providing lower-cost housing options for seniors, caretakers, and others.” According to Chen, the preapproved ADU program will be implemented right before the end of the year, so that residents can get a head start on new single-family projects in 2025.
Once the program is in place, designs will be shared on the city planning website and clients who are looking to build a detached, single-unit ADU can browse several options before contracting with an architect. Once a property owner is interested, the design will be modified to fit the specific details of their property. In adherence with current regulations, the preapproved plans must be a minimum size of 250 square feet and no more than 1,400 square feet. They may be one or two stories, but no more than 24 feet in height. No basements, balconies or rooftop decks are allowed. “We are trying to allow for some creativity, and hopefully we’ll get some good designs,” said Chen.
Thus far, Long-Range Planning has only heard from one architect, who is currently in the process of drafting a design for preapproval. Chen advised anyone who is interested in the program to familiarize themselves with the guidelines at https://www.beverlyhills.org/DocumentCenter/View/7902/Preapproved-ADU-Program—Design-Guidelines-PDF and the submittal checklist at https://www.beverlyhills.org/DocumentCenter/View/7904/Preapproved-ADU-Program—Designer-Guide-and-Submittal-Checklist-PDF before sending in applications.
