At a small booth at the Beverly Hills Farmers’ Market on Oct. 12, flanked by stands selling fresh bread, flowers and produce, representatives from the city’s Planning Department held informal educational conversations with residents about accessory dwelling units, or ADUs.
“A lot of people are interested in building ADUs,” said Chloe Chen, the city’s principal planner, at the farmers’ market event. “We are encouraging them as alternate options for housing.”
The booth, which received about a dozen visitors, was part of an ongoing initiative to spread the word about how to build an ADU, the regulations that govern them and what the process looks like in Beverly Hills.
According to Chen, the Housing Element requires the city to achieve an average of 20 ADUs per year by the end of 2025 or face penalties.
The need for more housing comes from the city’s Housing Element, which was certified by the state in May 2024. The certification followed three years of attempts by Beverly Hills officials to draft a document that met the state’s requirements, including four formal rejections from state officials and dozens of amendments.
The final document requires the city to allow approximately 3,100 new housing units by 2029.
Among the programs that city staff were promoting at the Sunday market were the Incentive ADU (IADU) program and the city’s preapproved ADU plans.
The IADU program allows owners of single-family lots of 13,000 square feet or larger to build one additional ADU above what is permitted by state law, with certain requirements. The structure cannot be larger than 800 square feet. It may be detached or attached to the home and at least one ADU on the property must be deed-restricted for rental use, with a minimum term of 12 months.
IADUs must have separate entrances and bathrooms, and full kitchens. They must include a parking space unless the property is within a half mile of public transit, within an architecturally or historically significant district, in an area where on-street parking permits are required and not provided to the occupant of the ADU or if they are within one block of a car-share vehicle pickup location.
IADUs cannot be sold separately from the primary residence.
The city currently has five preapproved ADU plans available on its website. Created by individual designers and architecture firms, the plans include architectural, structural and electrical designs that comply with city requirements and are approximately 70% complete for permitting.
For households interested in building ADUs, the preapproved plans offer an option to move the process along more quickly.
As part of their program to promote the option in the city, staff has made detailed guidelines for what is permitted in the Central Area of the city, the Hillside Area and the Trousdale Estates, as each region has slightly different regulations.
For instance, the maximum size for attached or detached ADUs in the Hillside Area is 1,400 square feet or the site’s remaining maximum allowable floor area, whichever is less. In the Trousdale Estates, the maximum size is 850 square feet for a studio or one-bedroom ADU and 1,000 square feet for anything larger, or the site’s remaining maximum allowable floor area, whichever is less.
Residents of the Trousdale Estates pushed back against proposed changes to regulations governing ADUs last year, expressing concerns that amendments to height restrictions would negatively impact neighborhood views.
Chen noted that recent changes to city regulations allow for some two-story ADUs and for converting garages to ADUs.
In addition to their booth at the farmer’s market, city staff was present at Beverly Hills’ National Night Out event in August and has been posting information about ADUs on social media.
Chen was pleased to find that residents saw the social media posts and came to the booth.
“I’m so glad it’s working,” she said.
More information about the program can be found on the city’s website at beverlyhills.org/adu and beverlyhills.org/preapprovedadu.
