[jiggliemon]

I looked into building an adu a few years back, and I can backup most of what you said. At least in California, in an incorporated city.

We worked out that it would cost us $30k in fees, and required spending before we could even dig the footers. Things like a soil test, inspections, variance’s etc.

You can always build an ADU, but it’s a rich mans game. And not really accessible to most people. We calculated our unit to cost roughly $80-90k, and would be almost 2x $/sqft of our home. A remodel made more financial sense, but the above problems still persist.

[throwaway0a5e]

>We worked out that it would cost us $30k in fees

This is a feature not a bug.

They don't want people who can't writing a 30k check doing development.

They want the old elderly couple of limited means to move out and make way for some yuppie who will pay big taxes, not slap a bottom dollar ADU up so that they can be cared for by live-in relatives.

[thatfrenchguy]

Please, in California, that “old elderly couple” pays no property taxes and can spend their life blocking housing for new middle class families (and they do, all the time).

[spothedog1]

It's literally the opposite. Old people are way richer and have the time and money to go through the bureaucracy. Also old people are much better connected to local politicians. Yuppies are who they're trying to repel, that's why they make it so hard. Its much more like a college student or yuppie would move into the ADU.

[wbl]

There are no variances for ADUs. The town is breaking state law. Talk to CaRLA about your options.