The Solana Beach City Council approved updates to the accessory dwelling ordinance during its May 6 meeting.
Solana Beach City Manager Alyssa Muto said the changes are “a routine update” to remain consistent with state law.
“As the state Legislature passes additional laws related to accessory dwelling units, our city and our staff prepare updates to our ordinance to reflect those state laws,” she said.
The updates include a clarification of setback limitations for newly constructed ADUs, requirements for junior ADU owner occupancy, revises the number of ADUs allowed on a single family lot, and changes the way size limitation and impact fees are calculated.
“The proposed regulations and standards are intended to be consistent with State Law and are intended to further incentivize and promote ADU development that can offer affordable rents for all household income levels,” according to a council agenda report.
Council members said they were frustrated by the series of new state laws that spurred the updates.
“These are 14 laws that have gone into effect, passed by a distant state Legislature who has no idea about the city of Solana Beach or any of the individual cities throughout the state,” Solana Beach Mayor Lesa Heebner said. “The purpose of all this is supposedly to solve the affordable housing crisis, yet none of their laws mandate affordability and they have taken away any incentives we might have offered.”
Councilmember David Zito said the city used to produce one affordable housing unit per year.
“Not much, but one per year because of the incentives we could offer, and that’s gone,” Zito said.