ACCESSORY DWELLING UNIT

ADUs come in all shapes and sizes — for example, a converted garage, a small home in the backyard, or an unused portion of the main house. They can serve as additional living spaces, rental income or flexibility in lifestyle. Benefits of ADUs include, but not limited to:

• Affordable Housing: ADUs are an affordable housing option that can generate rental income to help homeowners cover mortgage payments or simply make ends meet. The income provided by an ADU tenant can be especially important for older people on fixed incomes. Since the land on which an ADU is built already belongs to the homeowner, the expense to build a secondary residence is for the new structure only. The lot is, in a sense, free.
• Age-Friendly: New-construction ADUs can be created with “universal design” features, such as a zero-step entrance and doorways, hallways and bathrooms that are accessible for people with mobility differences. Garage conversions are among the easiest and least expensive ADU solutions for aging in place since they’re preexisting structures and generally have no-step entries.
• Environmental Benefits: ADUs require fewer resources to build and maintain than full-sized homes. ADUs use significantly less energy for heating and cooling. Of all the ADU types, internal ones tend to have the lowest building and operating costs.
• Flexible Housing: An ADU’s use can be adapted for different household types, income levels, employment situations and stages of life. ADUs offer young people entry-level housing choices. ADUs enable families to expand beyond their primary home. ADUs provide empty nesters and others with the option of moving into a smaller space while renting out their larger house or letting an adult child and his or her family reside in it.
• Gentle Density: ADUs offer a way to include smaller, relatively affordable homes in established neighborhoods with minimal visual impact and without adding to an area’s sprawl. ADUs provide a more dispersed and incremental way of adding homes to a neighborhood than other options, such as multistory apartment buildings.

How to start your adu

1. Reach Out and Connect
   - Let's schedule a phone or in-person consultation
2. Pre-production & Research
   - We analyze jurisdictional laws and parameters
   - We gather property data (boundaries, setbacks & easements)
3. Design Phase
   - We customize the project to fit your needs
4. Production of Building Department Submittal
   - We create "Construction Documents" (CD)
   - We coordinate with your consultants for the submittal package
   - Sometimes additional engineers & designers are needed for special cases
5. Follow-thru with Building Department
   - We navigate through the B.D. submittal process until certificate issuance

Let's Get Started

Tell us how we can help: Connect