Building ADUs in Napa & Sonoma Counties Webinar

Author: Renée J. Schomp, Director Napa Sonoma ADU

For those of you who missed our webinar, “Building ADUs in Napa & Sonoma Counties Webinar” -- we’ve got the whole thing recorded and available right here for you on-demand! This accessory dwelling unit webinar is relevant to building ADUs in all 16 jurisdictions (aka all cities and the two unincorporated county regions) across both Napa & Sonoma counties. 

We had a fantastic group of panelists join us:

  • Scott Johnson, Napa Sonoma ADU Center’s ADU Expert & Founder, Pocket Housing LLC

  • Jason Williams, Chief Building Official, City of Napa

  • Amy Nicholson, Senior Planner, City of Santa Rosa

  • Joshua Abrams, Principal, Baird + Driskell Community Planning & statewide expert on ADU law & policy

And we covered a TON:

We started with sharing a bit about our nonprofit organization, the Napa Sonoma ADU Center.

Then we heard from our resident local ADU expert here at the Napa Sonoma ADU Center, Scott Johnson, founder of Pocket Housing LLC, with some key ADU tips for homeowners to keep in mind -- including some excellent cost-savings recommendations for your ADU design and build.

We also covered seven big reasons for why you should start your ADU project now, and not later!

After that we were joined by the remainder of our panelists to spend the bulk of our time in an audience Q&A session with everyone in attendance for the live webinar. We covered local homeowner questions on ADU garage conversions, prefab versus stick build construction, utility connections, septic & water, and more!

Here is a link to the Power Point Slide presentation used for the webinar. And check out a brief index of content below if you’d like to skip to the parts of the recorded webinar that are most relevant to your ADU questions.

Join us for future ADU webinars by registering for upcoming opportunities on our Webinars page on our website! Our ADU Winter Webinar series continues with the following:

The content in our ADU webinars is simply information, and is not legal advice regarding your specific ADU project. Keep in mind that local ADU rules change over time, and every homeowner’s ADU project and parcel is unique so always make sure to consult directly with your local city or county before diving into your ADU project.

Building ADUs in Napa & Sonoma Counties Webinar Content Index:

  • Minutes 1:00 - 17:00 | Napa Sonoma ADU Overview

  • Minutes 17:00 - 40:05 | ADUs Tips:

    • Top 6 Tips for ADUs (including how to save on costs)!

    • Top 7 Reasons to Build Your ADU Now, and Not Later

  • Minutes 40:05 - 1:31:11 | Audience Q&A with our panel of ADU experts:

    • Scott Johnson, Napa Sonoma ADU Center’s ADU Expert & Founder, Pocket Housing LLC

    • Jason Williams, Chief Building Official, City of Napa

    • Amy Nicholson, Senior Planner, City of Santa Rosa

    • Joshua Abrams, Principal, Baird + Driskell Community Planning & statewide expert on ADU law & policy

WebinarRenée J. SchompWebinar, Getting Started Resource