News + Updates

While Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance isn't something that is required for residences (which includes ADUs), there are a number of ways to design and build accessory dwelling units that can allow for greater accessibility, visitability, and use by all people.

Although interest rates are still at a 15-year high, there are still a few really good reasons to consider building an ADU right now, despite economic uncertainty.

Four new ADU bills going into effect in January 2023 will make it easier to build an accessory dwelling unit throughout the state.

Many of the homeowners we assist live on property that is zoned “single-family.” However, some folks live on properties that are zoned “multi-family” and that’s what the recently published Guidelines for ADUs on Multi-Family Properties from the statewide nonprofit Casita Coalition is all about.

Living in the beautiful Napa Valley has many advantages – affordable housing, unfortunately, is not one of them. As all of us in the North Bay are painfully aware, the need for housing, especially for our workforce, has never been greater – ADU Construction Financing is here to help!

The Napa Sonoma ADU Center had the pleasure of joining the Mayor and Town Council of Windsor earlier this month to share about accessory dwelling units and how they can help us increase housing affordability here in our community.

Earlier this fall we shared with you about CalHFA’s new ADU grant program which can help eligible homeowners with some of your ADU costs. Learn more here!

If you missed it, check out this article in The Maxable highlighting the cost differences between a prefab ADU and a custom ADU

Permit Sonoma recently launched a new ADU Rescue Program that allows qualifying ADU owners to ask for an enforcement postponement of up to five (5) years after passing a habitability inspection from a licensed professional. This will be exciting news for many homeowners with property in unincorporated Sonoma County (this program does not apply in any other jurisdictions) who have unpermitted ADUs.

If you haven’t gotten ahold of it already, we highly recommend that you check out the North Coast Builders Exchange 2021-22 Fall/Winter Home Improvement Guide.

If you missed it, check out this article in The Maxable highlighting SB9.

If you missed it, check out this article in The Press Democrat highlighting Sonoma County’s ADU ordinance and a discussion of ADU trends in the county -- including quotes from Napa Sonoma ADU Center Director Renée Schomp as well as the folks at nonprofit Homes for Sonoma!

We here at the Napa Sonoma ADU Center loved this recent spread in the LA Times that shares the story of a build in Southern California complete with gorgeous, inspiring photos and thoughtful design choices.

When you first get started thinking about building an accessory dwelling unit, it can be easy to get mired in the many questions you may have. That’s why we have compiled a list of Frequently Asked Questions to help Napa and Sonoma homeowners in the preliminary stages of the planning process.

Does anyone else look at photos of interior decor to soothe their minds after a long day? We can’t be the only ones! To that end, we have been loving the small space design ideas from Apartment Therapy for years -- especially because the blog highlights actual, real human beings and their actual, real living spaces.

The design stage is usually one of the most exciting for homeowners building new accessory dwelling units -- it’s the moment when the small home you’ve been dreaming up begins to finally take shape, at least on paper.

One of the primary obstacles that we hear about from local homeowners seeking to build an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) or junior accessory dwelling unit (JADU) is cost. There is good news on this front for homeowners in the City of Napa: The Junior Unit Initiative Program, which helps finance your JADU or interior conversion ADU!

When homeowners first embark on their accessory dwelling unit journey they often ask us for an overview of the process and rightly explain, “I simply don’t know what I don’t know!”

The folks over at Maxable put together a great blog post on this subject, and we’re sharing the most relevant sections here.

Throughout your ADU journey, you will find yourself in need of professional services to help you complete your ADU project. This post offers a brief description of the most common professions involved with building an ADU, listed in rough order of their involvement in a project.

Here is a list of 8 sample key inspections that will likely be required for your traditionally constructed ADU project, just like in a regular home build project.

If you’re here, you are most likely weighing your options for adding an accessory dwelling unit to your property. That prospect comes with several code requirements that are mandatory for an ADU permit submittal such as structural engineering calculations, electrical diagrams, and site grading/paving plans.

This blog post is a light overview of green building strategies for accessory dwelling units in California. It should be helpful to you in thinking through design and building decisions for your ADU on the front-end of your project. Feel free to use it as a guide when you speak with your professional team about your hopes and dreams for your ADU!

Building an ADU is essentially a jewel box home -- and so good design has a huge impact. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “A place for everything, everything in its place” -- this is my ADU design motto.

Check out this extensive dive into guidelines for building garage conversion ADUs in the State of California!

In this webinar, we covered all the details of the new program, including offering several examples of hypothetical homeowners that walk you through just what the return on investment for your ADU could look like with the help of a forgivable loan.

We covered their financial expertise on how to reasonably pay for your ADU, including answers questions such as:

• What's the Return on Investment (ROI) for an ADU with current interest rates what they are (in December 2022)?

• What are the financial pros and cons of building an ADU right now?

• What loans and grants can you get to pay for an ADU?

• What’s the status of the CalHFA ADU predevelopment grant from the State of California?

• Is it safe to take out a second mortgage on your house to pay for an ADU?

We covered all kinds of topics, including:

• How are ADU projects penciling out in the current economy?

• What are ADU project cost drivers?

• Septic systems, wells, city sewer & ADUs

• Differences between traditional construction and prefab

• What to ask prefab companies when vetting them

• And more!

We covered all kinds of topics, including:

• How are ADU projects penciling out in the current economy?

• What are ADU project cost drivers?

• Septic systems, wells, city sewer & ADUs

• Differences between traditional construction and prefab

• What to ask prefab companies when vetting them

• And more!

Join us here to catch a recording of our webinar, Real-world ADU stories from your neighbors! We were joined by four panelists for the webinar:

• Scott Johnson, ADU Expert for Napa Sonoma ADU Center and Founder, Pocket Housing, LLC

• Kyle, a new ADU homeowner from City of Napa

• Ash & Debbie, two new ADU homeowners from unincorporated Sonoma County

Únase a nosotros aquí para ver una grabación de nuestro seminario web realizado en asociación con Redwood Credit Union, ¡Una nueva forma de financiar la construcción de la ADU de sus sueños!

Join us here to catch a recording of our webinar, How to Create an ADU Permit Application

Join us here to catch a recording of our webinar, All You Need to Know About Prefab, Modular & Manufactured ADUs!

Join us here to catch a recording of our webinar, The Financial Case for Building an ADU Now & Not Later!

Join us here to catch up on a recording of our webinar, ADU Building Roundtable Webinar with Local Experts!

Join us here to catch up on a recording of our webinar, ADU Design Roundtable Webinar with Local Experts!

This Part II webinar was in collaboration with local nonprofit Healdsburg 2040 and featured local homeowners and housing professionals who have successfully built ADUs in Healdsburg. This content is relevant to homeowners outside of Healdsburg as well!

Join us here to catch up on a recording of our webinar, Part I: How to Build an ADU in the City of Healdsburg!

Join us here to catch up on a recording of our webinar, How to Build an ADU in the City of Sebastopol!

If you’re curious to hear about all of the options for how to finance your accessory dwelling unit -- you’ve come to the right place! This is the place to view our latest webinar, How to Finance Your ADU (for Homeowners in Napa & Sonoma Counties).

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.

For this webinar, homeowners and housing professionals alike joined the Napa Sonoma ADU Center and staff at Permit Sonoma, who walked viewers through the planning, permitting, and building process in unincorporated Sonoma County and answered homeowners’ questions live.

With nearly 800 homes destroyed or damaged, and more than 1,000 commercial and other structures burned (at time of publication) across Napa and Sonoma counties due to the Glass Fire, compounding the hundreds of homes lost in the LNU Complex fire just recently extinguished, the already existing need for housing in our communities has only deepened.

Homeowners in Santa Rosa learned all about the planning, permitting, and building process for accessory dwelling units during our ADU Webinar on September 23rd. Santa Rosa's Chief Building Official Jesse Oswald joined us, and he shares that “Accessory dwelling units are an important way that we can increase much-needed housing for our community. City staff are here to provide ADU guidance and information to homeowners and property owners in the City of Santa Rosa."

Have you ever wished you could connect directly with your local Planning & Building Department in a low-pressure, friendly environment just to ask some of your most burning accessory dwelling unit questions?

Well, we are making it possible for homeowners across Napa and Sonoma counties to connect directly with local Planning & Building Department, with our brand new ADU webinar series which just launched with an engaging live webinar in collaboration with the terrific folks at the City of Calistoga’s Planning & Building Division.

ADUs are becoming increasingly popular as an important staple of our local housing diversity, but questions remain about how homeowners can benefit and how cities can enable greater growth in this section of the housing market.

Granny flats have evolved from makeshift additions for an older relative to live out her days to stylish dwellings that could win architectural and design awards.

 No longer are these units inhabited just by a certain age group either. That’s because in addition to people constructing accessory dwelling units for family, they are being built as a revenue source for their owners.

Napans curious about Accessory Dwelling Units recently had four chances to check out three different prefabricated models and learn more about ADUs from people involved in the different stages of the ADU construction process.

Curious to learn more about the Director of the Napa Sonoma ADU Center? Check out her profile in the North Bay Business Journal’s Top Forty Under 40 Professionals in the San Francisco North Bay.

Check out this article by Jeff Quakenbush from The North Bay Business Journal on the 2020 ADU state law changes that make it easier than ever to build an ADU, quoting our very own ADU Expert Scott Johnson!

Check out this article by Jeff Quakenbush from The North Bay Business Journal on the 2020 ADU trends, quoting our very own ADU Expert Scott Johnson!

Our nonprofit, the Napa Sonoma ADU Center, is focused on helping homeowners in Napa and Sonoma Counties build Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) by providing education, information, and resources along the course of their ADU journey.