State laws from Glendale for more granny flats
Officials of Glendale are trying out strictly and are hurrying to get ahead of all the state housing laws that have to loosen the city’s restrictions on ADU’s. All the state lawmakers have tried strictly and billed the legislation package as the most compatible tool that will combat California’s housing storage. Glendale City Council members have passed some temporary emergency ordinance which focused on the allowance of the city to enforce the ADU regulations that have included unit sizes which need to be kept at a maximum. And a vote related to this ordinance was conducted on Dec 10th. After that, all the laws go into effect from the 1st of Jan.
Councilman Vartan Gharpetian during a meeting has stated that passing these laws will create a huge issue for them. The reason behind this statement is that all their council colleagues reckoned with the serious impact of laws on ADU Construction in California. Burbank has also planned with several on taking forward the new legislation on how an emergency ordinance is expected to be presented to the planning board on 9th of Dec.
ADUs are in reality, not the entire property but that is part of it and are self-contained housing units. They are also named as granny flats, and most of the time these units are attached to the existing property, but at times they are standalone. The presence of these units was abandoned until the year 2016. Only after the state law overturned the blanket prohibition, through the adopted legislation — Assembly bills 68 and 881 and Senate Bill 13 — the city must allow them in all residential areas, including in single-family and multifamily housing zones.
As per the new law and that gets into implementation it is possible to build two ADUs on single-family lots. According to the new laws even the parking requirements at the ADU’s are also eliminated. At the same time, even the review time taken for ADU application is also completed from 60 to 120 days only. However, it still states that all those who meet certain specifications cannot escape from the required mandatory approval.
According to the new law, it is stated that an ADU cannot be prohibited in case if its square footage exceeded the property over its floor-area ratio limit. It also states that the studio, as well as one-bedroom granny flats, are permitted to build up to 850 square feet, in case if they are two bedrooms they are allowed to build up to 1,000 square feet.
This law has strictly stated that until the year of 2025, owners are not permitted either to live in the main property or ADU, which is as per the necessity of Glendale which was previously enforced. According to this ordinance, city time gets grappled with the best way to address the requirements with the state laws initiating them to the long term as stated by Garcia. It also included that in case of adoption the ordinance will be valid only up to 45 days, but if there is a requirement then it can be extended up to one year.
As per the Garcia statements the state has taken the necessary steps to move the goal post just as the city is catching up with the other legislation. He also added that it is the most frustrating thing which needs to be dealt at the local level.
Laura Friedman who is an Assemblywoman and a former member of the Glendale City council, also co-authored AB 68, to support the new legislation. To boast it as the means to alleviate the statewide shortage of affordable housing.
ADU’s are one of the wonderful options that allow the council members to create some innovative strategies which make everyone to be a part of it as stated by Friedman. She also added that the housing crisis will be addressed very quickly and that too with great care. In case if the city does not act immediately and delays then it paves the path to risk invalidation of the entire ordinance which has been governed for ADU’s and this statement was cited by the new laws by Garcia.
Glendale has started to allow ADU’s to be built from the year 2017 and since then approximately 83 were permitted. Then these were constructed as well as have tenants started residing in them. Garcia included that another 83 are given permission but still the construction of them is not started till now. He also added to this statement that more 115 units need to be permitted but they are in the process and approval is in pending.
In the meeting, there were few of the public speakers who showed up their presence in that and only to express their dissatisfaction in regards to the state mandate. A Glendale homeowner named Mike Mohil, during one of the recent meetings, stated that state legislators are in a plan to turn quiet streets of single-family homes into low-rise tenements which are lined up with the double-parked cars in them. The other resident of Glendale named Cathy Jurca has stated the upcoming changes are quite distressing as they are the reason to threaten to upend the city’s ordinances where residents are happy with.