Teamwork Makes the Dream Work When it Comes to ADUs
Starting in preschool, we’ve all heard it repeated many times in many settings: “teamwork makes the dream work.” And, it’s never more true than in the ADU building process. One of our nonprofit’s primary goals is to make sure that you know that you’re never alone in your journey to building an ADU. From your initial phone call to us, to the moment you collect your first rent check, we’re all in this together.
As homeowners, you’re the MVP on the team: it’s your motivation, money and management that are going to create housing units that are a part of the solution to ensuring that our community members can live where they work. Also of critical importance are our utility players: the staff of the local towns, cities and counties who manage the governmental oversight of the building process. That’s why we are proud to share the work we’ve been doing in the background with all 16 municipal jurisdictions across Napa and Sonoma Counties to help make the ADU planning, permitting, and building processes smoother for all involved.
Here’s a peek into some of the specific work we’ve been doing in partnership with local governmental agencies staff.
ADU Calculator, Look-Up Tool and Jurisdictions’ ADU Standards
We’ve made updates and refinements to earlier versions of the ADU Calculator (to help homeowners evaluate financial options and trade-offs as they consider building an ADU) as well as our Address Lookup Tool (to help homeowners know what zoning rules apply to their property) and the Summary of Jurisdictions’ ADU Standards (please contact your city to double-check your assumptions and to seek clarity on rules).
Process Improvement Materials
You’ve seen all of the resources for homeowners on our website, but we didn’t want to stop there! We started with the cities of Napa, Calistoga, Santa Rosa and Sonoma to create brand new tools and resources for their websites and offices to help demystify the ADU permitting process and “reduce friction.” The resulting ADU process graphics, handouts, checklists and website copy have been shared with each city team, who are reviewing and refining them before sharing out to help homeowners navigate these city processes more smoothly. We also created templates for an ADU Checklist as well as an ADU Process Graphic and Handout that every jurisdiction can customize. Here’s an example of what you can expect to find when you visit your local jurisdiction’s website.
ADU Standard Plans — Call for Submissions!
We just launched the Call for Submissions to architects, designers and design-build firms to participate in our new localized ADU Standard Plans program. Our aim is to connect homeowners with architects, deliver ADU plans for lower cost, and save everyone time and money in the process. Homeowners will be able to choose a ready-made design and make only small modifications to ensure it fits each homeowner’s individual site and needs. We hope to have these available by late fall.
Please let us know if you’d like to learn more about any of the above. It’s all in service of finding as many ways to make this process easier, faster and more enjoyable for you. And, remember that we are here to answer your ADU questions, anytime. Thanks for being a part of our team — it’s your dreams that make the difference. Go, team and let’s get to work together!
Neighbor Spotlight:
“If I wasn’t able to find this studio, I feel like I would have moved somewhere else, or even moved back home.” Tune in to hear Xinia’s story about finding her perfect Accessory Dwelling Unit in Napa Sonoma.
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“The ADU Feasibility Report is very helpful. If anything, the biggest thing for us was identifying a space. We didn’t realize over the garage was an option for us and seeing the numbers broken down was great.”
Give to Napa Valley Community Foundation
If you would like to support our nonprofit program’s continued efforts to help homeowners in Napa and Sonoma Counties, please feel free to do so at this link (to our fiscal sponsor, Napa Valley Community Foundation) where you can designate it to the Napa Sonoma ADU Center.
