Crosspost Napa Valley Register article by Edward Booth
The Napa Sonoma ADU Center was featured in the news recently, and more importantly, the article highlights the excellent news that ADU numbers have continued to increase over the past years across multiple Napa jurisdictions.
Check out an excerpt of the article below, and read the full article in the Napa Valley Register right here:
The city of Napa saw a boom in Accessory Dwelling Unit applications last year and approved a total of 60 applications, 15 more than in 2020.
“We are doing exceedingly well in ADU production, with our highest number of units permitted since we’ve been keeping track of such data,” said senior planner Michael Walker at a Napa City Council meeting last week.
The city’s quantity of approved applications has grown steadily over the years, from three approved applications in 2016 and 17 in 2017, to the 60 in 2021, according to city data.
The city’s ADU results are part of a general trend of increasing ADU applications across Napa County’s larger jurisdictions. St. Helena, for example, approved 20 applications in 2021, an increase from the 16 approved a year prior. American Canyon likewise approved 6 applications in 2021, double the 3 approved in 2020.
Renée Schomp, director of the Napa Sonoma ADU Center — an information hub for homeowners looking to build such units — said the center is focusing on overcoming the more practical barriers that get in the way of people deciding to build an ADU.
The legislative action had to happen for ADU production to start moving forward, she said, but roadblocks such as financing and the complicated process of applying for an ADU at a local government office still exist.
“Suddenly a homeowner becomes a developer for the first time,” Schomp said. “The more we can do to support the homeowner, so they don’t have to become an expert, the better.”
[Napa Valley] community foundation announced it had partnered with Redwood Credit Union last week to create a construction loan program specifically for ADUs, which [Terence] Mulligan, [President of Napa Valley Community Foundation] said will potentially open the door to thousands of people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford constructing an ADU.
