Revised ADU Ordinance (Accessory Dwelling Unit)

Feb/Mar 2024 - City Staff Preliminary review with HCD

Our City Staff met with HCD, who will be a part of our final ordinance approval, for a conseptual recommendation of sq ft limitations for our Village given our small 4000 sq ft lots. City Staff will share these findings and next steps shortly.

November 15th Planning Commission Workshop - Draft Review

HERE is the meeting agenda and staff report in advance of the meeting. HERE is the YouTube for this meeting. HERE is a link to the Draft ADU Ordinance.  HERE are the Slides used in this workshop.  This draft addresses total size of ADU's allowed on our small 40x100 lots in alignment with the Coast Act, critical need for objective design standards to be created (an $85K grant was received to fund this (now only 1/2 of these $'s due to budget cuts)), parking considerations, the characteristics of the ADU must align with the primary residence and many other items explored. 
Note: 2023 October new Housing Laws require, by 2025, that we have pre-approved ADU designs for ministerial approval. As per our Planning Director today he anticipates that this will a part of our efforts in/for our Housing Element, but does not anticipate frequent if any use of these options, plus our pre-approved plans likley would not have preset exterier finishes, so that can be aligned with the primary residence - all to be completed in months to come.

 Aug 30 - Mentioned in the Strategic Priorities half yearly review.

View this YouTube at time stamp 37 minutes. Recognized as a Strategic Prioritiy. This is now targeted for Planning Commission in October/November.

Also see the Aug CRA Survey Results - beginning on page 9 for feedback on this topic.

 Updates to our Village Ordinance is expected soon (Spring/Summer 2023) - once the draft is prepared, this will be open for public comment in Planning Commission and City Council. 

It is our wish that the soon to be revised Design Guidelines & Code Update (Design Traditions) project will be embraced in this upcoming Ordinance updates - however State Laws may limit this alignment.  See our Architecture page for the Design Traditions work underway on this initiative.

Our current ADU ordinance does not align to state laws.  Therefore, State Laws and oversite apply with only "Ministerial" approval by City Planning Department. 

  • HERE is a link to the portion of our Carmel Municipal Code pertaining to ADUs - which needs updating.
  • HERE is the link to the State Handbook/Guidelines (PDF) for ADUs - currently relevant for ADU's in our Village

The following images are the slides from a March 2022 presentation given by Brandon Swanson.   The Full Presentation as PDF is HERE.  HERE is the YouTube Recording from this CRA Presentation.