Petaluma eyes changes to granny-unit rules

Spurred by recently-passed state laws that will end some obstacles to building granny units, the city of Petaluma is hoping to go one step further in making construction easier and cheaper.

Planning Commission members are recommending the City Council expand the allowable unit square footage requirements, and city staff is currently pursuing options for pre-approved unit designs that could significantly expedite the permitting process.

Supporters say the relaxed requirements could create more opportunities for infill-housing in Petaluma, a city caught between its urban growth boundary, a finite number of lots available for development and a growing housing shortage.

“It doesn’t add any infrastructure to the city, you don’t have to build a bunch of new roads, and yet you get new housing,” said Councilman and Planning Commission Liaison Kevin McDonnell. “The housing is not all in one place, it’s here and there throughout the city so you also don’t feel the impact of a big development. The units are also inherently more affordable in that they’re smaller.”

The handful of state bills that took effect Jan. 1 are touted as potential solutions for the state’s growing housing shortage, and alleviate established zoning limitations of single-family lots. They include reducing impact fees, allowing up to two units on multi-family properties, removing minimum size requirements, increasing maximum size limits and accelerating the permit approval time frame.

As the statewide legislation kicks in early 2020, cities like Petaluma are tasked with updating their ordinances to comply with new standards, also providing opportunities to adjust requirements relating to height, lot size, lot coverage, setbacks, unit size, and parking.

Current maximum granny-unit sizes, also referred to as accessory dwelling units or ADUs, are 720 square feet. Incoming state legislation sets a minimum for the maximum square footage at 850 square feet for units with one bedroom or less, and 1,000 square feet for two bedrooms or more.

Commissioner Patrick Streeter said he wanted to ensure Petaluma’s updated ordinance also allowed for maximum flexibility, and asked that staff consider increasing the maximum square footage to 1,300 square feet and disregard the number of bedrooms altogether. Commissioners also suggested that staff include a requirement that granny-unit sizes cannot be larger than the primary residence.

Planning Commission members voted 4-0 at the Dec. 17 meeting to move the ordinance to city council along with the three suggestions pertaining to unit size requirements. Commission members Richard Marzo, Diana Gomez and Kevin McDonnell were absent.

Along with suggestions posed by planning commissioners, the city is concurrently pursuing planning grants for permit-ready ADU plans in an effort to streamline the permitting process even further.

“The idea there would be that it would reduce the costs for people that want to build an ADU because there would be plans that are already designed and pre-approved, so the permitting process would also be quicker and theoretically less expensive,” said Planning Manager Heather Hines.

Petaluma’s willing adherence to the new state standards contrasts with some California municipalities that decried reforms, pointing to loss of fee revenue and sweeping state-imposed standards. The League of California Cities did not support the legislation changes, expressing in a press release that cities already face challenges updating prior ordinances to comply with changing ADU requirements, and asserting municipalities should be given more authority for adjustments and exceptions.

The City Council will make their decision on the ordinance and the suggested adjustments from planning commission members at the Jan. 6 city council meeting. This most recent examination of Petaluma’s granny-unit ordinances comes less than a year after the city eliminated ADU parking requirements in April, leading to a two-fold increase in issued permits.

(Contact Kathryn Palmer at kathryn.palmer@arguscourier.com, on Twitter @KathrynPlmr.)