[quote=UCGal]The city of San Diego has VERY strict restrictions on granny flats or accessory buildings. I know – we built one and are one of less than a handful of companion unit permits issued in the past decade from the city of San Diego. (In 2006, when we were in the permit process we asked how many permits had been issued for granny flats – the answer was 7 applications, 2 permits – ours was one of the 2. The other one was not under construction at the time.)
The rules are as follows:
– Lot size must be twice the minimum for your area. So if the minimum lot size is 5000sf, you need 10,000 sf or more. If the minimum lot size is 3500sf – you need 7000 or more to qualify.
– Max size of granny flat or guest house is 700sf.
– granny flat must be built on back 1/2 of the lot.
– Then there is the offstreet parking “street wall” issue. You need to show an off street parking spot that meets the street wall setbacks. In most areas this means having a wide side yard, with space in front of your house. We were just shy of this requirement and had to plead for a waiver. Our alternative would have involved cementing our front yard to provide a driveway from our curbcut to the far side of the house.
The city of San Diego, at the time we were seeking our permit, did not really like companion units. Other places in the county were much more lenient about lot size and street wall/parking issues.
FWIW – our granny flat has worked out wonderfully. It was designed with my father in laws wheelchair in mind. My in-laws have enjoyed having autonomy and privacy of having a separate house – but having us to help them if they need it. My kids love having their grandparents right there.
Let me know if you have any other questions.[/quote]
I’ve long thought that granny flats and guest houses would be the perfect answer to our “affordable housing dilema.” It enables family members to live near each other without being IN their houses, and it can free up existing SFH inventory where you have one old lady living in a 2,000 just because she doesn’t have anywhere else to go. It would be nice if her kids had the space to accomodate her, then the SFH can go to a family that needs the additionaly space.
Also, it eliminates the problems with “blight” that we see when developers/politicians force dense “low income” housing in concentrated clusters, almost always causing problems for the neighborhoods around them (and the good people who have to live in the affordable housing units, which are usually apartments).
With proper accessory units, the “affordable housing” is spread out, and is usually more attractive and comfortable. Landlords (if they rent the acc. units out) are much less likely to tolerate problems or be slumlords if thier rental unit is in their backyard.
Personally, I think at least 50% of new homes should be required to have accessory units.
