ADU rules in Santa Maria

Detached ADUs are allowed ministerially on lots in a residential or mixed-use zoning district that hold an existing or proposed single-family or multifamily dwelling (12-56.05(1)(a)); the RA, R-1 and RSL-1 use lists name them as permitted uses and the R-2 and R-3 lists include them through a stale cross-reference. Ord. No. 2026-08 (effective 10-1-2026) keeps the two tracks the city adopted in 2024. On the Gov. Code 66323 track (12-56.04(1)) a single-family lot may have one new detached unit of up to 800 sq ft of livable space with 4-ft side and rear setbacks, now in any combination with a conversion ADU and a JADU, and a multifamily lot may have up to eight detached ADUs beside an existing building (never more than its existing unit count) or two beside a proposed one. On the local track (12-56.04(2)) one attached or one detached ADU of up to 850/1,000 sq ft is allowed per single-family lot under the 12-56.05(2) standards: 4-ft side and rear setbacks, the zone's front setback, 5 ft from the house, materials and roof pitch matching the house, privacy screening and a 15 by 15 ft private yard for each unit. ADUs and JADUs are barred on parcels created under the Starter Home Revitalization Act (12-56.08).

Conversions and attached additions are both allowed with a ministerial building permit. On the 66323 track a single-family lot may convert space within the existing or proposed home or an existing accessory structure (plus up to 150 sq ft for ingress and egress) into one ADU with independent exterior access and no size cap, plus one JADU of up to 500 sq ft of interior livable space inside the home or an attached garage; an existing multifamily building may convert non-livable space such as storage rooms, attics, basements or garages into at least one ADU and up to 25 percent of its existing unit count. A local-track attached addition of up to 850/1,000 sq ft, further capped at 50 percent of the home's floor area but never below 800 sq ft, may reach 25 ft or the zone height limit, whichever is lower, and at most two stories. The local text allows JADUs only on R-1 and RSL-1 lots, narrower than Gov. Code 66323(a)(1) (see caveats), and Ord. No. 2026-08 deleted the codified rule requiring replacement parking when an attached garage becomes a JADU.

Section 12-56.05(2)(a), which governs only local-track ADUs, caps a unit at 850 sq ft of interior livable space for a studio or one bedroom and 1,000 sq ft for two or more bedrooms, exactly the Gov. Code 66321(b)(2) floors; Ord. No. 2026-08 added the interior-livable-space measure. An attached unit is further limited to 50 percent of the home's floor area, and no local-track ADU may cover more than 10 percent of the lot (lot coverage is building footprint, 12-2.88), but neither cap, nor the front setback or open space rule, may push a unit below 800 sq ft of interior livable space, so on lots smaller than roughly 8,500 to 10,000 sq ft the coverage cap rather than the bedroom cap limits a one-story unit. The 66323 track caps the new detached unit on a single-family lot at 800 sq ft of livable space, leaves conversions uncapped apart from the 150 sq ft ingress expansion, and sets no floor-area cap for detached units beside multifamily buildings. Heights (12-56.05(1)(b)): 18 ft for a detached unit on a single-family lot plus 2 ft to match the home's roof pitch, but 16 ft where the lot also has a JADU; 16 ft beside multifamily buildings (18 ft if the building is multistory or within a half-mile walk of a major transit stop or high-quality transit corridor, plus 2 ft for pitch); attached units 25 ft or the zone limit, whichever is lower, at most two stories. The minimum unit size is 150 sq ft.

No owner-occupancy rule applies to any ADU, consistent with Gov. Code 66315. For JADUs, Ord. No. 2026-08 narrowed the former universal rule: only a JADU that shares sanitation facilities with the existing structure requires the owner (the majority owner on the latest Santa Barbara County assessor's roll) to live in the main home or the JADU, with exceptions for government agencies, land trusts and housing organizations, matching Gov. Code 66333(b) as amended by SB 543 and AB 1154; if the Zoning Administrator finds neither unit owner-occupied, that JADU approval terminates. Every JADU still needs a covenant recorded before the building permit that bars separate sale and fixes its size, and it carries the residency term only for a shared-sanitation JADU. The codified eCode360 text, which predates the ordinance, still prints the universal JADU owner-occupancy clause, and the pre-2020 'Current ADU Ordinance' on CivicWeb required owner occupancy for ADUs in R-1.

The parking rule sits in 12-56.05(2)(e), which applies only to local-track ADUs approved under 12-56.04(2): one space per ADU or per bedroom, whichever is less (the 66314(d)(10)(A) ceiling, so a studio arguably needs none), in addition to the home's own required parking, with tandem spaces and spaces in setback areas allowed unless site-specific findings say otherwise. No space is required within one-half mile walking distance of public transit (defined to include a bus stop), in an architecturally and historically significant district, where the ADU is part of the existing or proposed home or an accessory structure, where on-street permits are required but not offered, or within one block of a car-share vehicle. State-exempt units under 12-56.04(1) and JADUs carry no parking requirement, and Ord. No. 2026-08 deleted the codified rule requiring replacement parking when an attached garage becomes a JADU. The local list omits Gov. Code 66322(a)(6) (an ADU permitted together with a new home), which applies anyway, and the citywide 12-32.09 rule requiring replacement of converted covered spaces cannot be applied to a garage converted or demolished for an ADU (66314(d)(11)).

Section 12-56.06(1) requires ADUs and JADUs to be permitted ministerially, without discretionary review or a hearing, through a building permit the Community Development Director issues once the chapter's standards are met. Ord. No. 2026-08 rewrote the timing rules: the city must decide completeness and send written notice within 15 business days (listing any incomplete items and how to cure them) and approve or deny a complete application within 60 days, tolled at the applicant's request and deferrable when the ADU is filed with a new single-family or multifamily home (an ADU may get its certificate of occupancy first under the Gov. Code 66328 emergency rule). An incompleteness finding or denial may be appealed in writing to the Planning Commission within 14 calendar days, with a final written determination due within 60 business days. The rewrite dropped the local deemed-approval and denial-comment sentences, but Gov. Code 66317(a)(3) and (b) still deem a complete application approved after 60 days and require written comments with any denial.

Ord. No. 2026-08 changed 12-56.05(1)(f) from rental 'allowed for not less than 30 days' to rental that 'shall be for a term longer than 30 days' for every ADU and JADU, effective 10-1-2026, so a 30-day lease that the codified text still allows is now barred. That matches Gov. Code 66323(e) for state-exempt units and 66333(g) for JADUs, while for local-track ADUs Gov. Code 66315 authorizes only a requirement of rentals of terms 30 days or longer, a one-day overreach on a plain reading. Section 12-56.05(1)(e) bars selling or conveying an ADU or JADU separately from the lot and its dwelling or dwellings except as Gov. Code 66340 et seq. provides; the city has adopted no 66342 ADU-condominium ordinance, so a 66341 qualified-nonprofit conveyance is the practical exception. Santa Maria has no short-term rental ordinance, rental registration or rent control; stays of 30 consecutive days or less in any structure fall under the Chapter 3-9 transient occupancy tax, and the business license tax on apartment houses reaches only operators of four or more units (4-3.312).