ADU rules in Clovis

Clovis has a real ADU code, but in the districts where most houses sit it is not by-right. Table 30-1 marks 'Accessory dwelling unit' as a conditional use (C) in both single-family districts, RS-170 and RS-7, and in the CBD and I districts; it is permitted by right (P) only in RM (Residential Multi-family) and CG (Commercial General), and prohibited (-) in PI. Since a standard Clovis house is in RS-7 (7,000 sq ft minimum lot) or the large-lot RS-170, a typical backyard casita needs a conditional use approval decided by the City Commission after a Planning and Zoning Commission hearing. UDO 17.30.030.C.2.b adds a hard eligibility gate on top of the zone question: the lot must meet the district's minimum lot area and be occupied by a detached or attached house, and ADUs are barred outright on nonconforming lots. Only one ADU is allowed per lot.

The UDO treats attached, internal and detached ADUs as a single use with a single row in Table 30-1, so an internal or attached unit carries exactly the same conditional use requirement in RS-170 and RS-7 as a detached one. UDO 17.30.030.C.2.e expressly authorizes four creation paths besides new detached construction: converting interior area of a house such as an attic or basement, adding floor area to an existing house, converting space inside a detached accessory building, and building a new house with an internal or detached ADU. There is no lighter ministerial track for a conversion, so a basement ADU in RS-7 goes through the same public hearings as a new backyard unit. One additional design rule bites only on attached and internal units: 17.30.030.C.2.g allows just one street-facing entrance on a house containing an ADU unless a second street-facing entrance predated the ADU, and detached ADUs are exempt from that rule.

UDO 17.30.030.C.2.h caps ADU floor area at forty-nine percent of the gross floor area of the principal dwelling unit on the lot, excluding any attached garage, or 650 square feet, whichever is less. The percentage test is what binds on modest houses: reaching the 650 sq ft ceiling takes a principal dwelling of roughly 1,327 sq ft or larger, and a 1,200 sq ft house is held to about 588 sq ft. A detached ADU may be no taller than twenty feet or the height of the principal dwelling, whichever is less, and must sit at least ten feet behind the principal dwelling with that separation open from the ground to the sky. All accessory buildings on a residential lot together may not cover more than fifty percent of the rear yard.

UDO 17.30.030.C.2.d requires that the owner of record reside in either the principal or the accessory dwelling unit for a minimum of six months of each calendar year. It is an ongoing obligation measured every year, not a one-time test at application, and it is satisfied by living in either unit, so an owner may rent out the main house and live in the ADU. New Mexico has no statewide ADU statute preempting local owner-occupancy conditions, so the Clovis rule stands on its own; the one relevant state provision, NMSA 1978 § 3-21-1(F) as amended by Laws 2026, ch. 62 (SB 96), is a two-kitchens accommodation duty for multigenerational housing and does not reach owner occupancy.

UDO 17.30.030.C.2.i states that no additional parking is required for an accessory dwelling unit, but that existing required parking for the house must be maintained or replaced on-site. Table 40-1 sets two off-street spaces per dwelling unit for a detached house, so a garage conversion or a backyard build that eats those two spaces has to rebuild them elsewhere on the lot. There is no ADU row in the parking table, and no transit-proximity, bedroom-count or lot-size adjustment applies.

It turns on the zone. In RS-170, RS-7, CBD and I an ADU is a conditional use, and UDO 17.65.110 makes that a full discretionary process: the application is filed with the director of building safety, who prepares a report; notice is published in the newspaper fifteen days ahead and mailed to every owner within one hundred feet plus posted on site ten days ahead; the Planning and Zoning Commission holds a public hearing and recommends; then the City Commission holds its own public hearing and casts the final vote, and may attach conditions. In RM and CG an ADU is permitted by right with no hearing. In every district, UDO 17.30.030.C.2.j separately requires the director of building safety to review and approve plans for building and life safety code compliance before a building permit issues. Clovis operates its own certified Department of Building Safety, which also covers a five-mile extraterritorial jurisdiction and the City of Portales, so building permitting is local and the state Construction Industries Division is not involved.

Nothing in the UDO bars leasing an ADU long term, but 17.30.030.C.2.d means the owner has to occupy one of the two units at least six months a year, so both units cannot be rented to other people at once, and 17.30.030.C.2.f caps the combined residents of the ADU and the principal dwelling at the number allowed for a single household, which 17.90 defines as related persons plus no more than two unrelated occupants, or up to eight people in a voluntary communal arrangement. Short-term rental is a separate listed use and it changed materially in 2026: Ordinance No. 2258-2026, adopted unanimously on April 23, 2026, amends Table 30-1 to replace the 'C' with a 'P' for short-term rental in every zone where it is listed and rewrites 17.30.020.D.8.d to define a short-term rental as the use of a residential dwelling unit, or a portion thereof, for lodging whenever the unit is rented for 30 calendar days or less, subject to a city short-term rental permit, a valid city business registration and payment of lodgers' tax. The codified Supplement 13 text on Municode still shows the superseded regime, in which a short-term rental was a conditional use and the definition was limited to an owner-occupied dwelling unit. Companion Ordinance No. 2257-2026, adopted the same evening, amends Chapter 3.18 so lodgers' tax reaches short-term rentals, with a July 1, 2026 implementation date. The UDO contains no prohibition on separately selling or condominiumizing an ADU, and no rule addressing it either way.