The city of Santa Clarita is once again updating its rules and regulations on accessory dwelling units, ADUs, or “granny flats,” following feedback in December from the state’s housing regulators.
The first step for that is a first review of the draft ordinance by the Planning Commission, which is scheduled for Tuesday’s meeting.
The city’s latest efforts at “maximum local control over development standards” for ADUs ran afoul of the state’s latest guidelines, with the city promising the state it would draft a revised ordinance for the City Council by July 1.
In the agenda for Tuesday, city planners mention a yearslong process working on its ordinance to stay in compliance with the state law.
The city passed its original ordinance in February 2021, and then was told further revision was necessary in March 2023. The city responded within 30 days, according to planners, but they didn’t hear back from the state in 2023 or 2024.
Fast forward to May 2025, and the city tried to add additional regulations on what could be approved in an ADU, following legislative changes to what’s now required or allowed for heights, number of detached multifamily ADUs and parking.
By December, the city had found itself sued by two Northern California groups over the ADU regulations, with a representative from the plaintiffs telling The Signal in December that the lawsuit was awaiting feedback from the state, days before that feedback was given.
Jason Crawford, the city’s director of community development, said there were multiple problems with the state’s process, in a previous interview with The Signal regarding the review of the city’s housing authority.
“The state keeps changing the rules, and so the city has to go and revise our ADU ordinance, and then the rules change again, right? So that’s part of it,” Crawford said in a December phone interview. “And then the other part is that, yes, our city has had concerns about making sure that where there is new building, whether it’s an ADU or any other type of new building, that things like emergency evacuation and fire safety and traffic and all those concerns are addressed.”
Dylan Casey, executive director for the California Housing Defense Fund, said the city received a letter sent to a number of cities warning about problems with its ADU regulations, and instead of making changes, the city “doubled down,” he said.
Casey added that about half the cities that receive such a letter from their organization about housing-policy concerns make the changes uncontested, but the state has continually revised its policies there.
“The state Legislature has continued to, kind of, update statewide ADU requirements. And so, cities have this task of, kind of continually updating their local ordinance to stay in compliance, right? So really, in most cases, we’re just trying to help out,” Casey said. “And a lot of cities are fairly pro-accessory dwelling unit at this point, so they’re happy to make the changes we suggest.”
To date, the city of Santa Clarita has seen a number of ADU applications, but officials could only recall one such developer project with multiple ADUs that has gone through the city’s approval process.
The Wiley Canyon Project was approved by the Santa Clarita City Council in November and then challenged by an appeal, and most recently, a lawsuit from a group of residents.
Casey was more referring to the fact that the state considers ADUs, and now “junior accessory dwelling units,” JADUs, “innovative and effective options for adding much-needed housing in California,” which is from the state’s 2025 ADU handbook.
“Since 2016, (the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development) has had statutory authority to review local agencies’ ADU ordinances, and as of Jan. 1, 2024, HCD also has the authority to enforce all state ADU Laws. HCD’s ADU team reviews local ordinances for compliance with state ADU Law and sends seven findings letters and, when necessary, may escalate its enforcement.”
