The Santa Clarita Planning Commission voted 3-2 Tuesday to recommend the city adopt changes to its rules on accessory dwelling units, or “granny flats,” and a few other changes the state is requiring in an effort to ease its housing shortage.
In voting no, a pair of planning commissioners Tuesday — longtime members Tim Burkhart and outgoing commission chair, Lisa Eichman — complained the state’s housing laws were removing local control, a previously stated target of the legislators who wrote those laws.
Nathan Keith, who was named chair for 2026 at Tuesday’s meeting, said that, knowing what the state is trying to do, the city needs to be very careful in not just considering what’s in the plan being presented, but also the implications of property owners’ rights under the new laws.
City planner Andy Olsen represented the changes in three categories: two for the city’s accessory dwelling units, or ADU ordinance; two for the city’s two-unit development ordinance; and two for the implementation of the city’s housing element.
Olsen said the city has formally opposed a number of the state’s measures in terms of removing local control, which was described in more than one Legislative Analyst Office review of housing laws as an obstacle to more housing. Olsen termed the city’s approach “as conservative a manner as possible.”
But forcing the issue for the city was a lawsuit from a pair of housing organizations, as well as feedback from the state in December 2025 — in response to housing-ordinance changes the city submitted in summer 2023 — stating the city’s regulations weren’t in compliance with the law.
“The city’s prior local controls for ADUs have been removed as required by the (state’s Department of Housing and Community Development),” Olsen said, adding the city must implement “state-mandated ADUs,” which the city is not allowed to regulate.
ADU rules
That means that, for one single-family property, the city must allow up to one conversion ADU, which is one created within an existing home’s footprint; one JADU, or junior ADU, which are generally attached and no more than 500 square feet; and one detached ADU, up to 800 square feet, with 4-foot side and rear setbacks.
Olsen said state law did not allow for the city to create rules that could infringe on the ability to put up an ADU, i.e. if an oak tree needed to be removed in order to build an ADU, the city could not stop the property owner, he added.
For multifamily properties, there are two types the city must permit: a conversion ADU, at least one per, and for detached ADUs, up to eight for existing multifamily-unit properties, as long as there are at least that many units on the site.
What the city can control, he said, are impact development fees that can be assessed on ADUs greater than 750 square feet, and a prohibition on using the ADU’s for short-term rentals, meaning it must be at least a 30-day rental.
Two-unit developments
Two of the changes discussed were related to Senate Bill 9, which requires the city to essentially approve any lot split for a single-family home property. The city must also approve any “urban lot splits,” which Olsen said were mandated over city concerns regarding fire severity zones and its oak tree ordinance.
Housing element
The city’s housing-element amendments essentially codified the state’s housing laws on the regulation of several housing types, including transitional housing, supportive housing, ADUs, group housing and low-barrier navigation centers.
The city cannot limit the number of people in a group home, under the current state law, Olsen said. An objective parking lot standard for homeless shelters was removed.
Commission vote
Burkhart said he knew the pragmatic decision was to vote yes to approve the changes, especially since the city has no legal recourse for state law.
He wasn’t prepared to do that Tuesday.
“I do have to say, about 39 years ago, we became a city for this very same exact reason. The county of Los Angeles was telling us how to run our business, without having any skin in the game, so to speak, for the decisions that they made, and they were 40 miles away,” he said. Sacramento is more like 400 miles, he added.
Eichman thanked Burkhart and said she’d be voting with him, which left commissioners Keith, Dan Faina and Pam Verner to keep the city in compliance with state law.
Housing advocates cite ADUs as a way the state can address a shortage of millions of homes, which was identified about 15 years ago, and resulted in a number of laws, starting in 2016, that began to remove local control. Local control was cited by lawmakers as an obstacle to development in the analysis of Senate Bill 9 in 2021, one of the recent laws that reduced such municipal decision-making for housing.
“Californians are increasingly recognizing the benefits of ADUs, and ADUs are making a difference,” according to the state’s Housing and Community Development handbook for ADUs. “Between 2016-2023, the number of ADUs permitted annually in the state grew from 1,336 to 26,924, a 20-fold increase. In 2023, ADUs comprised more than 21% of all homes permitted statewide.”
The ordinance now goes to the Santa Clarita City Council on April 14, with a second reading and final approval expected April 28.
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