ADU Permitting Procedure

[ICE]

Los Angeles County is in the process of developing a streamlined permitting/inspection procedure for ADUs. There is a backlog of applications. The plan is to have the inspectors perform the plan check for ADUs. A standard plan and inspection checklist is in the works. The inspectors will bear the responsibility for achieving code compliance. The administration has rose colored glasses on when assessing the inspection staff.

The solar industry has achieved a milestone with their permitting and inspection and they did it without an inspection checklist. Any system that is 10KW or less is plan checked in the field by inspectors. The state allows just one inspection which is the final inspection. That is when the plans are corrected. It's a done deal at that point. Here is part of an email that was sent to me by an inspector. It exemplifies the folly.

Also on another job the plans called out for a 200 amp panel with solar and only 1/0 service wires and I wrote up a correction to install 2/0 copper service wires and revise the plans to show this. Also the plans only called out for (2) 3/8” ground rods with #6 going to the cold water and they had a 200 amp service with there solar and I wrote up a correction , that said they needed (2) 5/8” ground rods with a depth of 8ft and spaced more than 6 ft apart and I need #4 copper in armor cable going to the main cold water within 5 ft at the front of the house

The inspector that sent this to me is not the inspector that wrote it. The inspector that wrote this was asking for validation of his corrections but I took it out of context.
I don't have much confidence in the competency of inspectors and haven't for at least ten years. As areas of construction expand faster than the jurisdictions can keep up there is a worsening of the quality. It will become apparent over time and then be too late.

Plan checking after the work has been completed is beyond ridiculous. With an ADU, the first time the inspector sees the plans will be at the underslab plumbing inspection. Any deficiency in the plans that is not caught at that time will be off limits in the future. Envision a 29" wide hallway that wasn't flagged at the first inspection....that water heater that's a foot from the property line....sorry about that bedroom window that's too small. How will an inspector deal with violations that are on the approved plans?

I used to blame it on the plan check engineer. Inspectors will just move on to the next ADU..... just like they do with solar.

 

[Yikes]

For years many building departments had a "Standard Type V construction" handout for simple home additions, garages, etc.
When you look back on some old permits for those kinds of projects, sometimes a plan for a bedroom addition doesn't look like much more than a single pencil line diagram on notebook paper.
I realize codes are now more complex (including energy codes), so the risk of getting something wrong - and not realizing it until inspection - is higher. But I also anticipate that various organizations will develop "pre-approved" plans that could help eliminate much of the risk.

Also, keep in mind that this rush to get ADUs permitted is in response to a housing crisis decades in the making. If the alternative is a plan check backlog that is a year or longer (yes, I've seen that in So Cal), and the alternative is people living in "bootleg" housing (sleeping in vans, basements, etc.), is that a safer option for society than the streamline approvals?

 

[ICE]

For the first fifteen years of my time as an inspector Type V sheets were used for 600 sq.ft and less. That usually included a set of plans. The size limit was mostly ignored and over the counter plan check was common. The residential code took the place of Type V sheets.

To be honest about it, there’s not a lot to an ADU if all of the players have sufficient experience. Unfortunately that’s not the case.

As to people living in vans etc…..the ADUs are rental properties that the homeless can’t afford. The population influx to So Cal is people with scant resources and they will be living in illegal garage conversions and bedrooms. I have encountered apartment complexes with three or more families in every unit. The same overcrowding will infect the ADUs.

 

[Yikes]

As to people living in vans etc…..the ADUs are rental properties that the homeless can’t afford.

I hear you, except that there are so many people here that it's not just homeless people, there's also an under-served segment of moderate income people, especially working class middle-aged and older singles, for who an ADU would be ideal. The lack of units overall increases rental prices and the market forces press ever downward, such that even a sketchy one-step-off-the-streets motel charges ever-higher rents.
So, in a metropolis this big, every unit helps the bigger picture.

A side/ off-topic note regarding market share: I once worked with a Nigerian engineer who lived in Los Angeles and had a thriving remote practice and body of work in Lagos. He said that Nigeria had a poverty rate of about 90%, and only about 3% of the people were upper middle class or higher, so most A+E firms did not see a market for architectural services.
Then he added: "But we are a country of 200 million people. That tiny 3% is 6 million people who are upper class, and who have very few architects and engineers to provide services. How's that for an untapped market?!"

Point of the story: when the metropolis is big enough, there will always be a market for all types of housing, even when the vast majority of the population is in poverty.