REPORT TO HOUSING AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMISSION
SUBJECT
Title
Study of Accessory Dwelling Unit Development Standards: Forward a Recommendation to the City Council to Adopt an Ordinance Amending Sunnyvale Municipal Code Section 19.68.040 (Accessory Dwelling Units), Adopt a Resolution Amending the Master Fee Schedule to Impose Transportation Impact Fees for Accessory Dwelling Units, and Find that these Actions are Exempt from CEQA.
Project Planner: Shila Behzadiaria, (408) 730-7456, sbehzadiaria@sunnyvale.ca.gov
Report
REPORT IN BRIEF
An Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU), also known as a granny unit or second unit, is a small dwelling unit accessory to a single-family home and has been a development option on certain single-family home properties in Sunnyvale since the early 1980s. The regulations have been revised three times since they were first adopted. The City committed to examine the ADU regulations again, as an action in the adopted 2015 Housing Element of the General Plan. In 2016, state legislation was enacted that required cities to update the local ADU regulations, which Sunnyvale completed in December 2016 noting that further study, as specified in the Housing Element, would be completed in 2017.
As described in the Housing Element, the goals of the study are to: consider whether revisions to the current ADU codes are warranted to facilitate ADU development; evaluate the capacity for ADUs under current codes and property conditions in relevant zones; and identify possible code changes that could facilitate creation of ADUs in appropriate locations.
Staff has analyzed lot sizes of properties zoned for single-family houses, researched what other cities are allowing and requiring for ADUs, and conducted community outreach on the topic. Staff recommends reducing the minimum lot sizes to construct an ADU for the R-1 and R-0 zoning districts properties from 8,500 square feet (both zoning districts) to 8,000 square feet (R-1) and 7,000 square feet (R-0) a...
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