Reforming the Bonus ADU Program
On January 28, 2025, the City Council voted to ask the Planning Department to come back in 60 days with a plan to align San Diego's ADU regulations more closely with state law. This is welcome news for San Diego neighborhoods that have been grappling with ADU apartment complexes that contain dozens of ADUs.
To support this process, Neighbors For A Better San Diego has performed an analysis of the differences between State and San Diego ADU regulations. Click HERE to view the comparison charts for single-family and multi-family zones.
A summary of the drawbacks of San Diego's regulations can be found HERE.
Because state ADU laws are changing every year, there are benefits to sticking to the state's regulations instead of veering away from the intention and design of state regulations with the Bonus ADU program. Those benefits are detailed HERE.
Latest Updates
April 9, 2026
Perspectives No. 11 - City Planners Knew Upzoning Raises Land Prices. They Did It Anyway.
Inflated land prices aren’t an unintended consequence. They were the expected outcome...(open).
March 14, 2026
Make sure your comments are fully counted in the Mid-City Plan Update
March 9, 2026
Perspectives No. 10: The Un-Democracy of the Mid-City Plan Update
I’ve never seen this before: A community plan update that wipes out most of a community’s single-family zoning. That’s what’s happening to Normal Heights, Kensington, and Talmadge under the City of San Diego's undemocratic Mid-City Communities Plan Update... (open)
