What does the City of Sacramento’s ADU program hand a builder?
A September 16, 2025 City of Sacramento staff presentation on ADU programs and production reads like a checklist of what a contractor can lean on inside the city limits: local ordinance standards that go beyond state requirements, an ADU Resource Center that walks a homeowner through the process one step at a time, a catalog of free Shelf Ready ADU Plans the City created itself, and annual ADU outreach events that bring owners in before they have hired anyone.
The review clock is the number to remember. The City states that an ADU typically takes 1.5 to 2 months from submittal to approval, that a Shelf Ready plan is approved within 10 days, and that additional expedited reviews are available. Production has followed: 441 ADU applications received in 2023 and 391 in 2024, approvals issued rising from 259 in 2022 to 291 in 2023 and 338 in 2024, and units finaled climbing from 125 to 191 to 251 over the same three years.
The same presentation maps approvals from 2020 through 2024 by community plan area, which tells a contractor exactly where backyard units really go up. Fruitridge and Broadway led with 236, East Sacramento followed at 142, Greater Land Park at 122, and North Sacramento at 116, with the Central City at 88 and the South Area at 69. South Natomas added 29, the Pocket and Greenhaven 22, Arden Arcade 11, and North Natomas 5. The City also tracked 16 short-term-rental ADU approvals in 2023 and 52 in 2024, so some owners build to host guests rather than tenants.
City of Sacramento, Accessory Dwelling Unit Programs and Production (staff presentation, September 16, 2025)How does unincorporated Sacramento County’s ADU table differ from the City’s?
Carmichael, Fair Oaks, Orangevale, and Rio Linda are unincorporated, so an ADU there answers to Sacramento County’s Zoning Code rather than City Hall, while Elk Grove, Folsom, Citrus Heights, and Rancho Cordova each review their own. The County publishes its ADU and JADU standards as Table 5.11 of Chapter 5, last amended July 11, 2024, a tighter table than the City’s. A single-family or halfplex lot gets one ADU and one JADU, and a multifamily property may add two detached ADUs or convert up to 25 percent of its unit count out of non-living space.
Sizes and heights are firm. A new detached ADU tops out at 1,200 square feet, an attached one at half the primary home’s habitable area or 800 square feet, whichever is greater, and a JADU at 500 square feet plus 150 for an entry. Detached units are single story: 16 feet to the peak, 18 feet near a major transit stop or to match the main roof pitch, and 20 feet only when set back 10 feet from the rear line and 5 from the side. Side and rear setbacks run 4 feet, the front yard 20, and a corner side street 12.5.
Parking is one space per ADU, dropped near transit, in a historic district, or for a unit carved out of the existing house, and a converted garage needs no replacement parking. With a JADU the owner must live in the house or the unit, and ADUs cannot be stacked onto an SB 9 project. The first question on a Carmichael call is jurisdiction.
Sacramento County Zoning Code, Chapter 5, Table 5.11: ADU and JADU development standardsWhat is the City of Sacramento building against its 2021 to 2029 allocation?
The City’s 2025 Housing Element Annual Progress Report, presented to the City Council on March 24, 2026, puts the City’s regional housing needs allocation for 2021 to 2029 at 45,580 units: 10,463 extremely low and very low income, 6,306 low, 8,545 moderate, and 20,266 above moderate, the market-rate band where custom homes and infill lots get counted. Meeting it would take about 5,700 units a year. The City approved 2,737 units in 2025, 742 of them above moderate, 681 moderate, 739 low, 365 very low, and 210 extremely low.
Five years in, the running total stands at 13,196 units: 3,949 above moderate, 4,000 moderate, 3,166 low, and 2,081 very low. Above moderate has by far the most ground left to cover, which is where a builder of new homes reads demand. The report’s chart of the top six housing-producing jurisdictions from 2020 through 2024 puts Sacramento first at 28.6 units per 1,000 residents, ahead of San Diego at 25.5, Los Angeles at 24.9, Fresno at 17.0, San Francisco at 15.3, and San Jose at 10.3.
The report cites an average Sacramento home value of $472,863, down 2.9 percent year over year, the asset every remodel call is really about. For 2025 the City lists an updated Universal Design ordinance, an SB 684 ordinance, a Small Developer Incubator pilot, and a completed review of the Mixed Income Housing Ordinance. For 2026 it plans an ordinance for for-sale ADUs under AB 1033, a Cottages on Wheels ordinance, and a City ADU survey, so the door to small infill work keeps opening wider.
City of Sacramento, 2025 Housing Element Annual Progress Report (City Council, March 24, 2026)