San Mateo County opens new ADU resource hub

“As we’re getting older, we realized that at some point there has to be some separation between a disabled child and their parents,” Palmer said. “We’re not going to live forever.”

The family searched all avenues on a sensible happy medium to allow Alex some — even a tiny bit — of independence. A condominium or a house sounded appealing but unfeasible because of the expensive nature of coastal real estate. Even the idea of purchasing a houseboat was floated around but was never brought to fruition.

After some discussions with a neighbor, the Palmers decided to build an accessory dwelling unit on their property, providing an additional housing option on the same lot where they live. The plan was for Alex to live in the main house with roommates to assist with his needed 24-hour care while Bill and his wife Ruthie moved into the new ADU.

Palmer believes his family is among the first to approach Half Moon Bay officials about permitting for such a venture — ADUs were still a few years away from California law changes that streamlined the permitting process.

Attempts at constructing a detached unit in the backyard were stalled following a series of delays over square footage disputes, but the final product ended up being an attached ADU connected to their home. It took most of a calendar year to build.

“We took what was an existing family room and kind of walled it off from the rest of the house and then expanded on that,” Palmer said. “The ADU ended up being 700 feet, which was all we could build at the time.”

A recent remodel upped their space to roughly 1,000 square feet.

“I think there’s so many opportunities there,” Palmer said. “And with the issue that we have everywhere — not enough housing — I think it could definitely be one piece to help that.”

Palmer believes that every new home built in California should feature an ADU option — either constructed when first built or an easy route to eventually expand in the future. This space could be valuable for families who require care for relatives, he said, or the simple need to improve their financial capabilities by renting out the unit.

The Palmers are one of many families in the Bay Area to explore a route involving ADUs.

The units gained significant popularity as a legitimate construction option since California passed Senate Bill 1069, which helped limit restrictions that counties and cities can impose on ADUs while also setting clear standards for size.

The impact was immediate. According to the California Department of Finance, ADUs make up 1 in 5 new homes in California, a figure that has doubled since 2020.

Now, San Mateo County has recently added a program solely dedicated to the ADU process.

The ADU Resource Center of San Mateo County launched Oct. 16 with the goal of helping homeowners and jurisdictions build more ADUs and accelerate the pace of housing development in the county. The nonprofit center is funded by the San Francisco Foundation, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Home for All and participating jurisdictions.

“The ADU Resource Center is the result of community stakeholders in San Mateo County uniting to address the housing crisis,” Joshua Abrams, the principal at Community Planning Collaborative, said. “It is a collaborative effort to support jurisdictions in expanding infill housing while guiding homeowners through the complex process of building an ADU.”

In 2023, 403 ADUs were completed across all county jurisdictions, comprising 23% of all housing units and 30% of low- and very low-income units.

Led by new director Anna Alekseyeva, the center’s main objective is for local jurisdictions to cumulatively produce more than 4,500 new ADUs during the 2023-31 housing cycle. They anticipate being the new go-to location for all and any questions about the ADU process.

“This very cool model of all these cities, talking, getting together, collaborating, which seems pretty unique when it comes to intercity coordination,” Alekseyeva said. “The groundwork in the conversation around the center has been laid for a very long time. I love the fact that it’s something new and the opportunity to grow something, but also a really strong foundation that has been laid over many years.”

Alekseyeva was formerly the chief strategy officer at LISC, the largest nonprofit community development financial institute in the United States. She relocated from New York City to the Bay Area and eventually wants to dip her feet into the ADU sector herself.

“There are a lot of similar challenges and questions that a lot of the cities are facing that they felt like instead of having to figure that out themselves, it would make sense for a shared resource to be able to do that across the board and similarly work with homeowners to provide resources on the other side of the coin,” Alekseyeva said.