Add up to 8 ADUs on an apartment lot

The rule

• A lot with two or more legal homes can add detached ADUs: 8, or the number of homes already there, whichever is less.
• A lot where the apartment building is only proposed gets 2.
• Building permit only. The City can't add its own design standards on top.
• No replacement for parking you build on, covered or uncovered.

The numbers

What you can build

• A duplex adds 2, a fourplex 4, a building of 8 or more homes adds 8.
• Go to 18 ft when the building there now is more than one storey, or within a half-mile walk of a major transit stop.
• Keep an existing building that sits closer than 4 ft to the line. The City can't make you change it.
• Use it on rent-stabilized (RSO) buildings. There is no tenant test.
• Skip lot coverage, floor area, open space and minimum lot size rules. The City can't apply them to these ADUs.
• Add conversions inside the building on top of the detached ADUs.

What it doesn’t allow

• Count homes that aren't legal. The count on the certificate of occupancy sets the number.
• Use it on a house with an unpermitted garage unit. One legal home doesn't make a multifamily lot.
• Sell the ADUs on their own, or rent them for 30 days or less.
• Build more detached ADUs than the homes there now, however big the lot.

Check first

• Electrical service. A bigger service or a new transformer runs on LADWP's schedule, often about 3 months.
• Fire access. LAFD reviews the plan if any part of a new ADU is more than 150 ft from the street.
• Three or more new homes in one new building make it R-2 under the building code, which needs fire sprinklers.
• On an RSO building, taking tenants' parking or storage can count as a cut in services. Ask LAHD first.