City tweaks ADU rules, restores coastal regulations
By CLARA BEARD
The Dana Point City Council on Tuesday (Sept. 1) advanced two related zoning amendments governing accessory dwelling units, updating the city’s regulations to comply with state housing law while restoring separate standards that remain in effect within the city’s coastal zone.
The first amendment updates Dana Point’s regulations for accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, and junior accessory dwelling units (JADUs) outside the coastal zone. The changes are the latest in a years-long effort to keep the city’s rules aligned with evolving state requirements and comments from the California Department of Housing and Community Development.
Community Development Director Jonathan Lightfoot told the council that Dana Point has repeatedly revised its ordinance as state law and HCD guidance have changed.
“This is an item that has been before you in the past,” Lightfoot said, adding that the city first adopted its current framework in 2021 and later made revisions following state reviews.
The most significant change involves so-called “mandatory approval” ADUs that meet standards established under state law.
Dana Point previously applied additional review in designated Public Safety Areas where the city identified concerns about density, traffic, parking and emergency access. Under the revised ordinance, that further analysis will no longer apply to ADUs subject to mandatory approval under state law. The city will, however, retain its Public Safety Area standards for other ADUs.
Lightfoot said the change followed discussions with HCD.
“There was previously a designated, or a few designated, areas within the city where, due to density, traffic concerns, citation history, etc., we had had a discretionary process at play,” Lightfoot said. “That has been removed for the classification of ADUs that are mandatory under state law.”
A city-commissioned traffic analysis supported Dana Point’s underlying concerns, finding higher rates of parking citations associated with traffic safety problems in the designated areas. Staff nevertheless recommended complying with HCD’s interpretation rather than disputing whether the city could impose the additional requirements.
Mayor John Gabbard said an important distinction throughout the city’s negotiations over ADU regulations is that state housing requirements do not prevent Dana Point from enforcing construction safety requirements.
“The big takeaway for me on this entire process has been none of this limits our ability to enforce the building code at all,” Gabbard said.
The second ordinance addresses a separate issue inside Dana Point’s coastal zone.
When the city adopted updated ADU regulations in 2021, it inadvertently removed its older “Second Dwelling Unit” provisions from the written zoning code. Because the California Coastal Commission never approved a Local Coastal Program amendment replacing those regulations, the older standards technically remained the legally binding rules for coastal zone properties despite disappearing from the municipal code.
The council’s action restores that language to the zoning code, bringing the written code back into alignment with the city’s certified Local Coastal Program. The change does not establish new coastal regulations; it reinstates standards that city staff and the Coastal Commission already recognize as operative.
Those coastal-zone standards include requirements governing unit size, parking, compatibility with surrounding development and affordability.
Dana Point plans to consider a future Local Coastal Program amendment to bring its older coastal second-dwelling-unit rules into conformity with newer state ADU and JADU laws and recent Coastal Commission guidance.
