Building an ADU in Long Beach. Rules, costs, timeline.

Not one it applies. LBMC § 21.51.276 is still printed in the municipal code, but the City has stopped using it and says so publicly: "Long Beach Municipal Code 21.51.276 no longer applies, and the City is administering state ADU law directly until a new local ordinance is adopted." The City's Planning Information Bulletin IB-PZ-001 is the operative document, and it opens by confirming that "the City of Long Beach does not currently have an adopted local ADU ordinance." So your project is governed by Gov. Code §§ 66310–66342 — the state statute — and nothing else. A replacement ordinance went out for public comment in late 2025 but had not been adopted when this page was last verified.

Because it became legally unenforceable. LBMC § 21.51.276 was last amended in 2021 and conflicts with current state law on nearly every point: it allows ADUs only on lots with one detached single-family dwelling, gives the City 120 days to decide rather than 60, requires the owner to live on the property, sets a 4,800 square foot minimum lot size, and counts the ADU against lot coverage and floor-area ratio. Gov. Code § 66316 makes a local ADU ordinance null and void where it fails to meet the requirements of state law, and requires the agency to apply the state standards instead. Rather than enforce something unenforceable, the City switched to administering the statute directly.

Three under § 66323, and HCD reads state law as requiring a fourth. Because the City applies state law directly you get the full Gov. Code § 66323(a) stack: one ADU converted from existing space in the house or an accessory structure, one Junior ADU of up to 500 square feet, and one newly built detached ADU of up to 800 square feet. The City's own bulletin confirms that combination. HCD's March 2026 Handbook (p. 18) adds that "in addition to the units described in Government Code section 66323, a local agency must allow at least one unit described in Section 66314" — the unit that carries the 1,200 square foot default discussed below. There is no local rule cutting any of it down, because there is no local rule.

Substantially more than most people expect. State law allows interior conversions of non-livable space at one unit or 25 percent of your existing units, whichever is more, and separately allows up to eight detached ADUs on a lot with an existing multifamily dwelling, capped at the number of units you already have (Gov. Code § 66323(a)(3), (a)(4)(A)(ii)). Those two allowances stack. On a twelve-unit building that is three conversions plus eight detached units. Junior ADUs are single-family only and are not available on a multifamily lot.

The published schedule reads that way, and it is worth knowing before you pay. Long Beach's Development Impact Fee schedule effective October 1, 2025 lists ADU rates — $1,781.39 for parks and recreation, $342.86 for police, $241.74 for fire, and a transportation fee — with no stated exemption for small units. Gov. Code § 66311.5(c)(1) prohibits any impact fee on an ADU of 750 square feet or less of interior livable space, and § 66311.5(c)(2) expressly brings park fees under § 66477 inside that definition. For a sub-750 square foot ADU that is roughly $2,600 to $3,000 of fees state law bars. Raise the statute in writing before you pay. Above 750 square feet, fees must be charged proportionately to the size of your main house rather than as a flat per-unit amount.

The sewer capacity fee, currently $144.34, along with the valuation-based building permit and plan check fees. Gov. Code § 66311.5(c)(2) takes connection fees and capacity charges outside the impact-fee exemption, so the 750-square-foot rule does not bar them. But they are not automatically owed either. If your ADU is a conversion within the house or an accessory structure, or a Junior ADU — the units at § 66323(a)(1) — § 66311.5(d) bars a separate connection and any related charge, unless the unit is built with a new house or separately conveyed. Note that a multifamily conversion under § 66323(a)(3) is outside that subdivision. If it is new detached construction, § 66311.5(e) allows it — but it must be proportionate to the unit's burden, measured by square footage or drainage fixture units, not charged as a flat per-unit figure. Ask which basis the $144.34 was calculated on. School fees are separate again: Long Beach Unified charges $5.38 per square foot effective June 15, 2026, and applies it to ADUs over 500 square feet.

Worth understanding what the 16-foot figure actually is. HCD states that "there is no height limit contained in State ADU Law," and that a local agency may impose one "by adopting a compliant ADU ordinance" — which Long Beach has not done. The 16 and 18 foot figures are floors a city must allow, not statewide caps. In practice the City's bulletin applies 16 feet, rising to 18 feet within a half-mile walking distance of a major transit stop or high-quality transit corridor, plus two more feet to match your roof pitch, and 18 feet where the lot already carries a multistory apartment building. If you want taller, HCD's Handbook is the document to raise in writing at pre-application. An attached ADU is different and more generous: Gov. Code § 66321(b)(4)(D) guarantees 25 feet or the zoning limit, whichever is lower, and two stories. Conversions simply maintain the existing height.

A conversion of existing space inside the house has no square-foot limit at all. A newly built attached ADU may be 50 percent of the primary dwelling or 800 square feet, whichever is more. A newly built detached ADU is capped at 800 square feet under the by-right route at Gov. Code § 66323(a)(2) — the unit the City cannot refuse. That is not the ceiling, though. For a city without a compliant ADU ordinance, HCD reads the default maximum as 1,200 square feet for a new detached ADU (HCD ADU Handbook, March 2026, p. 38; the Handbook cites Gov. Code § 66314(d)(4), which in the current codified text is numbered (d)(5)). The City's bulletin says 800, so treat 1,200 as an argument to raise in writing rather than a given. A Junior ADU is capped at 500 square feet, and the minimum for any unit is 150 square feet.

If your property is in the Coastal Zone, yes — an Administrative Local Coastal Development Permit, filed concurrently with the building permit. But the process improved sharply in October 2025. Under Gov. Code § 66329(a) as amended by AB 462, the City must approve or deny the coastal permit within 60 days, running concurrently with the ADU permit, and no public hearing is required. More importantly, § 66329(c) provides that a local decision under subdivision (a) "is not subject to appeal under Section 30603 of the Public Resources Code" — so the Coastal Commission appeal that used to be the scariest part of a coastal ADU is gone. Coastal projects are not eligible for over-the-counter review, so plan for a longer path.

Usually not, and the exemptions are broad enough that most of the city qualifies. No parking is required within a half-mile walking distance of any transit stop, in a historic district, for a conversion of existing space, where on-street permits are required but not offered to the ADU occupant, within a half-mile of a car share — the City's bulletin sets that radius, which is more generous than the one-block floor at Gov. Code § 66322(a)(5) — for any Junior ADU, or anywhere inside the City's mapped Parking Exempt Area under LBMC § 21.41.175. And replacement parking is never required when a garage is converted or demolished (Gov. Code § 66314(d)(11)).

Two statutory clocks apply, and they are the only ones — the City publishes no local timeline commitment. Under Gov. Code § 66317 it has 15 business days to determine in writing whether your application is complete, then 60 days from completeness to approve or deny, after which the application is deemed approved. Note that the ordinance the City no longer applies still recites a 120-day decision period; if anyone at the counter quotes 120 days, § 66317 is the answer. Budget six to twelve months from first drawing to permit in hand, then construction on top.

Yes, and it is one of the better programs in the region. The Pre-Approved Accessory Dwelling Unit Program, or PAADU, lets qualifying plans and permit applications be approved over the counter at the Permit Center, and the City states that "upon approval, a building permit can be issued the same day." One important limitation: PAADU is available for new construction only, not for conversions of existing space. Every California city has been required to run a pre-approval program since January 1, 2025 under AB 1332.

No, and the City is unusually explicit about it. LBMC § 5.77.050(B) states that accessory dwelling units and junior accessory dwelling units "are approved for residential use but are prohibited from use as a STR," and § 5.77.030(B)(1) separately excludes them from short-term rental registration. State law points the same way: Gov. Code § 66323(e) requires a rental term longer than 30 days for these units, and it is mandatory rather than optional. A Long Beach ADU is a long-term rental asset.

No. Owner-occupancy may not be required for an ADU under Gov. Code § 66315. The ordinance the City no longer applies says otherwise — LBMC § 21.51.276.E.1.a states that "the owner of the property shall reside either in the primary dwelling or the accessory dwelling unit" — and that provision is one of the clearest reasons the City set it aside. Junior ADUs are different, but the rule narrowed on January 1, 2026: under Gov. Code § 66333(b) as amended by AB 1154, owner-occupancy applies only where the Junior ADU shares sanitation facilities with the main house.

There are two routes, and it is worth checking both. Gov. Code § 66311.7 bars the City from denying a permit for an unpermitted ADU or Junior ADU built before January 1, 2020 because it violates building standards or does not comply with ADU law, and bars impact fees and connection charges on the legalized unit. Long Beach also runs its own Unpermitted Dwelling Unit Amnesty Program at LBMC Chapter 21.66. The state protections drop away where correcting the violation is necessary to protect health and safety, or where the building is deemed substandard under Health and Safety Code § 17920.3.