Permit Values Top $304 Million as ADU Approvals Climb Under New State Laws

Pasadena has issued 8,354 building permits worth more than $304 million so far this fiscal year, including 214 permits for accessory dwelling units, according to the city’s latest planning figures.

The totals appear in the Planning and Community Development Department’s monthly activity report for May, released by Acting Director Jason Mikaelian. They land as California continues an aggressive rewrite of its accessory dwelling unit laws that has made backyard units easier and cheaper to build.

Across the fiscal year to date, the city reported building and subtrade permits with a combined valuation of $304,671,393 and 38,838 completed building inspections, the city said. Its code-compliance division opened 187 new cases, completed 409 inspections and closed 234 cases, and issued 129 presale certificates while inspecting 205 rental units under the city’s quadrennial rental-inspection program.

The 214 accessory dwelling unit permits reflect a category the state has spent years working to expand. California law now permits detached units of up to 1,200 square feet on most residential lots with minimal setbacks and a 60-day approval deadline, and a 2023 law permanently removed the requirement that owners live on the property to rent out an accessory unit. The state’s housing agency calls such units “one solution to increasing the supply of affordable housing.”

Recent state law also links the units to disaster recovery. For homeowners in an area under a governor’s emergency declaration on or after February 1, 2025 — which includes those who lost homes in the January 2025 Eaton Fire — a detached accessory unit can receive a certificate of occupancy before the main house is rebuilt, letting families live on their property during reconstruction. Pasadena’s free, pre-reviewed ADU standard plans expired at the end of 2025 under updated building codes and now may be used only for properties that were red-tagged, a limitation aimed at fire-damaged homes.

Two of the report’s other figures track local housing programs: the presale certificates stem from the city’s pre-sale residential inspection requirement, while the quadrennial program inspects rental units on a four-year cycle to check housing conditions.

The Planning and Community Development Department posts the full monthly reports at https://www.cityofpasadena.net/planning/monthly-activity-reports/.