ADUs in Lakewood
The State of California has enacted dozens of new housing laws in recent years designed to address California’s housing shortage, especially affordable housing.
These new laws significantly reduce a city’s discretion in approving new housing and put strict timelines on the approval process.
In particular, these new laws have seen a multitude of development applications for additional residential units on single-family lots, which are generally known as Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs).
You can learn more about ADUs in California in the California Department of Housing and Community Development ADU Handbook.
Given the volume and complexity of these new housing laws, and the significant limitations they pose on the city’s oversight and decision making, Lakewood staff have developed the information below to help residents understand what has changed and what the city is doing in response to help protect our quality of life.
What is an ADU?
Since 2016, the state legislature and governor have passed several pieces of legislation that now force local cities, including Lakewood, to allow extra housing units on single-family lots, in some cases allowing up to three extra units in addition to the main residence.
These additional housing units are generally called Accessory Dwelling Units, or ADUs. Some are legally called “SB 9 units” named after the piece of state legislation that created them, but they are all similar and for the purposes of this discussion, we will call them all ADUs.
The state legislation says city governments cannot prevent a homeowner from building an ADU, but there are some objective standards that cities can require of the ADUs, which are explained below.
What kinds and sizes of ADUs does the state law currently allow?
Under the new state laws, a property owner is now entitled to build a detached ADU in their backyard between 150 and 1,200 square feet in size and they can also convert their detached garage into an ADU.
The ADU must meet all state residential building codes and have a bathroom, kitchen and laundry.
The new state law also allows a property owner to build one “Junior” ADU, which is an existing room contained within the main residence. The Junior ADU (JADU) must have a separate door to the outside and an efficiency kitchen, including a sink, and can share the main house’s bathroom.
How many units are allowed on one lot?
One aspect of the state ADU laws gives property owners the right to split their lot in two so they could build up to two housing units on each of the two lots. However, any split lot must be a minimum of 40% of the previous lot size. That would be very difficult to accomplish in Lakewood given the small lot sizes, and so there has only been one request for a lot split in Lakewood under the ADU laws.
Using the new state laws, a property owner can now build an ADU in his or her backyard, convert their garage into an ADU, and convert a bedroom in their house into what’s called a Junior ADU (or JADU). Combining all of those with the original residence, property owners can now place up to a total of four housing units on what was once a single-family residential lot.
The new state laws say that only in the case of a JADU must the property owner live on the premises. Otherwise, the property owner can develop three units of housing on a single-family residential lot and rent all three units if they wish.
How many ADUs are there in Lakewood?
As of Feb. 1, 2025 there are 320 ADUs permitted and built in Lakewood. There are another 349 ADUs in process, either with plans in review or in the building process.
There has been a growth in the building of ADUs. There were 46 built in 2022, 81 in 2023, 120 in 2024 and 10 so far in 2025.
To put it in perspective, there are 22,708 single-family residences in Lakewood. With 320 ADUs currently, that is 1.4% of Lakewood single family homes having an ADU. But another 1.5% have plans currently in process to build an ADU. And that number is expected to keep growing.
Background on state-mandated ADUs and what Lakewood is doing
The new state legislation is designed to build more housing in California—a worthwhile goal that most people support. But the legislation did not require that the new housing be more affordable than market-rate.
And the new housing mandate by the state comes at the cost of harming the quality of life for existing residents in single-family neighborhoods because the state specifically prevents local cities from requiring the new housing to have any additional off-street parking.
The new ADUs, especially as they increase in number, will make on-street parking increasingly difficult for all residents on a block and will contribute to a feeling of over-crowdedness in neighborhoods.
While the City of Lakewood acknowledges the statewide housing shortage and affordability crisis, the city has consistently opposed the state legislation because it will contribute to overcrowding and parking difficulties for existing residents of neighborhoods, and because it removed the city’s local control over zoning, which has long been a right of local communities to control the quality of life at the local level.
Lakewood City Council Members and city staff lobbied state legislators throughout the legislative process; and the city informed Lakewood residents of the pending legislation and encouraged residents to express their opinion pro or con to state legislators.
The various pieces of legislation were passed into law in several bills over the past eight years, and are now the law of the land in California, meaning property owners have the right to build ADUs in every city in California, including in Lakewood, and the city – by and large – has to allow them.
The City of Lakewood of course follows the law, but the Lakewood City Council has also passed several city ordinances taking advantage of the very few areas of discretion left for cities, thereby giving Lakewood the maximum amount of local control allowed by the state for ADUs, explained below.
Many cities accepted the new state housing rules without seeking to retain or add additional local controls. But the Lakewood City Council passed multiple ordinances giving Lakewood the maximum amount of local control allowed for ADUs.
The ordinances require applicants for an ADU in Lakewood to submit their building plans to the city to ensure architectural compatibility between the proposed ADU and the existing dwelling unit. The city requires that the quality of the materials for the ADU be the same or exceed the quality of the primary unit. The city’s review looks for compatibility in building elements such as roofing, paint color, windows and doors, landscaping and proper storage of trash containers.
In Lakewood, at least we can be assured that if someone wants to build an ADU, it will look the same as their main house and it will be incorporated into the overall property in a way that follows longstanding Lakewood rules for a good neighborly look.
They must also design and build to a quality standard in Lakewood that is mobility-friendly so that it could be used by seniors and others who need that extra space and mobility. For example, Lakewood is requiring ADUs to have 32”-wide doorways instead of 28”-wide, and 36”-wide openings for showers.
While not the ideal outcome, the City Council has said that it is trying to make the best of the situation and the legal options it has.
Yes. Lakewood has joined a relatively small group of other cities in jointly filing the first lawsuits against the State of California challenging the constitutionality of parts of the ADU legislation.
Lakewood and Rancho Palos Verdes were the first “general law” cities in the state to file suit, and the case is pending. A similar lawsuit was filed by four “charter cities” (Redondo Beach, Torrance, Carson and Whittier).
The two different lawsuits were required because communities with their own city charters and those who operate under the state’s “general law” for cities have different “standing” with the State and slightly different legal grounds for filing their lawsuits, even though the essence of the two suits is the same.
The charter cities’ suit was successful at the trial level, which is good news for Lakewood’s suit because the constitutional issue in question is the same.
However, our optimism is somewhat muted because the state government is appealing the charter city decision, and the State Legislature is actively pursuing new ADU legislation that would address the issue that the court found fault in. Nonetheless, Lakewood, along with the other cities, will continue to press the case.