City of Oakland Accessory Dwelling Unit Initiative

Urban Planning Partners led an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Initiative to update the City of Oakland’s ADU policies, procedures, and practices and remove barriers to ADU construction. The ADU Initiative is among several strategies to increase affordable housing stock for renters while protecting current residents from displacement and ensuring that Oakland’s housing policies are racially and economically equitable. Stakeholder feedback and utilizing an equity lens were crucial throughout the entirety of the process given our goal of reducing racial disparities through ADU development.

As the lead consultant for this project, Urban Planning Partners developed strategies to achieve these goals supported by robust research, policy analysis, and public outreach. The research stage of the project included reviewing existing literature, collecting, and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data from stakeholder engagement, and performing regulatory review and geospatial analyses. Our research identified barriers related to City regulations and processes, coordination with outside utility providers, widespread unpermitted ADUs without incentives for legalization, and homeowner confusion and fear over the applicability of tenant protections. External to the City’s process, we identified cost of construction and fees and finding a contractor as additional barriers to ADU construction. Based on our findings, Urban Planning Partners worked with the City to identify and prioritize solutions that will best fit Oakland’s unique needs and have the most impact: revising the survey requirement to make expensive property surveys the exception and not the rule, developing short ADU and landlord guides for homeowners to help them know what to expect, and establishing a pre-approved plan program to streamline the permitting process. The landlord and single-family ADU guides were published in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Public input is integrated into every stage of the ADU Initiative, from data gathering to brainstorming solutions to educational and marketing materials.

Project Stats:

  • Approximately 18,000 parcels that could accommodate a detached ADU in Oakland

  • 73% single-family residences in Oakland owned with at least 50% equity

  • $1,112 (or 60% of the Area Median Income for a single-person household) – average monthly rent charged by online survey respondents for their Oakland ADU

  • 30% vacancy rate of survey respondents’ ADUs

  • 665 responses to online survey

Why We Liked This Project: ADUs are a versatile and important tool in combating our regional housing crisis and creating more equitable neighborhoods. Oakland is going above and beyond State requirements and truly looking for data-driven solutions to increase ADU production. We have enjoyed putting our policy and data analysis skills to the test and getting out and talking to homeowners in the city we call home. We can’t wait to implement process changes and create resources that will get more ADUs developed in our backyard.