San Jose outshines Bay Area in applications for granny flats

Judging by its explosion of granny flats, San Jose may have a surge in grandmothers.

The South Bay city had nearly 600 permit applications last year to build the accessory dwelling units, or backyard flats, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing figures from the state Department of Housing and Community Development.

That’s double the number of granny flat applications across Santa Clara County in 2018, and nearly half the 1,250 applications filed in the county last year.

Michael Lane, state policy director for San Francisco-based housing nonprofit SPUR, credited the jump to San Jose’s streamlined permitting process and a new ADU center where homeowners can choose from pre-approved plans.

“Over 40 percent of their new residential permits have actually been ADUs” over the last year, Lane told the Business Times. “And that’s our largest and most populous city in the Bay Area.”

“Because we have so many single-family neighborhoods and subdivisions, particularly in San Jose, it’s actually perfect to be able to use some of that expensive real estate even more effectively,” he said. “It just provides additional options — for retirees or young people looking to rent.”

In June, San Jose also became the first city in the state to embrace a new law allowing homeowners with backyard granny flats to sell them as condominiums. 

The Bay Area’s largest city employed Assembly Bill 1033 to pass an ordinance letting homeowners buy and sell their accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, separately from their primary house. The local law takes effect July 18.

Berkeley is expected to follow suit.

The new figures by housing regulators only point to legal granny flats. Between 2016 and 2020, homeowners in San Jose built more than 1,000 unpermitted ADUs, according to a June study based on satellite images by Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

No other major Bay Area city came close to matching San Jose’s ADU growth.

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Oakland saw the second-most applications last year, with just over 300, about the same as in 2018. Richmond had 85 applications last year compared to two in 2018.

At the same time, ADU applications about doubled in Fremont to 150; Hayward to 70; and San Mateo to six. 

San Francisco had 140 applications for ADUs last year, a nearly 50 percent decrease from six years ago. ADU applications also dipped in Sunnyvale to 32 last year; in Walnut Creek to 21, while plummeting in Berkeley and Redwood city to none.

— Dana Bartholomew