Imperial Beach issues ADU permits through its online portal, and on most of the city's land a coastal permit comes first: the City's administrative coastal permit, reviewed in 30 calendar days, or the Coastal Commission's own where it keeps jurisdiction. The Council adopted an ADU ordinance in January 2022, but by its own terms it takes effect only once the Coastal Commission approves it, and the City's reports through 2025 still list that approval as in progress. So no local ADU ordinance is in force, and the City's ADU page states the state's rules instead: the state's unit counts, sizes, heights and 4-foot setbacks, with no City parking rule.
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BHI Builders takes on ADUs, remodels, additions and custom homes in Imperial Beach, where state law sets the ADU rules while the City's ordinance waits on the Coastal Commission, and a coastal permit comes before most builds. Everything below rests on Imperial Beach's code and records and the state statutes.
Who issues permits here, and how does plan check run?
The City has moved to a fully online system: coastal and building permits are both applied for in the Citizen Self-Service portal. For an ADU in the Coastal Zone the City's handout of September 2026 puts the coastal permit first, before the building application, though the two can run side by side on request. The City's parcel viewer shows which path a lot takes: an administrative coastal permit from the City, the same permit where the City's decision sits in the Commission's appeal area, or a permit from the Coastal Commission itself where it keeps jurisdiction.
The City reviews an ADU's administrative coastal permit in 30 calendar days from payment; state law since AB 462 requires a decision within 60 days of a complete application, with no hearing. A school availability letter from each district comes before the building permit, and work in a special flood hazard area needs the City Engineer's flood permit. No building plan check time is published; the state's 15-business-day completeness answer and 60-day decision apply.
For the projects homeowners bring most often:
- An ADU or junior ADU in the Coastal Zone: the administrative coastal permit at the City's reduced ADU fee, then the building permit, under the state's rules as the ADU page sets them out.
- A kitchen or bath remodel: a building permit through the portal, plan check at a share of the permit fee; improvements to an existing house are mostly exempt from the coastal permit.
- An addition: a coastal permit where it adds more than a tenth near the beach or bluff, the flood overlay's rules, and Sweetwater Union High's fee above 500 square feet.
- A new house: the coastal permit, the flood permit and engineer's certification in a flood hazard area, and the City's sewer, transportation and residential construction fees.
Where do Imperial Beach's ADU rules differ from state law?
The Council adopted Ordinance 2021-1204 on January 19, 2022, 5 to 0, adding an ADU chapter, 19.66, to the zoning code; its Section 4 says it takes effect 30 days after passage or on the Coastal Commission's approval, whichever is later. The City's Housing Element reports for 2022, 2023 and 2024, the last presented in March 2025, all say the Commission's certification is in progress, and the published code still has no Chapter 19.66. It does still carry two 1992 sections that ban second units in the single-family zones, which state law makes void.
So the rule in Imperial Beach today is state law, and the City's ADU page states it directly. Two ordinances of January 2026, already approved by the Coastal Commission, refer ADUs and their parking to Chapter 19.66, which shows the City expects it to take effect; the City's FAQ still points to it. What it would add is listed after the table.
| Rule | In the City of Imperial Beach |
|---|---|
| Single-family zones | In R-1-6000, R-1-3800 and R-3000-D: one new detached ADU, one new attached ADU or conversion, not both, and one junior ADU; state law's combination of a conversion, a detached unit and a junior ADU stands behind it. |
| Apartment zones | In R-3000, R-2000 and R-1500 the same, plus with apartments up to eight detached units, no more than the existing homes, at least one converted unit up to a quarter of the homes, and two detached with a proposed building. |
| Size | A detached unit up to 1,200 square feet, a conversion up to 1,200, a junior ADU 500. The page gives an attached unit as half the house or up to 800 square feet; state law sets no maximum below 850, or 1,000 with more than one bedroom, and governs. |
| Height | 16 feet detached, 18 within half a mile's walk of major transit with 2 more for a matching roof pitch or on a multistory apartment lot, and up to 25 feet or the zone's limit attached. |
| Setbacks | 4 feet at the sides and rear, and a conversion may add 150 square feet for its entrance. |
| Parking | No City parking rule for ADUs is in force; state law allows at most one space per unit and none near transit or in its other cases. |
| Sprinklers | Only where the house has them; the City's fire code adds alarm and attic head details for homes that are sprinklered. |
| Junior ADU | Up to 500 square feet within the house, with a deed restriction; the owner lives on site only when the bathroom is shared. |
| Rentals | No City term is in force; state law wants more than 30 days for the mandatory units and junior ADUs. Short-term rentals of under 30 days are allowed only in one commercial-recreation zone and the Seacoast overlay, not in the residential zones. |
| Selling a unit on its own | Possible only through a qualified nonprofit under state law; Imperial Beach has no condominium ordinance. |
| Fees | The City's fee handout exempts an ADU "less than 750 square feet" from its sewer, transportation and residential construction fees; state law exempts 750 or less and governs, with a proportional share above. |
What the adopted Chapter 19.66 would change if the Coastal Commission approves it, each point read against state law:
- Parking: one space per ADU, and two west of the centerline of 3rd Street or within a quarter mile's walk of a beach access point, a coastal park or the pier. State law caps parking at one space, but keeps the Coastal Act in force; whether the City applies the coastal rule today is a question for Planning at intake.
- Height and size: 16 feet for attached and detached units, and 1,200 square feet only with an extra parking space; state law allows more and would govern.
- Units and occupancy: two detached units at most on an apartment lot and the owner on site for every junior ADU; state law allows eight and asks occupancy only with a shared bathroom.
- Short-term rentals: barred outright for ADUs and junior ADUs, which state law's 30-day floor already does for most units.
Can you build from a pre-approved ADU plan here?
One. The City posts a single pre-approved set, a 600 square foot detached one-bedroom, one-bath ADU with a kitchen and living room, drawn to the 2019 California codes and posted in April 2022; it cannot be used in a FEMA special flood hazard area, and by using it the owner releases the City from claims. The City adopted the 2025 codes in October 2025, and no City document says the set has been updated, so ask Building what it accepts.
No City page invites outside designers to submit plans for pre-approval or posts any, which state law has asked of every city since January 2025.
The coast, sea-level rise, floods and fire
Imperial Beach has issued coastal permits under its own certified coastal program since the 1980s. Most of the city is in the Coastal Zone: overlaying the Coastal Commission's boundary on the city's outline puts about 87 percent of its area on the coastal side and an inland block on the east outside it, though that is our measurement, not a City figure, and the parcel viewer is the answer for a lot. The handout requires a coastal permit for a new attached or detached ADU, for a conversion of a garage, storage room or patio cover, and for a garage turned into a junior ADU. It also says the Commission can appeal a decision in the appeal area; since AB 462 a local decision on an ADU's coastal permit cannot be appealed to the Commission, and the statute governs.
Where the Commission keeps jurisdiction it judges an ADU by the Coastal Act itself: in 2022 it approved two ADUs near the bay on conditions of floodproofing for three feet of sea-level rise, a waiver of any future seawall and a deed restriction. In the flood overlay a flood permit and an engineer's certification come first. The City adopted the State Fire Marshal's 2025 map by Ordinance 2025-1255, in force July 18, 2025: high and moderate zones along the residential blocks on the northern edge by the Coronado line, and very high, high and moderate zones on the coast south of the Tijuana River estuary.
What does Imperial Beach charge for an ADU?
An ADU's administrative coastal permit carries a reduced fee, lower than any other administrative coastal permit in the Master Fee Schedule, in place since 2022. The City's fee handout of February 2026 lists a sewer impact fee, the regional transportation fee and a residential construction fee per unit and bedroom, all headed as not applying to ADUs under 750 square feet; state law exempts 750 or less and charges larger units in proportion to the house. Building permits are priced by valuation, with plan check at a share of the permit fee.
- Sewer. The City's own system, its service charges raised from July 1, 2026; state law decides when an ADU may be charged a capacity fee.
- Water. California American Water, whose San Diego tariff covers Imperial Beach; no ADU meter charge was found.
- School fees. Sweetwater Union High's rate per square foot, raised in June 2026, and South Bay Union's, for which the City says to call the district; 500 square feet or less pays none.
How many ADUs Imperial Beach permits
Imperial Beach's ADU permits reached 56 in 2025, more than double any earlier year.
- 42018
- 42019
- 162020
- 252021
- 302022
- 192023
- 242024
- 562025
Imperial Beach's ADU permits in its yearly HCD reports (Table A2's ADU line), at permit and not completion, junior ADUs folded in; the 2018 report holds one unit from 2019. The City's own reports count 25 for 2021, 30 for 2022, 17 for 2023, 22 for 2024 and 56 for 2025, and credit a planner hired in 2024 on a SANDAG grant to speed ADU permits; the Housing Element's goal is 200 over eight years.
Recent changes in Imperial Beach
What has changed in the rules for building here since 2025, newest first.
With its 2022 ordinance still waiting on the Coastal Commission, Imperial Beach states the state's ADU rules directly, which from January 1, 2027 means two new detached units on a house lot, each behind the coastal permit that comes first on most of the city's land. Our 2027 guide explains.
The City reissued its coastal permit handout for ADUs, still saying the Commission can appeal in the appeal area.
New sewer service charges took effect under Ordinance 2026-1262, adopted May 20, 2026.
The City updated its fee handout, exempting ADUs under 750 square feet from its impact fees.
Ordinances 2025-1258 and 2025-1259 were adopted, referring ADUs and their parking to the uncertified Chapter 19.66.
AB 462 ended Coastal Commission appeals of a city's decision on an ADU's coastal permit.
The 2025 California codes were adopted by Ordinance 2025-1256.
The 2025 fire hazard map took effect under Ordinance 2025-1255.
The Coastal Commission certified the City's housing zoning amendment, though not the ADU chapter.
The City's 2024 progress report again listed the ADU ordinance's Coastal Commission certification as in progress.
How BHI approaches a Imperial Beach project
What we look at first on a Imperial Beach lot.
An Imperial Beach ADU starts with the parcel viewer: which coastal path the lot takes, and whether it sits in a flood hazard area, where the City's pre-approved plan cannot be used. Then the coastal permit, then the building permit. Book a call to map out yours.
What an ADU might rent for in Imperial Beach
Since no agency reports ADU rents separately, the table gives HUD's FY2027 Small Area Fair Market Rent for Imperial Beach's ZIP code, the ROI calculator's base figure: per bedroom count, what four in ten recent movers paid or less, utilities included.
| ZIP | Studio | 1 bed | 2 bed | 3 bed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 91932 | $2,010 | $2,140 | $2,590 | $3,430 |
HUD's FY2027 rents for ZIP 91932 by bedroom count, the ROI calculator's own. Try your lot in the ROI calculator over 30 years.
Next steps
Find your lot's coastal path, read it against state law, price the unit, then go to the pages that fit.