In Santee, the City's Planning and Building Department permits all building work, from ADUs and remodels to additions and new houses, and it takes applications only through its online portal, not on paper. Santee restated its ADU code in December 2025 and January 2026 for the year's state bills, so the code itself is current. The City's July 2026 guide is not: it prints a 1,200 square foot maximum where the code caps a unit outside the state's mandatory list at 850 or 1,000, and a 30-day completeness notice where the code says 15 business days. The City's ADU impact fee waiver ended in September 2024, and since March 2025 a unit over 750 square feet pays impact fees by the square foot.
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BHI Builders takes on ADUs, remodels, additions and custom homes in Santee, where the ADU code was restated for the 2025 state bills and much of the city lies in a mapped fire zone. Below, Santee's ADU rules as its code, its Council and its water and fire agencies set them, read against state law.
Who issues permits here, and how does plan check run?
The City of Santee's Planning and Building Department issues building permits, and every submittal goes through the Santee Permitting and Licensing Portal; the City does not offer expedited review. The Santee Fire Department, a City department, reviews access and water supply through the same portal. Padre Dam Municipal Water District serves both water and sewer, and the City's checklists still ask for Padre Dam's sign-off on the site plan before the building submittal.
The code makes ADU review ministerial with no hearing: a completeness answer within 15 business days, the same for each resubmittal, or the application is deemed complete, and a decision within 60 days of a complete application, or it is deemed approved. An incompleteness finding or a denial can be appealed in writing to the City Council. The City publishes no plan check times for ADUs.
For the projects homeowners bring most often:
- An ADU or junior ADU: a single portal application for the building permit, Padre Dam's site plan review, impact fees by the square foot above 750 square feet, and the City's green building tier on top of the state code.
- A kitchen or bath remodel that moves plumbing, wiring or walls: a building permit under the City's consolidated fee schedule, reviewed against the 2025 codes.
- An addition or a second story: the zone's height, 35 feet and two stories in the single-family zones, its lot coverage, a licensed engineer for a second-story addition, and school fees above 500 square feet.
- A new house: the interface code and 100 feet of defensible space in a very high zone, the river's flood elevations where they apply, the hillside overlay's slope maps, and Padre Dam's water and sewer capacity fees.
Where do Santee's ADU rules differ from state law?
Santee's ADU rules are Municipal Code 13.10.045. The Council restated the whole section by Urgency Ordinance 630, adopted 5 to 0 on December 10, 2025 and in force that day, after staff warned the old text would be void on January 1, 2026, and by the matching Ordinance 631, introduced the same night and adopted January 14, 2026, in force 30 days later. They carry AB 462, AB 1154, SB 9 and SB 543. Ordinance 615 of June 2024 had already dropped owner occupancy for ADUs, and Ordinance 618 of December 2024 added legalization of older unpermitted units.
So in Santee the code is the reliable statement, and where the City's ADU guide of July 2026 reads differently the list after the table says which governs. No HCD letter on the City's ADU code was found.
| Rule | In the City of Santee |
|---|---|
| The streamlined units | A converted unit with up to 150 square feet added for its entrance and a junior ADU; a new detached or attached unit of 800 square feet or smaller with 4-foot side and rear setbacks, alongside the first; converted space in an apartment building, one unit and up to a quarter of the homes; two detached units with an existing or proposed apartment building, or up to eight with an existing one, never more than its homes. Building permit only. |
| Other ADUs | Up to 850 square feet for a studio or one bedroom and 1,000 for two or more, an attached unit also no more than half the house, and never pushed below 800 square feet; the zone's front setback, 4 feet at the sides and rear, and the zone's lot coverage, from 25 percent in the hillside zone to 75 in the densest. |
| Height | 16 feet detached, measured from the finished floor to the peak; 18 near major transit with 2 more for a matching roof pitch, and 18 on a multistory apartment lot; an attached unit to the zone's height, 35 feet and two stories in the single-family zones. |
| Parking | One space for a unit outside the streamlined list, with the state's exceptions, among them half a mile from transit, a historic district and car share; the code asks none of the streamlined units, and lost garage parking is not replaced. |
| Sprinklers | Only where the house is required to have them. The City's fire code requires sprinklers in all buildings regardless of size, but for an ADU state law and the ADU section govern. |
| Green building | Every new home, ADUs included, meets the state green building code's Tier 2 voluntary measures under the City's code; whether that reaches an ADU under state law is a point to raise at intake. |
| Historic neighbors | A unit outside the streamlined list on or within 600 feet of a lot with a California Register resource must be placed out of view of the street. |
| Junior ADU | Up to 500 square feet within a house on a single-family lot, with a deed restriction before occupancy; the owner lives on site only when the bathroom is shared. |
| Owner occupancy | None for an ADU since 2024; a junior ADU as the row above says. |
| Rentals | No term shorter than 30 days under the code; state law requires more than 30 days for the streamlined units and junior ADUs, so 31 days is their shortest lease. Short-term rentals are not allowed anywhere in the city. |
| Selling a unit on its own | Only by the qualified nonprofit route in state law; the City has no condominium ordinance. |
| Fees | Impact fees on a unit over 750 square feet, by the square foot at the single-family rate; none on the regional traffic fee; school fees from 500 square feet. |
| Older unpermitted units | A unit built before 2020 without a permit may be legalized, with the City's substandard structure checklist. |
Where the City's documents read differently, and what governs:
- Size: the guide's table gives 800 to 1,200 square feet; the code caps a unit outside the streamlined list at 850 or 1,000, which state law allows a city to set, and governs. There is no 1,200 square foot ADU in Santee.
- Completeness: the guide says 30 days; the code and the statute say 15 business days, and govern.
- The impact fee line: the guide and the code charge a unit of 750 square feet; the statute exempts 750 or less, and governs. The City's own worked example starts at 751.
- Sale: the guide says ADUs cannot be sold; the code allows the nonprofit route the statute provides.
Can you build from a pre-approved ADU plan here?
Yes, but not the City's own. Santee accepts the County of San Diego's standard ADU plans, Chula Vista's standard plans and Encinitas's permit-ready plans; the owner adds the site plan and the foundation, and the plans may not be modified. The City's web page adds that they serve as guidance and the owner completes them for the lot and the latest codes. Earlier progress reports said the City posted plans of its own, and none is posted today.
No City page invites an outside designer to submit plans for pre-approval or states the 30-day review state law gives a pre-approved detached plan; confirm both at intake.
Fire zones, the river, hillsides and the airport
Santee adopted CAL FIRE's map of March 24, 2025 unchanged by Ordinance 626, adopted 5 to 0 on July 9, 2025, replacing a very high map of 2009; where a parcel is split, the stricter zone applies. The City's own parcel layer counts 8,198 parcel records in a very high zone and 3,611 in a high zone, of about 20,000. A new building in a very high zone needs at least 100 feet of defensible space, and in both very high and high zones it takes the interface code's ignition-resistant construction from January 2026; Ordinance 629 of December 10, 2025 adopted that code with Santee's additions on access, hydrants, fencing, landscaping and a 100-foot fuel modification zone.
Along the San Diego River the flood chapter, amended by the same ordinance, sets a new or substantially improved home's lowest floor a foot above the base flood elevation in the AE zones and limits building in the floodway. On steeper land the hillside overlay asks for slope maps certified by an engineer, architect or landscape architect and grading that keeps the natural landform. Near Gillespie Field, a lot in the airport influence area goes to Planning and possibly the FAA, with sound attenuation in the loudest areas; single homes and ADUs on their own lots remain allowed in the airport's safety zones.
Which fees does a Santee ADU pay?
From September 2019 the City waived every impact fee on ADUs as a five-year trial; it ended on September 27, 2024, and the Council chose not to extend it. Under Resolution 004-2025, adopted 5 to 0 on January 8, 2025 and in force from March 10, impact fees are charged by the square foot for public facilities, traffic, signals, drainage, parks, fire, planning and administration, adjusted each July 1. An ADU over 750 square feet pays the single-family rate times its own size, which the City's nexus study equates with the code's share-of-the-house formula; the regional traffic fee is not charged on an ADU.
- Water and sewer. Padre Dam's 2026 capacity schedule charges water and sewer capacity per equivalent dwelling unit, the County Water Authority's charge by meter size, and laterals at cost; it has no ADU line, and state law bars a connection fee or capacity charge on a unit carved from existing space and keeps any other in proportion.
- School fees. Santee School District's residential rate per square foot, raised in May 2026, and Grossmont Union High's; units under 500 square feet pay none.
- Building permits. The City's consolidated fee schedule of July 2026 prices new construction by occupancy, type and size, with no separate ADU line.
How many ADUs Santee permits
Santee's ADU permits rose from 1 in 2018 to 25 in 2024 and held at 24 in 2025.
- 12018
- 12019
- 32020
- 132021
- 182022
- 172023
- 252024
- 242025
Santee's ADU building permits as reported to HCD each year (Table A2, ADU category), permitted rather than finished, junior ADUs counted in because the form has no line for them. The City's own reports match for 2022 to 2025 and count 81 permits in the Housing Element period through 2024 against its goal of 80; its Housing Element gives 4 for 2019 and 14 for 2020, more than the state's figures.
Recent changes in Santee
What has changed in the City's permit rules since 2024, newest first.
Santee's 2025 fee resolution charges an ADU over 750 square feet the single-family rate times its whole size; from 2027, on a lot with no third ADU, only the part beyond 750 may be counted, still in proportion to the house. The SB 1117 method.
The City posted version 2 of its ADU guide, dated July 2026, with the fiscal 2026-27 impact fee worksheets.
Santee School District's new residential fee per square foot took effect.
Ordinance 631 was adopted, the permanent restatement of the ADU section; in force 30 days later.
Urgency Ordinance 630 restated the ADU section for the 2025 state bills, in force that day, and Ordinance 629 adopted the 2025 codes with the City's interface and flood amendments.
Ordinance 626 adopted the State's March 2025 fire hazard map unchanged.
Impact fees by the square foot took effect under Resolution 004-2025, adopted January 8, 2025.
Ordinance 618 added the legalization of older unpermitted ADUs and the 2024 parking and apartment-lot changes.
The five-year ADU impact fee waiver ended; the Council had declined to extend it two days earlier.
Ordinance 615 removed owner occupancy for ADUs under AB 976.
How BHI approaches a Santee project
What we look at first on a Santee lot.
On a Santee lot we start with the fire map, since much of the city is in a very high or high zone, then the San Diego River's flood rules and the hillside overlay, and Padre Dam's sign-off on the site plan before the building submittal. Book a call to go over yours.
What an ADU might rent for in Santee
No source publishes ADU rents on their own, so here is HUD's FY2027 Small Area Fair Market Rent for Santee's ZIP code, where the ROI calculator starts: by bedroom count, the rent four in ten recent movers came in under, utilities in.
| ZIP | Studio | 1 bed | 2 bed | 3 bed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 92071 | $2,140 | $2,280 | $2,750 | $3,650 |
HUD's FY2027 rents for ZIP 92071 by bedroom count, the ROI calculator's inputs. Run the ROI calculator for your own lot over 30 years.
Next steps
Check your lot against Santee's code, its fire map and the river, price the ADU with its impact fees, then read on.