An ADU in Solana Beach takes two permits from two bodies. All of the city lies in the Coastal Zone and its coastal plan has never been fully certified, so the California Coastal Commission issues the coastal permit itself, usually as a waiver, and the City then issues the building permit after review by Planning, Building, Engineering and Fire. The City moved its ADU rules into a new code section in May 2026, in force that June, but its planning page and June 2025 handout still point to the rules it repealed. Three points the state's housing department flagged remain in the new section, and state law governs each: the hidden-entrance rule, parking with a new house and the one-unit cap.
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BHI Builders takes on ADUs, remodels, additions and custom homes in Solana Beach, where the Coastal Commission issues the coastal permit itself and anything over 16 feet meets the City's view review. What follows rests on Solana Beach's code, the Commission's records and the state statutes.
Who issues permits here, and how does plan check run?
Two bodies. Solana Beach lies entirely in the Coastal Zone, and while its Land Use Plan was certified in 2013, the implementation plan that would hand permit authority to the City never was, so the Coastal Commission keeps it. For an ADU the Commission usually grants a de minimis waiver, which takes effect only after it is reported at the Commission's monthly meeting with a notice posted at the site. The City's handout asks for the Commission's approval letter with the building permit application.
Since AB 462, state law gives the Commission 60 days to decide an ADU's coastal permit where a city has no certified plan, running alongside the City's own review, with the City to notify it once the ADU application is complete; if the Commission does not act in time, the permit is deemed approved. Whether the City now takes the building application before the Commission's letter arrives is a question for intake.
The building application goes to the permit counter by email or through the City's eTrakit portal, and Planning, Building, Engineering and Fire review it, with an outside landscape reviewer where needed. The new ADU section makes the decision ministerial, with no hearing, within 60 days of a complete application, and the statute adds a completeness answer within 15 business days.
For the projects homeowners bring most often:
- An ADU or junior ADU: the Coastal Commission's waiver, then the City's building permit decided in 60 days of a complete application; no impact fee up to 750 square feet and a proportional share above.
- A kitchen or bath remodel inside the house: the City's building permit, its fee set by the job's value and checked against the 2025 California codes.
- An addition or a second story: a Development Review Permit at the City's floor area thresholds, a Structure Development Permit with story poles and view assessment above 16 feet, possibly sprinklers in the whole house past half its size, school fees above 500 square feet, and the coastal permit.
- A new house: the coastal permit, the City's design and view review, the bluff setback on a bluff lot, the interface code in the fire zones, and Santa Fe Irrigation District's capacity charge for a new meter.
Where do Solana Beach's ADU rules differ from state law?
The City's ADU rules are Municipal Code 17.60.210, added by Ordinance 542, introduced on May 6, 2026, adopted 5 to 0 on May 27 and in force 30 days later, which repealed the old section and names the 2025 bills it answers. It followed Ordinance 525 of December 2023, which the state's housing department found out of line on ten points in December 2025, and Ordinance 533 of January 2026, which raised the detached units on an apartment lot from two to eight. The code host lists the code as current through May 27, 2026.
The City's own documents have not caught up: the planning page still links Ordinance 525 as the current rules, and the June 2025 handout cites the repealed section, wants a junior ADU's owner on site in every case and charges impact fees at 750 square feet. The table follows the new section and the statute.
| Rule | In the City of Solana Beach |
|---|---|
| Where | Every residential zone, on a lot with an existing or proposed house or apartment building, under the zone's objective standards except where the ADU section sets its own. |
| Units on a single-family lot | The section caps a single-family lot at one ADU or one junior ADU outside the mandatory list, while that list allows a junior ADU with an ADU inside the house and a new detached unit of 800 square feet; HCD asked the City to allow every state combination, and the statute governs. |
| Apartment lots | Converted space for one unit or more, up to a quarter of the homes; up to eight detached units on a lot with existing apartments, never more than its homes, and two with a proposed building. |
| Size | Up to 850 square feet for a studio or one bedroom and 1,000 for more; a junior ADU 500. The handout's 800 square foot cap above the 60 percent floor area threshold is not in the code, and no floor area rule may stop an 800 square foot unit. |
| Height | 16 feet for a detached unit, measured from the lower of the old or finished grade; 18 near major transit with 2 more for a matching roof pitch, 18 on a multistory apartment lot; an attached unit 25 feet or the zone's height, whichever is lower, up to two stories. |
| Setbacks | None for a conversion or a rebuild on the same footprint; 4 feet from side and rear lines otherwise, eaves no closer; 6 feet between house and detached unit and 10 where a unit's entrance faces a wall; no deck or patio on the roof. |
| Design | The house's style, materials and colors. The section adds that the unit's main entrance may not be visible from the street; HCD called that subjective under state law, which allows only objective standards, and the statute governs. Raise it at intake. |
| Parking | One space, tandem or in a setback allowed and screened by planting, except within half a mile's walk of transit, in a historic district, for a conversion, where street permits are not offered, or near car share. The list leaves out a unit applied for with a new house, which HCD flagged and the statute exempts. |
| Sprinklers | None when the house has none, and an ADU does not trigger them in the house; the City's 2025 fire code exempts an addition made only to create an ADU from its whole-house sprinkler rule. |
| Junior ADU | Up to 500 square feet with an efficiency kitchen and a covenant recorded before the permit; the owner lives on site only when the bathroom is shared, as the section and state law say since 2026. |
| Rentals | Longer than 30 consecutive days, so 31 is the shortest lease. The City's short-term rental chapter permits stays of 7 to 30 days and bans shorter ones, which an ADU or junior ADU cannot be used for. |
| Selling a unit on its own | Not for a junior ADU under its covenant; for an ADU, only by the qualified nonprofit route in state law, since the City has no condominium ordinance. |
| Fees | No impact fee at 750 square feet or less; a share above it in proportion to the house; a three-quarters cut in City impact fees for a unit deed-restricted as affordable for 99 years, though that section still points to the repealed ADU rules. |
Where the City's documents still read differently, and what governs:
- The hidden entrance, parking with a new house and the one-unit cap: the statute, as the table says. No HCD reply to Ordinance 542 was found.
- The handout's rules: junior ADU occupancy in every case, a 30-day rental floor and impact fees from 750 square feet give way to the section and the statute, which say shared bathrooms only, more than 30 days and fees above 750.
- Grading: the handout bars an ADU that needs more than 50 cubic yards of grading; no ADU code section carries that rule, so ask Planning how it is applied.
- Views: any structure over 16 feet needs a Structure Development Permit with story poles and view assessment, and the view chapter names no ADU exemption, while the ADU section says it prevails and keeps review ministerial; an attached unit above 16 feet, or a detached one at 18 to 20 feet near transit, is where to ask.
Can you build from a pre-approved ADU plan here?
Not yet. The City's pre-approved ADU program, set out in a guide of September 2025, takes plans from designers for detached units up to 800 square feet and 16 feet, with structural sheets and energy forms, after a preliminary meeting, at about 15 days a review cycle; approved plans are to be listed with the designer's contact, and refiled when codes change. A homeowner using one unchanged submits by email. The planning page lists no approved plan, though the Housing Element promised a permit-ready program by December 2024.
The guide says pre-approved plans must show sprinklers, with a note that none are needed where the house has none, and that site conditions such as slopes, habitat and fire mitigation may still call for reports.
The coast, the bluffs, views and the fire map
On a bluff lot the Land Use Plan puts all new building, guesthouses and other accessory buildings included, behind a geologic setback line set by a geotechnical report for a 75-year life, and never less than 40 feet from the bluff edge; development on bluff property also takes a City Development Review Permit. The scenic, hillside, floodplain and scaled residential overlays add their own rules, the hillside one on slopes of 25 percent or more.
The City adopted the State Fire Marshal's map of March 24, 2025 unchanged by Ordinance 539, 5 to 0 on June 18, 2025, in force July 18. It shows very high, high and moderate bands across the northeast corner above San Elijo Lagoon and down the eastern edge toward Rancho Santa Fe; the coastal and central city is outside them. Ordinance 540 of November 5, 2025 adopted the 2025 Fire Code and the Wildland-Urban Interface Code, in force January 1, 2026.
A homeowners association may not ban an ADU or junior ADU outright or restrict it unreasonably, under Civil Code 4751.
What does an ADU pay in Solana Beach?
The City's fee schedule in force from January 1, 2026 sets impact fees for transportation (with its own ADU rate), parks, fire mitigation, public use facilities and, on bluff lots, public recreation, plus fees for the Structure Development Permit and view assessment. State law bars every impact fee on an ADU of 750 square feet or less; above that the handout says staff charges the ADU's share of the house. Building permits are priced by valuation, with plan check at 85 percent of the permit fee.
- Sewer. The City's own system, with a connection fee per equivalent dwelling unit pending a capacity study; the handout wants the ADU's sewer joined to the house's lateral, one lateral per lot, and state law bars a connection fee on a unit inside existing space.
- Water. Santa Fe Irrigation District serves the city and charges its capacity fee and the County Water Authority's by meter size, from its January 2026 schedule, with no ADU line; the code allows a submeter, and state law governs any charge.
- School fees. One statutory rate per square foot, shared between Solana Beach School District and San Dieguito Union High; 500 square feet or less pays none.
- State grants. The City's flyer of March 2026 still advertises CalHFA's ADU grant; CalHFA says its last round was fully allocated in December 2023.
How many ADUs Solana Beach permits
Solana Beach permits a small number of ADUs, rising from 5 in 2018 to 30 in 2025.
- 52018
- 62019
- 82020
- 192021
- 132022
- 152023
- 202024
- 302025
ADU building permits as Solana Beach reported them to HCD in each annual report (Table A2, ADU category), permitted rather than built, with no separate line for junior ADUs. The City's Housing Element counts 6, 10 and 12 ADUs approved in 2018 to 2020, approvals rather than permits, and plans on 16 a year, 128 over 2021 to 2029.
Recent changes in Solana Beach
What has changed in the rules for building here since 2023, newest first.
Solana Beach's May 2026 section still caps a house lot at one ADU or junior ADU beyond the mandatory list; from 2027 that list itself holds two new detached units, each still behind the Coastal Commission's own coastal permit, usually a waiver. What AB 956 changes.
Ordinance 542 took effect, moving the ADU rules to a new code section; adopted May 27, 2026, 5 to 0.
The Coastal Commission granted a waiver for an 861 square foot two-story detached ADU, reported at its July meeting.
Ordinance 533 was adopted, raising the detached ADUs allowed on a lot with apartments from two to eight.
The 2025 codes, the Wildland-Urban Interface Code and the 2026 fee schedule took effect.
The state's housing department found Ordinance 525 out of line with state law on ten points.
Ordinance 540 adopted the 2025 Fire Code and Wildland-Urban Interface Code, exempting an ADU-only addition from the whole-house sprinkler rule.
AB 462 gave the Coastal Commission 60 days to decide an ADU's coastal permit where a city has no certified plan.
The City issued its pre-approved ADU plan guide for designers.
The 2025 fire hazard map took effect under Ordinance 539, adopted June 18, 2025.
Ordinance 525 took effect, the ADU rules HCD later reviewed; adopted December 13, 2023, 5 to 0.
How BHI approaches a Solana Beach project
What we look at first on a Solana Beach lot.
A Solana Beach ADU runs on two tracks at once, the Coastal Commission's waiver and the City's building review, and on a bluff lot the geologic setback line comes first. Height is the other early question, since 16 feet is where view assessment starts. Book a call to plan yours.
What an ADU might rent for in Solana Beach
ADU rents are not published by any agency, so the table uses HUD's FY2027 Small Area Fair Market Rent for Solana Beach's ZIP code, the ROI calculator's own starting figure: for each bedroom count, the rent four in ten recent movers paid less than, with utilities.
| ZIP | Studio | 1 bed | 2 bed | 3 bed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 92075 | $3,060 | $3,260 | $3,940 | $5,220 |
HUD's FY2027 rents for ZIP 92075 by bedroom count, exactly as the ROI calculator holds them. Model your own lot over 30 years in the ROI calculator.
Next steps
Check your lot against the coastal permit, the new ADU section and the view rule, price the unit, then go to the pages that fit.