Journal ·
Pasadena ADU Fees: What the 900 Square Foot Line Waives
Pasadena does not charge its Residential Impact Fee on an accessory dwelling unit of 900 square feet or less, and it waives that same fee at any size if the owner signs a seven year Housing Agreement. Those are two different doors to the same waiver, and most owners only hear about one of them before they start pulling permits.
Does Pasadena waive ADU permit fees?
Some of them, and only under specific conditions. The city's own ADU page states that ADUs of 900 square feet or less, without a Housing Agreement, are exempt from the Residential Impact Fee (RIF) and get a 25 percent reduction on the Construction Tax, the General Plan Maintenance Fee, and the Technology Fee, plus a Construction and Demolition deposit cut to $1,000 (City of Pasadena Planning & Community Development). Anything larger, without an agreement, pays the RIF in full.
These reductions are not retroactive and did not all start on the same date. The fee waivers and the reduced $1,000 deposit took effect May 6, 2025. The RIF and Construction Tax exemptions for units at or under 900 square feet took effect later, July 17, 2025. A permit pulled before either date does not get the discount applied after the fact.
What is the Residential Impact Fee, and who sets the number?
Any ADU over 900 square feet is charged a RIF sized proportionally to the square footage of the primary dwelling on the lot. Pasadena's Public Works Department calculates the proportion against the currently adopted fee schedule, not the Planning Department, and not a flat citywide number. Two houses of different sizes generate two different RIF amounts for an identical ADU.
How does a Housing Agreement waive the fee at any size?
An owner can skip the 900 square foot ceiling entirely by recording one of two optional contracts before permit issuance:
| Agreement | What the owner commits to | Term |
|---|---|---|
| ADU Landlord Agreement | Rent exclusively to a family member, or to a tenant in the city's Rental Assistance Program | 7 years minimum |
| ADU Affordability Covenant | Rent to a household at or under 120% of Area Median Income | 7 years minimum |
Either one exempts the ADU from the RIF regardless of square footage, adds a 50 percent discount on plan check fees, and drops the C&D deposit to $1,000. The process runs through the Housing Department: the applicant answers yes to the Housing Agreement question in the CSS Permit Portal, provides an email for every person on the most recent recorded grant deed, and signs through Adobe Sign once the permit clears its first review stage. Processing after signature takes one to two weeks. Questions on the agreements go to the Housing Department at (626) 744-8321.
The catch sits in the fine print twice over. The Housing Agreement must be executed before permit issuance, not after, or standard fees apply and any discount already given has to be repaid. And the exemption is not available to multifamily sites with two or more attached units already on the lot, only to single-family sites.
Does the ADU Standard Plans program stack with these waivers?
It creates a third path to the same discount rather than adding a fourth one on top. An ADU built from one of the city's pre-approved Standard Plans gets the 50 percent plan check discount, the RIF exemption, and the reduced $1,000 deposit regardless of size, the same package the Housing Agreement provides. Modifications to a Standard Plan are not allowed, which is the cost of the faster, cheaper permit. The applicant confirms which path applies on a short Plan Check Submittal Questionnaire before the city calculates any fee.
Will the ADU still raise property taxes, waivers or not?
Yes, and this runs on a separate track from every fee above. The city says directly that building an ADU in LA County increases property taxes, and that the county assessor sets that number, not the city. Revenue and Taxation Code section 71 is the state law behind it: the assessor gives the finished ADU its own base year value and leaves the existing house's assessment where it was. None of the RIF waivers, the Construction Tax reduction, or the Housing Agreement change that assessment. A fee waived at permit issuance is not a tax exemption at completion. The full mechanics of that reassessment, including how the timing of completion changes the first supplemental bill, are covered in the Burbank ADU property tax explainer, which walks through the same Revenue and Taxation Code sections Los Angeles County applies citywide, not just in Pasadena.
What triggers ministerial approval, and how fast is it?
Pasadena Municipal Code Section 17.50.275 routes a conforming ADU application to the Planning Director for ministerial review, meaning no hearing, within the time limits set by Government Code Section 65852.2 "or successor provision," a phrase the code itself uses because the state renumbered its ADU statutes under Senate Bill 477 in March 2024. The full current ordinance sits in Ordinance No. 7420, adopted May 20, 2024, which is the version that controls today rather than any earlier codification still floating around search results.
Does the parking requirement change any of this math?
Not the fees, but it changes what an owner has to build alongside the unit. One additional parking space is required for the ADU unless the lot sits within a half mile of a public transit stop, the ADU is built inside existing space such as a converted garage, on-street permits are required in the area but not offered to the ADU's occupant, or a commercial car share pickup point sits within a block. A property already in a Preferential Parking Permit District can lose that exception rather than gain one. The ADU also has to share the existing driveway with the primary house; a second driveway is allowed only off an alley, if one serves the lot.
Does a historic district change what can be built at all?
Yes, and the fee waivers above do not fix this problem, because it is a permitted use question, not a fee question. On a property inside a historic district (the city's table names National Register and Landmark districts as examples), a new ADU is allowed only if it qualifies as a converted ADU, or as a newly constructed ADU that is not visible from the public right-of-way. A newly constructed ADU that would be visible from the street in a historic district is not a fee problem to solve. It is not an approvable project as designed.
Individually designated historic properties are more restrictive again. A converted ADU is permitted there, but a newly constructed ADU is prohibited outright, converted or nothing. Questions on either rule go to the Design and Historic Preservation staff at DHPQuestions@cityofpasadena.net, separately from the general zoning mailbox.
The city also runs a Second Unit ADU Program that is a different tool from the Housing Agreement: direct financial assistance for financing, designing, permitting and building a new ADU, or for bringing an existing unpermitted garage conversion up to code, aimed at owners who want to rent the result as affordable housing rather than to a family member.
Q: Does the 900 square foot line apply to Junior ADUs too?
Junior ADUs are capped at 500 square feet everywhere in California, under both state law and Pasadena's own definition, so they fall inside the 900 foot exemption automatically without needing a Housing Agreement.
Q: Can an owner apply for a Housing Agreement after the permit is already issued?
No. The agreement has to be executed before issuance. A Housing Agreement signed later does not apply retroactively, and fees already reduced on the expectation of one have to be repaid.
Q: Who actually calculates the impact fee amount?
Pasadena Public Works, using the city's adopted fee schedule and the square footage of the primary dwelling, not a flat number set in advance for every ADU.
This article summarizes Pasadena Municipal Code Section 17.50.275, Ordinance No. 7420, and the Planning & Community Development Department's published ADU fee schedule. It is general information, not legal or tax advice, and fee schedules change. The Pasadena Permit Center confirms current numbers before you apply. Call Alla at (818) 699-5367 or use the enquiry form.
More on the numbers behind an ADU decision in the Burbank ADU property tax explainer, and more on this market in the Pasadena area guide.