Housing is not always the easiest to find on the Central Coast. The City of Grover Beach is committed to increasing affordable housing by making it easier to build accessory dwelling units, or ADUs.

Jeff Hawley’s son was one of those who couldn’t find a home. This prompted Jeff to build this detached living unit seven years ago.

“All this property has been sitting there for years. Let’s just build. so we just took out a loan and built it and gave it a home,” Hawley said.

Now, the City of Grover Beach, in partnership with the cities of Mora Bay, Arroyo Grande and Atascadero, is committed to making ADU construction much easier for homeowners.

“It provides independent laundry and kitchen facilities and can be anywhere from a studio to a two-bedroom,” said Megan Martin, Grover Beach’s director of community development.

Additional living space can be attached or detached from the main home and used for family, friends or as a long-term rental.

“I think it’s good that it’s good for the city and it provides affordable housing if someone doesn’t raise the rent,” Hawley added.

This comes after a big push by the state of California to create more affordable housing.

“Each site is unique and requires its own level of verification, but what this process does and what we’ve done with this program is take the guesswork out of block design,” Martin explained.

Grover Beach City officials went even further by introducing pre-designed ADU plans.

“Six floor plans for applicants to choose from, ranging from 314 square feet for a studio to around 1,000 square feet for a two-bedroom apartment. And we also have four different architectural styles to choose from,” Martin added.

To learn more about ADU policies and requirements, you can visit your city’s website. For the City of Grover Beach, you can contact the Community Development Department at comdev@groverbeach.org or 805-473-4520.