ADU Pass
Cpu Camp Connell
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Cpu Camp Connell — a USPS locale inside Arnold, Alpine County, California — navigate the permit paperwork for building an accessory dwelling unit. This locale covers 1 ZIP code.
Alpine County — county ADU rules and overlays
County ADU ordinance
Alpine County is the smallest and least populous county in California (population ~1,200, the only California county with no incorporated city). The county seat is Markleeville. The county Board of Supervisors administers the entire county footprint as unincorporated territory under California Government Code Sec. 65852.2 and 65852.22 (state ADU preemption regime, as amended by AB 68/881, SB 13, AB 670/3182, AB 2221/SB 897, AB 976, and AB 1033). Because there are no incorporated cities, the county ordinance and unincorporated permitting paths together cover 100% of parcels in Alpine County. The county code addresses ADUs and JADUs through a ministerial 60-day review consistent with state preemption; site constraints (steep terrain, deep snow loads at elevation, very high fire severity zones, and limited septic/water infrastructure) drive most build complexity rather than zoning rules.
- Alpine County Code Title 18 - Zoning, ADU/JADU provisions
- Cal. Gov't Code Sec. 65852.2 (Accessory Dwelling Units)
- Cal. Gov't Code Sec. 65852.22 (Junior Accessory Dwelling Units)
- Cal. Health & Safety Code Sec. 17920.3 (Substandard Housing)
State-floor overlay: California state ADU preemption applies in full. AB 1033 condo-conversion election is at the county's option and the county has not adopted it as of last check. AB 976 prohibits owner-occupancy mandates on detached ADUs through 2025 expiry. HCD oversight: any county ordinance amendment must be submitted to HCD within 60 days of adoption per Sec. 65852.2(h).
County regulatory overlays
Alpine County overlays of consequence: CAL FIRE Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone (FHSZ) covers nearly the entire county; Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) jurisdiction over the Lake Tahoe Basin on the northern edge; FEMA SFHA along the East Fork Carson, Markleeville Creek, and West Walker drainages; and the California Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Chapter 7A applies broadly. The county is almost entirely within the Humboldt-Toiyabe and Eldorado National Forests, so most parcel boundaries abut federal land - relevant for fire setbacks and access-easement issues but not for county zoning per se.
- CAL FIRE State Responsibility Area / Very High FHSZ
- Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) jurisdiction — TRPA jurisdiction overlays a small portion of northern Alpine County; the bulk of the county (Markleeville south, Bear Valley, Hermit Valley) is outside TRPA.
- FEMA SFHA - Carson and Walker River drainages
- California Scenic Highway System - SR-89 / SR-4 / SR-88
County permitting (unincorporated parcels)
Alpine County Building/Planning Department issues all ADU permits in the county because every parcel is unincorporated. Practical permitting frictions are not regulatory but environmental: very high fire severity zones (CAL FIRE State Responsibility Area covers nearly the entire county), Lake Tahoe Basin TRPA jurisdiction along the northern edge near Hope Valley/Kirkwood corridors (TRPA review can add discretionary layers for Tahoe Basin parcels), Sierra snow loads requiring 200+ psf structural design at elevation, septic/well constraints with limited public sewer (only Markleeville and Bear Valley have any community service districts), and short summer build seasons (typical practical window is May to October).
California state — ADU law and programs
State ADU law
California has the most aggressive statewide ADU preemption regime in the US, built from ~15 bills passed 2019-2025 and enforced by the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). The 2026 HCD ADU Handbook addendum (in effect with the 2025 Title 24 code cycle) is the operative state-level reference. The regime does four things at once: (1) preempts local zoning that would ban or unreasonably restrict ADUs; (2) imposes by-right ministerial approval with short statutory deadlines; (3) caps fees and utility-connection charges; and (4) empowers HCD to void non-compliant local ordinances.
State HOA preemption
California has the strongest statewide HOA-preemption regime in the US for accessory dwelling units, built from two bills: AB 670 (2019) voided ADU-prohibiting covenants on single-family residential lots, and AB 3182 (2020) extended and codified the preemption into the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act (Civil Code §§ 4740 / 4741). The combination prohibits common-interest communities from banning ADUs, restricting rentals below 25% of separate interests, or treating ADUs as separate HOA interests. Limits remain: HOAs retain authority over reasonable design standards and statutory height limits, and the 2026 Carlsbad case (CalMatters coverage) established that an HOA's documented design-standards regime can effectively delay or constrain ADU approval short of outright prohibition.
State financing programs
California's flagship state-level ADU financing program — the CalHFA ADU Grant Program — is paused and has not been refunded since the original $100 million allocation was fully deployed 2023-12-28. The program provided up to $40,000 per qualifying homeowner for pre-construction and non-recurring closing costs and financed approximately 2,500 ADUs in two rounds. As of 2026-04, no new funding round has been announced in the state budget. CalHFA continues to publish anti-scam warnings because bad actors actively solicit homeowners claiming access to grant funds that no longer exist. State-level financing activity has shifted to local pilot programs (San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, San Diego) and private financing products (Fannie Mae ADU mortgage, HELOC, construction-to-permanent).
State housing programs
California's state-level ADU programs are concentrated at HCD (technical guidance, ordinance review, enforcement) and the paused CalHFA grant pipeline (covered under stateFinancing). The state does not operate a central pre-approved ADU plan library — instead, AB 1332 (2024) created a preemption framework for local pre-approved plans with a 30-day ministerial-approval deadline, and major cities (Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, Sacramento, Berkeley) have rolled out their own plan catalogs. The California YIMBY coalition and other housing-policy organizations play an influential role in bill drafting; they are not state agencies but effectively drive much of the ADU legislative agenda. The Title 24 code cycle (now 2025, in effect for 2026 permits) is the authoritative building-code baseline.
Federal (United States) — ADU-relevant rules and programs
Federal ADU law
The United States has no federal statute that directly regulates accessory dwelling unit entitlement or design. Land-use authority over ADUs resides with states and local governments under the traditional police power. Federal engagement is limited to financing (Fannie/Freddie/FHA/VA/USDA), flood insurance (FEMA/NFIP), and discretionary housing programs (HUD), which are recorded in sibling sections of this file.
Federal financing programs
Federal housing-finance agencies and GSEs set nationwide underwriting rules that govern whether an ADU can be financed, appraised, and counted toward mortgage qualifying income. The relevant actors are Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA (HUD), VA, and USDA Rural Development.
Federal tax credits
There is no ADU-specific federal tax credit. ADUs may incidentally qualify for existing federal energy-efficiency and clean-energy tax credits when the ADU construction includes qualifying measures.
Federal housing programs
HUD administers several discretionary programs that can fund ADU-related activity at the grantee's election, but none is an ADU-specific program.
ZIP Code
- 95223
Post Office
- 3431 Highway 4, 95223