ADU Pass
Garden Valley
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Garden Valley, El Dorado County, California navigate the permit paperwork for building an accessory dwelling unit. This area covers 1 ZIP code.
Map
El Dorado County — county ADU rules and overlays
County ADU ordinance
El Dorado County (population ~190,000) stretches from the Sacramento Valley edge across the Sierra Nevada to the south shore of Lake Tahoe. The county seat is Placerville (the historic Hangtown of Gold Rush fame); incorporated cities are Placerville and South Lake Tahoe. Major unincorporated communities include Cameron Park, El Dorado Hills, Diamond Springs, Shingle Springs, Pollock Pines, Camino, Somerset, and Coloma (site of the original 1848 gold discovery at Sutter's Mill, now Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park). The unincorporated Apple Hill area in the Camino/Pollock Pines corridor is one of the largest agritourism destinations in California (apple orchards, wineries, Christmas tree farms). The county Board of Supervisors administers ADU permitting in unincorporated territory under California Government Code Sec. 65852.2 and 65852.22 (state ADU preemption regime). The Tahoe Basin portion of the county is under TRPA jurisdiction; the western foothills are dominated by the Caldor Fire (2021) burn footprint and the El Dorado National Forest abuts the eastern county.
- El Dorado County Code Title 130 - 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)
- Tahoe Regional Planning Compact (Pub. Law 96-551)
- El Dorado County General Plan / Apple Hill Specific Plan
State-floor overlay: California state ADU preemption applies in full to unincorporated parcels. Tahoe Basin parcels are subject to TRPA review, which is discretionary and can override the state ministerial preemption for ADUs in the Tahoe Basin. Caldor Fire burn-footprint parcels benefit from county-adopted rebuild streamlining. AB 1033 condo-conversion election status pending verification. AB 976 prohibits owner-occupancy mandates on detached ADUs. HCD oversight: ordinance amendments submitted within 60 days per Sec. 65852.2(h).
County regulatory overlays
El Dorado County overlays of consequence: CAL FIRE State Responsibility Area / Very High FHSZ over the Sierra foothills; Caldor Fire (2021) burn footprint covering Grizzly Flats, Kyburz, Strawberry, parts of Pollock Pines and Twin Bridges (over 1,000 structures destroyed in unincorporated communities); Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) jurisdiction over the Tahoe Basin portion (Meyers, Christmas Valley, Echo Lake); FEMA SFHA along the South Fork American River, Cosumnes River, and Truckee River drainages; Williamson Act on agricultural parcels including Apple Hill; Apple Hill Specific Plan agritourism overlay; Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park (Coloma) cultural-resource buffer; CA Scenic Highway System (US-50 from Placerville to Lake Tahoe); and El Dorado National Forest abutting the eastern county.
- CAL FIRE State Responsibility Area / Very High FHSZ (post-2022 update)
- Caldor Fire (2021) Burn Footprint - Grizzly Flats / Kyburz / Strawberry
- Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) jurisdiction
- FEMA SFHA - South Fork American / Cosumnes / Truckee River
- Williamson Act - Apple Hill agritourism corridor
- Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park - Coloma
- California Scenic Highway System - US-50 / SR-49
County permitting (unincorporated parcels)
El Dorado County Planning and Building Department issues ADU permits for unincorporated parcels. Practical permitting frictions: CAL FIRE State Responsibility Area covers most rural foothills (Very High to High FHSZ); Caldor Fire (2021) burn-footprint parcels in Grizzly Flats, Pollock Pines, Kyburz, Strawberry, and Twin Bridges carry post-fire defensible-space and access-road requirements; Tahoe Basin (Meyers, Christmas Valley, Echo Lake) requires concurrent TRPA permits; Apple Hill specific-plan area constraints; Williamson Act on agricultural parcels in the western foothills and Apple Hill; septic/well infrastructure with limited public sewer outside El Dorado Hills/Cameron Park (which use El Dorado Irrigation District sewer); short summer build seasons at elevation.
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
- 95633
Post Office
- 4850 Marshall Rd, 95633