Avenal

ADU Pass helps homeowners in Avenal, Kings County, California navigate the permit paperwork for building an accessory dwelling unit. This area covers 1 ZIP code.

1 ZIP code

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Kings County — county ADU rules and overlays

County ADU ordinance

Kings County (population ~152,000) is a San Joaquin Valley county on the west side of the southern Central Valley, bounded by Fresno County to the north, Tulare County to the east, Kern County to the south, and Monterey/San Luis Obispo Counties to the west across the Diablo Range. The county seat is Hanford; incorporated cities are Hanford, Lemoore, Corcoran, and Avenal. Major unincorporated communities include Armona, Home Garden, Hardwick, Stratford, Lemoore Station (the Naval Air Station Lemoore civilian housing), Kettleman City, and the Tulare Lake Bed area. The county Board of Supervisors administers ADU permitting on unincorporated parcels under California Government Code Sec. 65852.2 and 65852.22 (state ADU preemption regime). The economy rests on irrigated agriculture (cotton, dairy, almonds, pistachios, tomatoes), petroleum (the Kettleman Hills oil field), confined-feeding dairy operations, and federal employment at Naval Air Station Lemoore (the largest US naval master jet base, home to all Pacific Fleet F/A-18 and F-35C strike fighter squadrons). Two state prisons (Avenal State Prison, Corcoran State Prison) anchor a significant institutional population.

State-floor overlay: California state ADU preemption applies in full to unincorporated parcels in fee. AB 1033 condo-conversion election status pending verification. AB 976 prohibits owner-occupancy mandates on detached ADUs. SB 9 urban lot-split provisions apply only within incorporated cities, not in unincorporated Kings. HCD oversight: ordinance amendments submitted within 60 days per Sec. 65852.2(h). Federal AICUZ overlay around NAS Lemoore can override local zoning under federal preemption.

County regulatory overlays

Kings County overlays of consequence: SGMA critically-overdrafted basin overlay (Tulare Lake Subbasin and Kings Subbasin) constraining new well permits; NAS Lemoore AICUZ overlay restricting residential intensification in accident-potential and noise zones (the largest Pacific Fleet master jet base, all Pacific F/A-18 / F-35C squadrons home-ported); Tulare Lake Bed historic lakebed (re-flooded in 2023, recurrent flood exposure); Kettleman Hills hazardous waste landfill overlay (the largest commercial hazardous waste facility in the western US); CAL FIRE State Responsibility Area on western Diablo Range foothills; FEMA SFHA along the Kings River, Cross Creek, Tule River, and Tulare Lake bottom; Tachi Yokut Tribal jurisdiction (Santa Rosa Rancheria); Avenal and Corcoran State Prisons (state institutional); Westlands Water District / Kings County WD service boundaries; San Andreas Fault zone in the western Diablo Range (Parkfield segment exposure).

County permitting (unincorporated parcels)

Kings County Community Development Agency issues ADU permits for unincorporated parcels including Armona, Home Garden, Hardwick, Stratford, Kettleman City, and the Lemoore Station civilian-housing area. Practical permitting frictions: SGMA Groundwater Sustainability Plans for the critically-overdrafted Tulare Lake and Kings Subbasins constrain new well permits and require water-supply demonstration for rural ADUs without district water service; the AICUZ overlay around NAS Lemoore restricts residential intensification in noise and accident-potential zones (the AICUZ runway corridors extend across western Kings County); the Tulare Lake Bed (the historically largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi, drained for agriculture in the late 19th-early 20th century) re-flooded in the 2023 wet season, displacing communities like Allensworth-area residents and exposing parcels to recurrent ag flooding risk; the Kettleman Hills hazardous waste landfill (the largest commercial hazardous waste facility in the western US) sits in southwest Kings; FEMA SFHA along the Kings River, Cross Creek, Tule River, and the Tulare Lake bottom; CAL FIRE State Responsibility Area covers western Diablo Range foothills.

DepartmentKings County Community Development Agency

Address1400 W. Lacey Boulevard, Hanford, CA 93230

Phone559-852-2670

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).

CalHFA ADU Grant Program
HCD ADU Funding index

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

93204

Post Office

913 E San Joaquin St, 93204