Olympic Valley

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

1 ZIP code

Placer County — county ADU rules and overlays

County ADU ordinance

Placer County (population ~415,000) stretches from the Sacramento Valley edge across the Sierra Nevada to the north shore of Lake Tahoe at the Nevada state line. The county seat is Auburn; incorporated cities are Auburn, Roseville (the largest city, ~150,000 and one of California's fastest-growing), Rocklin, Lincoln, Loomis (a town), and Colfax. Major unincorporated communities include Granite Bay (Folsom Lake area), Penryn, Newcastle, Meadow Vista, Foresthill, Weimar, Applegate, Alta, Dutch Flat, Gold Run, Emigrant Gap, Soda Springs (Donner Summit), Olympic Valley (formerly Squaw Valley, site of the 1960 Winter Olympics), Tahoe City, Tahoe Vista, Kings Beach, Carnelian Bay, and Homewood (north and west Tahoe shore). The Board of Supervisors administers ADU permitting in unincorporated territory under California Government Code Sec. 65852.2 and 65852.22 (state ADU preemption). The county splits into three operationally distinct jurisdictional zones: (1) Sacramento Valley west and the I-80 / SR-49 foothills corridor (Auburn, Newcastle, Loomis, Penryn, Granite Bay) under standard county ordinance; (2) Sierra mid-elevation foothills (Foresthill, Meadow Vista, Alta, Colfax periphery) under WUI / FHSZ overlay; (3) Lake Tahoe Basin (Tahoe City CDP, Kings Beach, Tahoe Vista, Carnelian Bay, Homewood) under TRPA dual jurisdiction.

State-floor overlay: California state ADU preemption applies in full to unincorporated Sacramento Valley / foothills parcels. Tahoe Basin parcels are subject to TRPA review, which is discretionary and can override the state ministerial preemption - this is the most consequential preemption gap in the county. AB 976 prohibits owner-occupancy mandates on detached ADUs through 2025 expiry. AB 1033 condo-conversion election: not adopted by the county as of last check. HCD oversight: any county ordinance amendment must be submitted to HCD within 60 days per Sec. 65852.2(h). Tahoe National Forest and Eldorado National Forest federal land along the Sierra crest is outside county zoning.

County regulatory overlays

Placer County overlays of consequence: Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) jurisdiction over the entire Tahoe Basin portion (north shore Tahoe City to Kings Beach plus west shore Homewood to Tahoma); CAL FIRE State Responsibility Area / Very High FHSZ across the Sierra foothills (post-2022 FHSZ map update); recent burn footprints (2014 King Fire reach in the eastern county, 2021 Mosquito Fire in the Foresthill / Michigan Bluff area); FEMA SFHA along the American River, Bear River, Truckee River, and Folsom Lake shoreline; Williamson Act on agricultural parcels in Lincoln/Sheridan and Penryn/Newcastle/Loomis; Olympic Valley (formerly Squaw Valley) Olympic Heritage and resort overlay; SR-49 (Mother Lode highway) and US-50 / I-80 state scenic corridors; Tahoe National Forest and Eldorado National Forest federal land along the Sierra crest; and the Auburn State Recreation Area / North Fork American River Wild and Scenic River corridor.

County permitting (unincorporated parcels)

Placer County Community Development Resource Agency (CDRA) Planning Services issues all ADU permits for unincorporated parcels; the Building Services Division handles plan check and inspections. The county operates a Tahoe satellite office in Kings Beach to handle north-shore parcels with concurrent TRPA workflow. Practical permitting frictions: (1) TRPA dual jurisdiction in the Tahoe Basin extends timelines materially beyond the state 60-day ministerial floor; (2) CAL FIRE State Responsibility Area covers virtually all Sierra foothills (Very High to High FHSZ) - the 2014 King Fire and 2021 Mosquito Fire footprints in the eastern foothills carry post-fire constraints; (3) septic/well dependence outside the Placer County Water Agency (PCWA) and small community service districts; (4) Williamson Act on agricultural parcels in the Lincoln/Sheridan rice belt and Penryn/Newcastle orchard belt; (5) Folsom Lake / American River corridor flood-zone constraints; (6) Roseville / Rocklin / Lincoln urban-edge growth-control (the western county is the fastest-growing region in California). The west shore Tahoe Basin parcels in particular face severe TRPA coverage limits that often force ADUs into conversion-only or attached configurations.

DepartmentPlacer County Community Development Resource Agency - Planning Services

Address3091 County Center Drive, Auburn, CA 95603

Phone530-745-3000

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

96146

Post Office

1600 Olympic Valley Rd, 96146