Paicines

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

1 ZIP code

Map

Open larger map

San Benito County — county ADU rules and overlays

County ADU ordinance

San Benito County (population ~67,000, growing rapidly as a Bay Area / Silicon Valley spillover commute shed) sits between Santa Clara County to the north and Monterey County to the west, anchored on the San Benito River and the Pajaro River drainage. The county seat is Hollister (~46,000, the only city of any scale and the bulk of county population); the only other incorporated city is San Juan Bautista (~2,200, the historic mission town). Unincorporated communities include Tres Pinos, Paicines, Aromas (split with Monterey/Santa Cruz), Panoche, New Idria, San Felipe, and Bitterwater. The county is dominated by agricultural land (row crops, fruit and nut orchards, cattle ranching) and the Diablo Range / Gabilan Range. Pinnacles National Park (federal jurisdiction) covers the southwest corner. The county Board of Supervisors administers ADU permitting in unincorporated territory under California Government Code Sec. 65852.2 (state ADU preemption) and Sec. 65852.22 (JADU preemption). The county has been under significant Bay Area commuter housing pressure on Highway 25 (Hollister-Gilroy corridor) and Highway 156 (Hollister-Salinas corridor), which intersects the county's strong agricultural-preservation policy regime.

State-floor overlay: California state ADU preemption applies in full to all unincorporated parcels, but its interaction with Williamson Act contracts is contested terrain. The state-floor ministerial review applies to ADUs on residential and mixed-use parcels; on Williamson Act agricultural-preserve parcels, the ADU must qualify as a compatible use under the contract or be permitted on a non-contracted residential subarea of the parcel. AB 976 prohibits owner-occupancy mandates on detached ADUs. AB 2221 / AB 2533 (2022-2023) further constrain local denial grounds. HCD oversight: ordinance amendments submitted within 60 days per Sec. 65852.2(h).

County regulatory overlays

San Benito County overlays of consequence: Williamson Act agricultural-preserve contracts covering large portions of unincorporated cropland and rangeland; Pinnacles National Park (federal jurisdiction) in the southwest; San Andreas Fault Zone (Alquist-Priolo) bisecting the county northwest-southeast through the Hollister area and beneath the historic mission at San Juan Bautista; CAL FIRE State Responsibility Area on the Diablo Range, Gabilan Range, and rural unincorporated foothills; FEMA SFHA along the San Benito River, Pajaro River, Pacheco Creek, and the Soap Lake floodway; San Juan Bautista Mission historic-preservation overlay (state and federal historic register); New Idria Mercury Mine federal Superfund site; mountain lion / California condor habitat in the Pinnacles environs; and the Highway 25 / Highway 156 commute-shed transit-priority designations under the regional Transportation Plan.

County permitting (unincorporated parcels)

The San Benito County Planning and Building Department issues ADU permits for unincorporated parcels including Tres Pinos, Paicines, Aromas (county-side), Panoche, New Idria, San Felipe, Bitterwater, the Highway 25 corridor north of Hollister, and the Highway 156 corridor west toward San Juan Bautista. Practical permitting frictions: Williamson Act contracts cover large portions of unincorporated land and constrain ADU additions to compatible-use criteria; CAL FIRE State Responsibility Area covers most of the Diablo Range and Gabilan Range with elevated FHSZ designations; FEMA SFHA along the San Benito River, Pajaro River, and Pacheco Creek; San Andreas Fault Zone (Alquist-Priolo) bisects the county; San Felipe Lake / Soap Lake floodway; and Pinnacles National Park federal jurisdiction in the southwest.

DepartmentSan Benito County Planning and Building Department

Address2301 Technology Parkway, Hollister, CA 95023

Phone831-637-5313

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

95043

Post Office

12261 Airline Hwy, 95043