ADU Pass
Elmhurst
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Elmhurst, DuPage County, Illinois navigate the permit paperwork for building an accessory dwelling unit. This area covers 1 ZIP code.
Map
DuPage County — county ADU rules and overlays
County ADU ordinance
DuPage County, Illinois - 928,000 residents in suburban Chicago - regulates accessory dwelling units in unincorporated territory through the DuPage County Zoning Ordinance, administered by the DuPage County Department of Economic Development and Planning. DuPage is heavily incorporated (Naperville, Aurora-portion, Wheaton, Downers Grove, Lombard, Glen Ellyn, Elmhurst, Carol Stream, Bolingbrook-portion, Bartlett-portion, Hinsdale, Oak Brook, Lisle, Westmont, Villa Park, Addison, Wood Dale, Itasca, Roselle, Bensenville, Glendale Heights, Warrenville, West Chicago, Winfield, Clarendon Hills, Oakbrook Terrace, Burr Ridge, Willowbrook, Westchester); unincorporated DuPage is a patchwork of pockets along municipal boundaries. Each incorporated municipality sets its own ADU rules under home-rule authority where applicable.
State-floor overlay: Illinois has not enacted statewide ADU preemption. DuPage County and its incorporated municipalities retain home-rule authority over ADU zoning.
County regulatory overlays
DuPage County administers flood-hazard, and (where mapped) coastal, wildland-fire, historic, and airport overlays that shape ADU project feasibility. The most consistent overlay across the county is FEMA NFIP floodplain regulation; other overlays apply to specific geographies inside the county.
- FEMA NFIP Special Flood Hazard Areas in DuPage County — A new ADU in a mapped SFHA must be elevated to or above the Base Flood Elevation; cost impact on the project is often material.
- Historic districts and individually-listed historic resources
County permitting (unincorporated parcels)
DuPage County issues building permits for parcels in unincorporated territory through its development services / planning department, with separate review tracks for zoning conformance, building-code compliance, on-site sewage where applicable, floodplain compliance, and addressing. Inside incorporated municipalities, city departments handle their own permits; the county's authority is geographically limited to unincorporated territory. An ADU permit application is typically processed as a residential building permit with a zoning verification step against the county's ordinance for the parcel's zoning district.
Illinois state — ADU law and programs
State financing programs
Illinois does not operate an ADU-specific statewide loan, grant, or forgivable-loan program. The Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) is the state's housing finance agency and administers a robust portfolio of homebuyer products: Access Forgivable, Access Deferred, Access Repayable down-payment-assistance variants, the IHDA Mortgage first-mortgage product, and the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit allocation. The 2025 IHDA Access Home program offers DPA equal to 6% of purchase price up to $15,000. None target ADU construction directly; an ADU-bearing primary residence on an Illinois lot can qualify for the underlying mortgage when other criteria are met.
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
- 60126
Post Office
- 154 W Park Ave, 60126