SDUT: San Diego’s new ADU cap is official. But don’t expect it to stop giant projects already in the pipeline.

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‘The ordinance before you does not include a retroactive provision,’ a city lawyer told concerned council members on July 22.

From the San Diego Union Tribune July 22, 2025:

San Diego leaders on Tuesday finalized a new city cap on the number of backyard apartments on single-family lots — but officials said several large proposed projects already in the approval pipeline will be hard to block.

The new cap is a long-awaited response to many months of neighborhood complaints that outlier backyard apartment projects with dozens of units are damaging community character and creating other problems.

Leading critics of the projects hailed Tuesday’s vote as a milestone in the fight to rein in San Diego’s unusually aggressive incentive for backyard apartments, which are formally called accessory dwelling units, or ADUs.

… the rules finalized Tuesday set a maximum of four ADUs on lots smaller than 8,000 square feet, five ADUs on lots of 8,001 to 10,000 square feet and six ADUs on lots larger than 10,000 square feet.

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San Diego’s new ADU cap is official. But don’t expect it to stop giant projects already in the pipeline.

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