ADU Constructionin Glendale, CA
ADU construction in Glendale is approved ministerially without a hearing, and state law gives the City 60 days to act on a complete application. Glendale's code allows a detached ADU of 800 square feet with 4-foot setbacks, larger new units of 850 or 1,000 square feet, garage conversions and JADUs. Fire-zone, historic and utility rules decide the rest.
The land under Glendale was part of Rancho San Rafael, granted to Jose Maria Verdugo in 1784, and the first town plat was filed in 1887. Glendale incorporated in 1906, and Census counts quoted on Wikipedia show 95,702 residents in 1950 and 139,060 in 1980. About 67 percent of today's 75,907 units were built before 1980, and about 55 percent sit in buildings of five or more units, so an ADU here is as likely to be a unit behind an apartment building as a cottage behind a bungalow. Only about 32 percent of units are detached houses.
On an ADU, MDG Builders (CSLB #1040337) works as the general contractor: drawings, the City application, subcontractor booking and inspections are ours to run, and licensed specialists pour the slab, frame the walls and pull the utilities. The sourced price bands are on our ADU cost table, and the City's Permit Services Center takes the application.
What Glendale's ADU code and state law say about building an ADU
Where adu construction permits come from in Glendale: City of Glendale Community Development Department, Building & Safety (Permit Services Center).
Build an ADU in Glendale: which unit types and sizes does the code allow?
Glendale Municipal Code section 30.34.080, which we read through a code-library mirror because the City's own ADU page refused our requests, sorts units into the types state law protects and those the City regulates itself. On a lot with one house, the City allows one ADU plus one JADU made from space inside the house or an existing accessory building, with exterior access and at least one interior setback of three feet. It also allows one new detached ADU of up to 800 square feet with 4-foot interior setbacks, which can be paired with the JADU.
Other new ADUs, attached or detached, are capped at 850 square feet, or 1,000 with more than one bedroom, and an attached unit cannot exceed 50 percent of the house's floor area. A JADU stops at 500 square feet and must sit inside the house. The first 800 square feet of ADU area is left out of floor area ratio, lot coverage and open space, which matters on a lot near its limits.
Height follows the type: 16 feet for a detached unit, 18 feet within half a mile of major transit plus up to 2 feet to match the main roof pitch, and the lower of 25 feet or the zone limit for an attached unit, never more than two stories.
ADU construction on a Glendale apartment lot: how many units can you add?
Because more than half of the city's units are in buildings of five or more units, the multifamily rules matter here. Under section 30.34.080(F), an owner chooses one option. One is to convert non-livable space in existing buildings, such as storage rooms or garages, to at least one ADU and up to 25 percent of the existing unit count. The other is to add detached ADUs with 4-foot interior setbacks, up to eight on a lot with an existing multifamily building but never more than the number of existing units, or two on a lot with a proposed one.
JADUs are not allowed on multifamily lots in the City's code. A conversion in an occupied building also touches the tenants, because 66.5 percent of Glendale's occupied units are rented and the Rental Rights program under Municipal Code chapter 9.30 applies to the existing units. Ask how closing a garage or storage area affects them before the plans are drawn.
The City's code says an owner takes one multifamily option or the other; HCD told the City in 2023 that state law allows combinations.
Build an ADU in Glendale where the City code and state law disagree
HCD, the state housing department, reviewed Glendale's ADU ordinance and sent the City findings in a letter dated December 7, 2023 about Ordinance 5997. It objected to, among others, the ban on a new ADU above a detached garage, the either-or rule for multifamily options, the use of the word architecturally compatible as a standard and the requirement of a covenant on every ADU. The code text we read still contains the garage ban and the multifamily either-or rule.
State ADU law now sits in Government Code sections 66310 to 66342, and under section 66326 a local ordinance governs only where it is consistent with state law. Designing to the smaller of the two is the safe route; when a plan depends on the state rule, say so at the first Planning meeting and ask for the City's position in writing. A written appeal gets a final answer within 60 business days under section 66317, and the HCD letter is the best document to bring.
We do not know how the City applies each disputed provision today, and we will not guess.
Design rules for an ADU that faces the street or has a second story
Section 30.34.080(G) sets objective design standards for an ADU, or the part of one, that faces a street, sidewalk, alley or park or has a second story. They do not apply to the protected conversion and 800-square-foot types or to historic resources. A public-facing facade needs at least two cladding materials with stucco capped at 60 percent and an 18-inch change in plane, rooftop decks are prohibited, parapets stop at 18 inches, and a Spanish tile roof calls for 100 percent stucco walls.
Windows and doors are detailed too: recessed at least an inch, no grid-between-glass, no double doors, sliders only if the main house was built on or after January 1, 1960, and second-floor windows facing neighbors with sills at least 60 inches above the floor.
For a listed property or one in a historic district, exterior ADU work may not be visible from the adjacent public street or sidewalk and may not alter defining historic characteristics, unless that would block a qualifying 800-square-foot or conversion unit.
Garage conversion ADU in Glendale: setbacks, parking and what the conversion needs
Conversions of existing living space or buildings need no added setback, apart from the three-foot fire-safety interior setback on one side for the ADU-plus-JADU option. A Glendale ADU must have a bathroom, a kitchen, independent access, code-compliant fire setbacks and sewer, water and electric service. Fire sprinklers come in only if the main house is required to have them.
Parking is the question most owners ask. The code requires no replacement space when a garage or carport is converted or demolished, and no parking at all for a unit inside the existing house or an accessory structure, within half a mile of public transit, in a historic resource or within a block of car share.
Our sourced band for garage conversion is about $100,000 to $200,000. The inspection topics in our Los Angeles garage conversion guide are a useful question list, even though Glendale's checklist governs here.
Build an ADU on a Verdugo hillside or in Glendale's Very High fire zone
On July 29, 2025 the City Council adopted CAL FIRE's updated fire hazard maps, adding 7,410 parcels to the Very High zone for a total of 16,383 homes, and Glendale adopted the California Wildland-Urban Interface Code as Volume ID of its 2026 code. Check the parcel against the City's fire hazard severity zone page before you design; the roof, vents, gutters and clearance details on our Glendale roofing page show what that code asks of a roof.
On slopes steeper than one in three, the City's amended code adds seismic design provisions for new buildings and additions (Section 1613.9), and Chapter 15.12 of the Municipal Code governs grading in hillside areas. ADUs are exempt from design review under section 30.47.020(G)(10) but must meet section 30.34.080, so the hillside questions are mostly engineering ones: soil, grading, access and utilities.
Utilities, fees and the permit clock for ADU construction in Glendale
The owner pays sewer, water, school-district and other applicable fees. Under state law an ADU of 750 square feet or less pays no impact fee, and Glendale's code exempts units under 750 from its parks and libraries fee and charges larger ones in proportion to the main house. Electric and water come from Glendale Water & Power, whose residential rates page says an electrician must upgrade a panel that cannot take a socket meter, and whose staff are the people to ask about easements before the site plan is fixed.
State clocks apply: 15 business days for the City to say whether the application is complete, then 60 days to approve or deny a complete one on a lot with a house. Our planning ranges are four to ten weeks for design, three to five months to build a garage conversion and five to nine months for a detached unit. Glendale also voids a permit if work does not start within 180 days or stops for 180 days.
ADU photos from Glendale and nearby communities
Six ADU scenes tied to Glendale neighborhoods and to nearby places such as Burbank, Eagle Rock and La Crescenta-Montrose, from slab and framing to finished backyard units. Tap a photo to enlarge it.
Where the ADU numbers come from
Our ADU cost table puts a garage conversion at roughly $100,000 to $200,000 and a new detached unit of 400 to 800 square feet at $200,000 to $400,000, drawn from named studies dated 2018 to 2026, with Remodeling magazine's 2025 Cost vs. Value figure of $178,536 for Los Angeles as one reference point. We found no Glendale-specific ADU price study and no Glendale fee schedule we could verify, so City fees are listed in your proposal, not here. Nearby pages that may help are room additions in Los Angeles, concrete work in Los Angeles and Glendale fencing. An ADU in Pasadena or Los Angeles answers to a different ordinance, so see the Pasadena overview or Los Angeles overview; our explainer on ADU versus JADU in California covers the basics. The Glendale overview lists our other local pages, and the contractor license check guide helps you vet any ADU builder, us included. The Glendale painting page covers exterior color rules that touch a new unit in a historic district.
| What it covers | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Garage conversion to a studio or one bedroom | $100,000 to $200,000 |
| New detached ADU, 400 to 800 sq ft | $200,000 to $400,000 |
| UC Berkeley survey, Los Angeles County median, 2018 and 2019 projects | $100,000 overall. $90,000 garage. $180,000 detached. |
| Terner Center and Berkeley CCI, 2020 | $148,000 Los Angeles estimate. $167,000 statewide average. |
| Remodeling Cost vs. Value 2025, Los Angeles | $178,536 job cost |
| Electrical and plumbing, Angi Los Angeles, January 2026 | Electrical $2,600 to $7,800. plumbing $3,900 to $10,400. |
| City permit and plan check fees | Not priced here |
Glendale ADU questions, answered
How big can an ADU be in Glendale?
A new detached ADU can be 800 square feet with 4-foot setbacks, and other new units can reach 850 square feet, or 1,000 with more than one bedroom, under Municipal Code 30.34.080. An attached unit is held to 50 percent of the house's floor area, never below those caps. A JADU is limited to 500 square feet inside the house.
Do I need to provide parking for an ADU in Glendale?
Usually not. Glendale asks for at most one space per ADU or per bedroom, whichever is less, and none for a unit within half a mile of public transit, in a historic resource, inside the existing house or an accessory building, or within a block of car share. A converted garage or carport does not have to be replaced.
Can I build an ADU above my detached garage in Glendale?
Glendale's code text says new ADUs may not be built above a detached garage or carport, but HCD told the City in December 2023 that state law does not let it prohibit one, subject to the height limits. We cannot say how the City applies the provision today. Ask Planning in writing, and bring the HCD letter to the meeting.
Do I have to live on the property to build or rent an ADU in Glendale?
No, not for an ADU. State law does not allow owner-occupancy requirements for ADUs, and Glendale's code requires only that rentals run longer than 30 days. A JADU differs: Glendale's recorded covenant requires the owner to live in the house or the JADU, while state law since January 1, 2026 limits that requirement to JADUs that share a bathroom.
Can I rent my Glendale ADU on Airbnb?
Not by the night. Glendale's code says any ADU rental must be for a term longer than 30 days, which matches state law, so a nightly listing is out and a monthly or longer lease is fine. We did not find a separate Glendale short-term rental ordinance and cannot say how one would treat the main house.
How long does it take to get an ADU permit in Glendale?
State law gives the City 15 business days to say whether the application is complete and then 60 days to approve or deny a complete one on a lot with a house; silence means deemed approved. Each correction round adds time, and an appeal is decided within 60 business days. We have no verified figure for actual reviews.
How much do ADU permits and fees cost in Glendale?
We cannot quote City fee amounts, because the fee schedule was not readable to us. An ADU of 750 square feet or less pays no impact fee under state law, larger units pay in proportion to the main house, and utility connections, school fees and plan review fees are separate. Your proposal lists the actual fees for your address.
How much does it cost to build an ADU in Glendale?
Expect roughly $100,000 to $200,000 for a garage conversion and $200,000 to $400,000 for a new detached unit of 400 to 800 square feet. Those bands come from independent studies on our trade page and are not Glendale quotes, because we found no Glendale-specific study. Slope, soil, utility trenching and finish level move the number most.
Can I build more than one ADU on my Glendale lot?
Yes, in some combinations. On a lot with one house, the code allows an ADU plus a JADU inside existing or proposed space, or a new detached 800-square-foot ADU that can be paired with a JADU. A lot with an existing multifamily building can take up to eight detached ADUs, never more than the existing units.
Does an ADU in Glendale need a separate utility meter?
Not always. Glendale's code lets an owner install new or separate connections, and says a conversion of existing space cannot be forced to get a new connection or pay a related fee. Other ADUs may need a separate connection, with fees tied to size or fixtures. Ask Glendale Water & Power about the meter and panel early.
Describe your Glendale ADU idea
Tell us the street, whether the lot has a house or an apartment building, and whether you have a garage to convert, and we will check the fire zone and slope before we meet.