AB 956 Fine Print: If Two Detached ADUs Ever Become Law, LA Wouldn't Have to Allow a JADU on That Lot — Do the Junior Unit First?

Quick answer: If you want a junior unit inside the Encino house and backyard cottages, permit the JADU — and the one new detached ADU Los Angeles already accepts — now. Do not pay this week for two ministerial cottages. AB 956 is not law. As of Wednesday night, August 26, 2026, California Legislative Information lists it as an Active Bill — In Committee Process, House Location: Assembly, Committee Location: Asm Housing and Community Development, Committee Hearing Date: 08/27/26. The Senate passed the August 12 text on August 25 (Ayes 27, Noes 6) and sent it back; concurrence is pending. That text would raise the detached new-construction count from one to two, and it would also say a local agency is not required to ministerially approve a JADU on a lot where those two cottages have already been built. Split architect-now, contractor-later is how the junior unit gets skipped while everyone waits for two cottages. Design-build files the junior plus one detached under today’s stack. For the two-cottage bill itself, see our August 25 Senate-floor post; this is the fine print on the JADU, not a reprint.

An accessory dwelling unit (ADU) is an attached or detached dwelling that provides complete independent living facilities — living, sleeping, eating, cooking, and sanitation — on the same lot as a proposed or existing primary residence (Government Code Section 66313(a)). A junior accessory dwelling unit (JADU) is a unit of no more than 500 square feet of interior livable space contained entirely within a single-family residence; enclosed uses inside that residence, including an attached garage, count as part of the house (Sections 66313(d) and 66333(d)). A detached new-construction ADU is a separate new building in the yard, not a garage conversion and not a JADU. Ministerial approval means the city must approve or deny the permit on objective standards, without a discretionary hearing. AB 956 is Assembly Member Sharon Quirk-Silva’s 2025–26 bill that would, if it became law, raise the state-mandated detached new-construction ADU count on a single-family lot from one to two. It is not law as of this writing. An SB 9 second primary dwelling is not a JADU and is not this article’s product.

Key Takeaways

• AB 956 is still a bill. Legislative Information, fetched Wednesday night, August 26, 2026: Type of Measure, Active Bill — In Committee Process; House Location, Assembly; last amended 08/12/26; Committee Location, Asm Housing and Community Development; Committee Hearing Date, 08/27/26. Last history action, 08/26/26: “Joint Rule 62(a), file notice suspended.” The day before: Senate third-reading passage (Ayes 27. Noes 6.), “In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending,” and re-referral to Housing and Community Development pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.2. Not enrolled. Not on the Governor’s desk. Not LADBS law.
• The Assembly events calendar lists Housing and Community Development for August 27, 2026, upon call of the chair, State Capitol Room 437. LegInfo puts this bill’s committee hearing date on that same day. As of this writing the hearing had not occurred. We did not retrieve a posted committee agenda that numbers AB 956 as a hearing item, and we are not inventing a clock time beyond “upon call of the chair.”
• The August 12, 2026 Senate text (Date Published 08/12/2026 09:00 PM) would amend Government Code Section 66323(a)(2) from “one” detached, new-construction ADU to “two,” still with four-foot side and rear setbacks, and still letting a local agency cap each at 800 square feet of livable space. It would also insert this sentence in (a)(2): “A local agency is not required to permit two detached accessory dwelling units and a junior accessory dwelling unit on the same lot.” New subdivision (b) is more sequential: “a local agency is not required to ministerially approve an application for a building permit to create a junior accessory dwelling unit on the same lot where two detached, new construction, accessory dwelling units have been constructed pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (a).”
• That is a “would not have to allow” rule, not a ban. If the bill ever became law in this form, Los Angeles would not be required to ministerially approve a JADU on a lot that already has those two new cottages. The city could still choose to allow one. Do not hire as if the combination is a state mandate.
• Today’s stack is the opposite mix. Current Section 66323(a), as amended by SB 543 and effective January 1, 2026, requires ministerial approval of “any of the following units, or any combination of the following units,” including one ADU plus one JADU in existing or proposed single-family space, and one detached, new-construction ADU. ZA Memorandum No. 143 (December 30, 2024) is the City’s implementation memo: one State new-construction detached ADU per single-family lot, combinable with an attached State or ordinance ADU and a JADU. Two new detached ministerial cottages on that same single-family lot are the AB 956 ask, not current law.
• The hire this week is the junior unit plus today’s one cottage, not two cottage construction documents. Owners who want both should file the JADU while state law still stacks it with an ADU. Waiting for two cottages is how the interior unit drops off the mandate. See our extra-units post for the current stack, and our 2026 ADU law post for clocks and occupancy — neither of those posts, and neither does this one, makes AB 956 current law.
• One fee sentence, then we leave it: ZA Memo 143 states that ADUs and JADUs are exempt from the Affordable Housing Linkage Fee (LAMC 19.18) and from park fees (LAMC 12.33). That is not why this post exists. The AHLF story is our August 29 linkage-fee article.

What does the August 12 AB 956 text actually say about two cottages and a JADU?

It says two new detached ADUs would become a ministerial state path on a single-family lot — and it says the junior unit is not part of that mandate.

Quote the operative lines, not a headline. Amended Section 66323(a) would open: a local agency shall ministerially approve a building-permit application “to create any of the following units, or, except as provided in paragraph (2), subdivision (b), any combination of the following units.” Paragraph (2) would then read, in the published August 12 text: “Two detached, new construction, accessory dwelling units that do not exceed four-foot side and rear yard setbacks for a lot with a proposed or existing single-family dwelling. A local agency is not required to permit two detached accessory dwelling units and a junior accessory dwelling unit on the same lot.” New subdivision (b): “Notwithstanding subdivision (a), a local agency is not required to ministerially approve an application for a building permit to create a junior accessory dwelling unit on the same lot where two detached, new construction, accessory dwelling units have been constructed pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (a).”

The Legislative Counsel’s Digest on that same version says the bill would raise the detached new-construction count to two, then: a local agency is not required to “ministerially approve an application for a building permit to create a junior accessory dwelling unit on the same lot where 2 detached, new construction, accessory dwelling units have been constructed.” We are not inventing a JADU carve-out. It is in the digest, in (a)(2), and in (b).

Read the sequence. Subdivision (b) is written for a lot where the two cottages have been constructed. The (a)(2) sentence is broader: the two-cottage-plus-JADU combination is not a required permit. Neither sentence forbids Los Angeles from allowing a JADU anyway. Both sentences mean you should not buy a sales pitch that two new cottages plus a junior unit will be a ministerial trio if this text becomes law.

What the bill still does not do, even in this text: it does not make two cottages legal in Los Angeles this week, it does not put a chaptered statute on LADBS’s counter, and it does not require two 1,200-square-foot ordinance ADUs. The 800-square-foot livable cap and the 66321 height limits can still be imposed on each 66323(a)(2) building. Hillside, sewer, and fire access still exist. That is the two-cottage article. This article is the junior unit that text would stop requiring.

Can an Encino lot stack a JADU and a detached ADU today?

Yes, on many City of Los Angeles single-family lots, as a state-mandated combination — one JADU plus one new detached ADU, often with a conversion ADU as well. That is current law. Two new detached ADUs as a ministerial pair is not.

Current Section 66323(a) tells a local agency to ministerially approve “any of the following units, or any combination of the following units.” For a single-family lot those categories include (1) one ADU and one JADU in the proposed or existing single-family dwelling or existing accessory structure — with up to 150 square feet of expansion solely for ingress and egress — and (2) one detached, new-construction ADU that does not exceed four-foot side and rear setbacks. The city may still cap that detached unit at 800 square feet of livable space. Encino is City of Los Angeles. The file is LADBS, not County Building and Safety.

ZA Memo 143 is what plan check actually uses. Section II.B: a JADU is no more than 500 square feet, contained entirely within a single-family residence, ministerial, with an efficiency kitchen and a separate entrance; it may have its own bathroom or share sanitation with the main house; it may sit in an attached garage. Table 1 still lists “1 per Lot” for a State new-construction detached ADU on a single-family lot, with an additional allowed attached ADU and a JADU. Table 2’s JADU column is “1 per Lot,” combinable with one attached State ADU and one detached State ADU. That is three extra doors plus the main house. It is not two new cottages.

Government Code Section 66333, as amended by AB 1154 and effective January 1, 2026, still limits JADUs to one per residential lot zoned for single-family residences with a single-family residence built or proposed, and it still treats an attached garage as part of that residence. Owner-occupancy on the JADU is a deed-restriction issue, not a second cottage. None of that waits on AB 956.

Two detached ADUs today live on a different branch: Section 66323(a)(4), for a lot with an existing or proposed multifamily dwelling. An SB 9 duplex can open that path. An SB 9 second primary is not a JADU. If someone is pitching two cottages “and we will add the junior later,” ask whether they mean current 66323, an SB 9 file, or a bill that is sitting in Assembly Housing. Our extra-units post is the SB 9 conversation. This post is whether the junior unit should be filed before anyone even talks about a second cottage.

If you want both a junior unit and backyard cottages, do you file the JADU first?

Yes — file the JADU, and today’s one detached ADU, under the stack the statute already requires the City to accept. Hold a second-cottage envelope on the site plan if you want the option later. Do not sequence the lot into a future two-cottage path that can drop the JADU mandate, and do not freeze the junior unit waiting for a hearing.

The reason is the August 12 text, not a rumor. If those two new detached ADUs are ever built under a future 66323(a)(2), new subdivision (b) would tell Los Angeles it does not have to ministerially approve a later JADU on that lot. The (a)(2) sentence would already say the city is not required to permit two detached ADUs and a JADU together. Owners who want the interior 500-square-foot unit should take it while combination is still the rule: JADU plus one detached, often plus a conversion.

That is a permit order, not a Sacramento hobby. A JADU is inside the house or attached garage you already have. It does not need the backyard pad the second cottage would need. File it. Put the one legal cottage where it belongs. Dash an envelope for a second building only as a hold, the same hold we described in the August 25 post. If AB 956 dies, you still have the junior unit and the cottage. If it is signed in this form and later takes effect, you already have the JADU that the two-cottage path would no longer have to include.

Do not assume you can “add the JADU after the two cottages.” That is the exact application new (b) would let the city refuse to process ministerially. Do not assume Los Angeles will volunteer the combination. Quote the bill, then file what is legal today.

Should you pay for two ministerial cottages this week while Housing hears the bill?

No. A committee date is not a statute. Construction documents for two new detached ADUs, sold as a 66323(a)(2) pair in Los Angeles this week, are a drawing of a bill.

As of this writing, the hearing listed on LegInfo had not happened. Even a committee yes, even Assembly concurrence, even a Governor’s signature would still leave a Non-Urgency bill. LegInfo marks AB 956 Non-Urgency. Regular-session non-urgency statutes generally take effect January 1 following a 90-day period after enactment. Confirm the chaptered text and the effective date before anyone opens an ePlanLA case for two new detached ADUs. LADBS and City Planning would still have to implement it. Until then, ZA Memo 143’s “1 per Lot” for a State new-construction detached ADU on a single-family lot is the path the city already accepts.

A useful hold is cheap: one site plan, today’s JADU, today’s one detached, a dashed second pad. A wasted set is two full architectural, structural, and Title 24 packages for cottages LADBS cannot accept as a ministerial pair today. If Housing amends the JADU language, if the Assembly refuses concurrence, or if the Governor vetoes, those two-cottage sheets are a souvenir — and the junior unit you delayed is still unfiled.

Do not freeze the legal stack for Thursday’s committee. The 15-business-day completeness clock and the 60-day ADU decision clock help only when the first submittal is complete. Those clocks are in the 2026 law-changes post. They do not run on a second cottage that is not yet a lawful application, and they do not run on a JADU you never submitted.

Design-build vs architect plus a later contractor when the JADU is the unit that gets skipped

Hire the team that will file the junior unit and the one detached ADU now, and that will refuse a retainer for two ministerial new cottages while AB 956 is in committee. Split design and construction is how the JADU gets dropped: the architect draws two backyard buildings “for when the bill passes,” the garage studio never gets a junior-unit deed restriction, and the contractor who bid later will not reopen the main house.

An owner can read the August 12 text. An owner cannot, from a mood board, tell whether the lot is a current 66323 combination, an ordinance ADU, a future two-cottage file that would no longer have to include a JADU, or an SB 9 duplex that is a second primary. That classification is the job. A California-licensed architect stamps architecture. The person who will pull the permit has to decide, in writing, JADU yes or no this year.

Architect-only plus a later bidder is the expensive version of “we will add the junior unit after the two cottages.” If this text becomes law, that later JADU is the application the city would not have to approve ministerially. Encino design-build is the other version: one site plan, JADU and one detached filed under today’s stack, second-cottage envelope held, construction number for the units that can actually be built.

If you already have an architect you trust, keep them — and put the permit order on paper before schematic hardens: JADU now, one detached now, second detached held, SB 9 off the table unless you actually want a second primary. If that memo does not exist, you do not have a JADU-first team. You have a rendering of two cottages.

How can 121 Design Build help Encino owners who want the junior unit now?

121 Design Build is an Encino design-build firm. We will not take a retainer to pretend two new detached ADUs are ministerial on a City of Los Angeles single-family lot today, and we will not tell you to wait on a JADU for a bill that would make that junior unit optional for the city. For a homeowner who wants extra doors on a Ventura Boulevard–corridor, south-of-the-Boulevard, or Valley lot, our ADU & JADU service starts with the stack LADBS can accept now: JADU, conversion if the garage or guesthouse is already there, one new detached ADU, and a site plan that reserves a second-detached envelope only as a hold.

We have not published a completed two-new-detached-plus-JADU case study, and we are not going to invent one. What we will do is tell you whether the interior 500 square feet actually pencils as a JADU, whether the garage is a conversion ADU or a teardown, whether the junior unit should have its own bathroom, and whether anyone pitching two cottages first is selling you a sequence the August 12 text would let the city refuse. If the long-term play is a second primary dwelling, that is a different service and a different statute.

121 Design Build is at 17801 Ventura Blvd, 2nd floor, Encino, CA 91316. Call (424) 600-1100 or (424) 600-2100, email info@121designbuild.com, or visit https://www.121designbuild.com/. To review an Encino or Los Angeles JADU-first path — including whether a second detached cottage is a hold or a fantasy — contact 121 Design Build or call (424) 600-2100. Bring the address and any two-cottage pitch you were given. We will read it against the August 12 bill text and ZA Memo 143, not against a headline.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is AB 956 current Los Angeles permit law tonight?

No. As of Wednesday night, August 26, 2026, Legislative Information lists it as an Active Bill — In Committee Process in the Assembly, last amended August 12, 2026, with concurrence in Senate amendments pending. It is not enrolled and not on the Governor’s desk. LADBS still permits single-family lots under Section 66323 as it reads today: one detached new-construction ADU in that category, combinable with a conversion ADU and a JADU.

Did Assembly Housing already hear AB 956?

Not as of this writing. LegInfo lists Committee Hearing Date 08/27/26. History shows Joint Rule 62(a), file notice suspended, on 08/26/26. The Assembly events calendar lists Housing and Community Development for August 27, 2026, upon call of the chair, Room 437. We did not retrieve a numbered committee agenda item for this bill, and we are not inventing a start time. Check LegInfo again after Thursday before anyone treats a hearing as a vote, and treat a vote as a bill, not as a permit.

What is the exact JADU language in the August 12 text?

Two sentences. In amended 66323(a)(2): “A local agency is not required to permit two detached accessory dwelling units and a junior accessory dwelling unit on the same lot.” In new 66323(b): “a local agency is not required to ministerially approve an application for a building permit to create a junior accessory dwelling unit on the same lot where two detached, new construction, accessory dwelling units have been constructed pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (a).” That is “not required,” not “forbidden.”

Can I already have a JADU and one detached ADU on my Encino lot?

On many City of Los Angeles single-family lots, yes — that combination is current 66323 law, and ZA Memo 143 describes it. The JADU is max 500 square feet of interior livable space in the single-family dwelling or attached garage, ministerial, with an efficiency kitchen and a separate entrance. The detached new-construction ADU is one per lot on the State 66323(a)(2) path. Confirm overlays on ZIMAS.

If AB 956 becomes law, can I still add a JADU after two cottages?

Not as a state mandate under the August 12 text. Los Angeles would not have to ministerially approve that later JADU. The city might still allow one; it would not have to. If you want the junior unit, file it under today’s combination rules instead of betting on a future courtesy.

Should I pay for two detached ADU construction documents this week?

No. Two new detached ministerial cottages on a single-family lot are the AB 956 ask, not current Los Angeles law. Permit the JADU and the one detached unit the city already accepts. Hold a second pad on the site plan. See the two-detached Senate-floor post for that hold; this post is why the junior unit goes in first.

Is a JADU the same as an SB 9 second unit?

No. A JADU is a 500-square-foot interior unit inside the single-family house or attached garage. An SB 9 unit is a second primary dwelling. Different statute, different forms, different overlays. Do not skip the JADU because someone called a second house a junior unit.

Does the Affordable Housing Linkage Fee change this advice?

No. ZA Memo 143 says ADUs and JADUs are AHLF-exempt. That is one reason a junior unit is a clean extra door. It is not why we are writing this post. The fee story is the August 29 linkage-fee article.

Is Encino under Los Angeles County for ADUs?

No. Encino is in the City of Los Angeles. File with LADBS. County Building and Safety and EPIC-LA are the wrong window.

Is this legal advice?

No. This article is general information from a design-build and permitting perspective. Confirm live bill status on California Legislative Information, and confirm ADU counts, overlays, and permit path on your specific address with LADBS, City Planning, and, if needed, your own attorney.

Sources

• California Legislative Information: AB 956 bill status
• California Legislative Information: AB 956 bill text (Date Published 08/12/2026 09:00 PM)
• California Legislative Information: AB 956 bill history
• California State Assembly: Events (Housing and Community Development, August 27, 2026)
• California Government Code Section 66323 (current law)
• California Government Code Section 66313 (definitions)
• California Government Code Section 66333 (JADU ordinance standards)
• Los Angeles City Planning / LADBS: ZA Memorandum No. 143 (December 30, 2024)
• City of Los Angeles: ZIMAS
• 121 Design Build: Two Detached ADUs on One LA Lot? AB 956 Senate-floor post
• 121 Design Build: How Many Extra Units Can You Put on One LA Lot in 2026?
• 121 Design Build: Los Angeles ADU Law Changes 2026
• 121 Design Build: LADBS Linkage Fee August 29, ADU vs Addition

This article is general information from a design-build and permitting perspective and is not legal advice. Confirm live bill status on California Legislative Information and confirm ADU counts, overlays, and fees on your specific address with LADBS and City Planning. AB 956 is described here as a pending bill, not as current law.

#AB956 #JADU #JADUFirst #TwoDetachedADUs #LosAngelesADU #Encino #LADBS #ADUPermits #DesignBuild #SanFernandoValley #LAHomeowners #QuirkSilva #ADU2026