Two Detached ADUs on One LA Lot? AB 956 Is on the Senate Floor Today: What Encino Owners Should Do Now

Published:

August 25, 2026

Updated:

August 25, 2026

Author: 121 Design Build

Encino single-family lot with a main house, one finished detached backyard ADU, and a staked empty pad where a second cottage would go

Quick answer: Do not hire someone to draw two new backyard cottages on an Encino or Los Angeles single-family lot as if AB 956 already passed. As of Tuesday morning, August 25, 2026, the official Legislative Information status page still lists AB 956 (Quirk-Silva) as an active bill in the Senate floor process — Item 146 on the Senate third-reading file for Assembly bills — not enrolled, not on the Governor’s desk, and not current City of Los Angeles permit law. The hire decision is a design-build team that will permit the stack that is legal today, typically a conversion ADU plus a JADU plus one new detached ADU on many single-family lots, and hold a second-detached design until the Governor actually signs. An architect-only set that prices two new cottages as ministerial is selling a bill, not a building permit.

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, including an attached garage; it may have its own bathroom or share sanitation with the main house (Section 66313(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.

Key Takeaways

AB 956 is not current Los Angeles permit law. California Legislative Information, fetched the morning of August 25, 2026, shows House Location: Senate; Type of Measure: Active Bill — In Floor Process; last history action August 13, 2026 (“Read second time. Ordered to third reading.”); Daily File Status: Sen 3rd Reading — Asm Bills, File Date 08-25-2026, Item 146. The votes page lists no Senate floor passage. The bill is not enrolled and is not on the Governor’s desk.
The last amended text is the August 12, 2026 Senate version (Date Published 08/12/2026 09:00 PM). It would amend Government Code Section 66323(a)(2) so a local agency must ministerially approve two detached, new-construction ADUs on a lot with a proposed or existing single-family dwelling, subject to four-foot side and rear setbacks. A local agency could still cap each of those units at 800 square feet of livable space and apply the state height limits.
Even a Senate yes vote today would not make it law. The bill was amended in the Senate after the Assembly passed it on May 23, 2025 (58–4), so Assembly concurrence, enrollment, and a Governor’s signature would still be required. LegInfo marks it Non-Urgency. Regular-session non-urgency statutes generally take effect on January 1 following a 90-day period after enactment — for a late-2026 signature, that is January 1, 2027 — unless the text is later given an urgency clause, which the current version does not have.
What LADBS will actually permit on a typical Encino single-family lot today is the 66323 combination HCD already describes: one conversion ADU from existing or proposed space, one JADU, and one newly constructed detached ADU. That is three extra doors plus the main house, not two new cottages.
Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 12.22.A.33, from Ordinance 186,481, still says in places that only one ADU is permitted per lot. HCD’s November 19, 2024 ordinance-review letter told the City that language does not match state law and that a qualifying homeowner may create one converted ADU, one detached new-construction ADU, and one JADU, in any order, totaling three units. ZA Memorandum No. 143 (December 30, 2024) is the City’s current implementation memo; its Table 1 still lists “1 per Lot” for a State new-construction detached ADU on a single-family lot.
Two detached ADUs are already a state path on a multifamily lot (up to two on a proposed multifamily dwelling; up to eight on an existing multifamily dwelling, not exceeding the number of existing units). That is not the same as two new cottages behind a single-family house. An SB 9 duplex can turn a lot into a proposed multifamily dwelling and open that path. That is a different, slower file, not AB 956.
Large Encino lots will get sales pitches this week. Lot size does not rewrite Section 66323. Hold the second detached cottage. Permit the legal stack. See our extra-units post for how ADUs sit next to an SB 9 second primary, and our 2026 ADU law post for clocks and JADU occupancy — neither of those posts makes AB 956 current law.

What does AB 956 actually change if it becomes law?

It changes the count in one paragraph of state ADU law, and it tightens HOA language. It does not magically clear hillside overlays, sewer capacity, or LADBS plan check.

Current Government Code Section 66323(a)(2), as amended by SB 543 and effective January 1, 2026, requires a local agency to ministerially approve “one detached, new construction, accessory dwelling unit” that does not exceed four-foot side and rear yard setbacks on a lot with a proposed or existing single-family dwelling. The city may impose a total floor-area limit of not more than 800 square feet of livable space and the height limits in Section 66321(b)(4) — 16 feet in the base case, 18 feet within a half-mile walk of a major transit stop or high-quality transit corridor, plus two more feet to match roof pitch, up to 20 feet.

The August 12, 2026 AB 956 text would replace “one” with “two” in that paragraph. The same 800-square-foot livable cap and the same height limits could still be imposed on each of those two new buildings. The bill also adds a new subdivision (b): a local agency is not required to ministerially approve a JADU on the same lot where two detached, new-construction ADUs have already been built under paragraph (2). In other words, the two-cottage path is not a promise of two cottages plus a junior unit.

The other half of the bill is CC&Rs. Current Civil Code Sections 714.3 and 4751 void covenants that effectively prohibit or unreasonably restrict an ADU or JADU on a lot zoned for single-family residential use. AB 956 would extend that to lots “zoned to allow single-family residential use,” and Section 4751 would cover an instrument affecting any common interest development, not only a planned development. California YIMBY, which sponsors the bill, describes that as closing a gap for single-family homes sitting on land zoned for multifamily housing. Reasonable HOA restrictions — ones that do not unreasonably raise cost or kill the unit — would still exist.

What the bill does not do, even in its current text: it does not repeal building code, it does not waive sewer or power upgrades, it does not erase Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone or Hillside Area rules that still apply to local “ordinance ADUs,” and it does not require Los Angeles to ministerially approve two 1,200-square-foot cottages. The 1,200-square-foot detached cap in ZA Memo 143’s Table 1 is the City’s ordinance-ADU size, not the 66323(a)(2) path. If AB 956 becomes law, the ministerial two-unit detached path is still the compact 800-square-foot livable, four-foot-setback product unless the City elects to be more generous.

How many ADUs can an Encino or Los Angeles single-family lot permit today, before AB 956?

On many City of Los Angeles single-family lots, the state-mandated combination in Section 66323 is already: one conversion ADU, one JADU, and one new detached ADU. That is current law. Two new detached ADUs on that same lot, as a ministerial pair, is not.

Section 66323(a), as it reads today, 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 are (1) one ADU created within the proposed or existing single-family dwelling or existing accessory structure — with up to 150 square feet of expansion solely for ingress and egress — plus one JADU, and (2) one detached, new-construction ADU. HCD’s ADU Handbook (January 2025 edition on file, with HCD’s site noting a March 2026 update and a December 2025 addendum for the January 1, 2026 statutes) states that local agencies must allow those categories together: “on single-family lots, local agencies must allow at least one ADU constructed from existing space, one JADU, and one newly constructed detached ADU.” HCD’s November 19, 2024 letter to Los Angeles City Planning said the same thing in numbers: one converted ADU, one detached new-construction ADU, and one JADU, in any order, totaling three units.

That is the stack to permit now. A conversion is often the garage, guesthouse, or recreation room you already have. A JADU is the interior 500-square-foot unit with an efficiency kitchen and a separate entrance. The new detached ADU is the one cottage in the yard, commonly designed to the 800-square-foot livable / four-foot side-and-rear envelope so it cannot be zoned out. Encino is City of Los Angeles. The file is LADBS, not Los Angeles County Building and Safety. ZA Memo 143 Table 1 still shows one State new-construction detached ADU per single-family lot, plus an attached State or ordinance ADU and a JADU.

Two detached ADUs today live on a different statute branch: Section 66323(a)(4), for lots with an existing or proposed multifamily dwelling. Existing multifamily: up to eight detached ADUs, not more than the number of existing units. Proposed multifamily: not more than two detached ADUs. ZA Memo 143 is explicit that an applicant may propose a new multifamily structure, or an SB 9 two-unit development, in conjunction with those detached State ADUs. If someone is pitching two new cottages on your R1 lot “because the lot is big,” ask whether they mean the SB 9 duplex path — a second primary dwelling, different forms, different overlays — or whether they are treating AB 956 as if it were already in the Government Code. Our five-unit lot article is the SB 9 conversation. This article is the two-cottage bill.

If the extra unit already exists without permits, legalize it first. The pre-2020 path is a records and health-and-safety job, not a second new cottage. That is covered in our legalize post and the LADBS P/BC 2026-150 update. Mixing an illegal existing unit into a two-detached pitch is how the file explodes.

Should you design a second detached ADU now or wait?

Permit what is legal today. Hold the second detached building until there is a chaptered statute and a Governor’s signature, and until LADBS and City Planning say how they will implement it. Do not pay a retainer to produce two new detached ADU construction documents as if they were ministerial in Los Angeles this week.

There is a useful hold, and there is a wasted set. The useful hold is a site plan that shows the legal stack — conversion, JADU, one detached ADU — and a dashed envelope where a second detached unit could sit if AB 956 becomes law and if the lot still has setbacks, sewer, and fire access left. That dashed envelope keeps you from putting the first cottage, the pool, and the driveway where the second unit would need to go. The wasted set is two full architectural, structural, and Title 24 packages for cottages LADBS cannot accept as a 66323(a)(2) pair today. If the Senate amends the bill again, if the Assembly refuses concurrence, or if the Governor vetoes, those drawings are a souvenir.

A placeholder on the site plan is cheap. Construction documents are not. Sequence the work: records and legalization if an unpermitted unit is already there; then the conversion and JADU if they are the cheapest extra doors; then the one new detached ADU; keep the second-detached pad reserved. That is a business decision on an Encino lot, not a bill-tracker hobby. If AB 956 is signed and takes effect, the second cottage can be added as a later permit on a lot that already works. If it dies, you still have the units the statute already allows.

Do not freeze the legal stack waiting for Sacramento. The 15-business-day completeness clock and the 60-day ADU decision clock in current law help only when the first submittal is complete. Those clocks are in our 2026 law-changes post. They do not run on a second cottage that is not yet a lawful application.

What still blocks two backyard cottages even after a bill?

A signed statute would change the ministerial count. It would not flatten Encino. The lot still has to take two buildings, two sewer connections or a legal wye, two sets of fire separation, and LADBS plan check.

Lot geometry and setbacks. The 66323(a)(2) path, today and in the AB 956 text, is four-foot side and rear yard setbacks. Two 800-square-foot livable footprints plus the existing house, driveways, and required open area still have to fit. A deep Ventura Boulevard–adjacent Encino lot is not the same as a hillside lot off Mulholland. There is no state minimum lot size for an ADU (Section 66314(b)(1)), but physics and the building code remain.

Size. A local agency may still cap each 66323(a)(2) detached new-construction ADU at 800 square feet of livable space. Do not budget two 1,200-square-foot ordinance ADUs and call them the AB 956 path. The City’s 1,200-square-foot detached figure in ZA Memo 143 is the ordinance-ADU column, and that column is still “1 per Lot,” and it is still subject to local objective standards that State 66323 units are not.

Height. Sixteen, eighteen, or twenty feet, depending on transit proximity and roof pitch, is the 66323 height box. Two stories are not a free extra story on every lot. Hillside height districts and overlay measurement still apply to how LADBS reads the building.

Parking. State 66323 units are not subject to local parking standards. Ordinance ADUs in Los Angeles can still require one space unless a Government Code Section 66322 exemption applies — half-mile walk to transit, historic district, car-share within a block, ADU fully inside existing space, parking permits not offered to the occupant, or a concurrent new primary dwelling. Replacement parking is not required when a garage is demolished in conjunction with a 66323 ADU. Confirm the address on ZIMAS; do not assume “Encino means no parking” or “Encino means two spaces.”

Hillside Area and Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone. LAMC 12.22.A.33(c)(4) says no ADU on a lot that is in both a VHFHSZ and a designated Hillside Area, unless listed exceptions are met (including, for ordinance ADUs, sprinklers, one off-street space, and 20 feet of roadway width along the frontage). HCD’s November 19, 2024 letter told the City it had not adequately demonstrated that ADUs impact public safety in the VHFHSZ and must remove the prohibition or produce evidence by resolution. ZA Memo 143, Question 42, instructs that the restriction may not be enforced on State ADU types approved under Section 66323. For ordinance ADUs, the City also may not enforce sprinkler or parking conditions that conflict with state law. One overlay alone does not trigger the (c)(4) bar. Both overlays together, on the Santa Monica Mountains side of Encino, Sherman Oaks, and Studio City, still change grading, access, and which column of Table 1 you are actually in. Check ZIMAS before anyone draws two cottages.

Utilities, fire access, and LADBS. Sewer capacity (Bureau of Engineering), LADWP service, hydrant distance, and building-code dwelling standards still apply to 66323 units. HCD is clear that 66323 units are exempt from extra local design standards, not from being safe buildings. Title 24 still applies to new detached construction. Permit cost is a separate stack — LADBS valuation, any City Planning fees plus the 2026 General Plan Maintenance Surcharge, school fees over 500 square feet — covered in our ADU permit cost post. None of those invoices wait on AB 956, and none of them disappear if it passes.

The JADU trade. If you use the two-detached path after a future effective date, AB 956’s own text says the City would not have to ministerially approve a JADU on that same lot. Owners who want the interior junior unit should not assume they can have two new cottages and the JADU as a matter of right.

Design-build vs architect plus a separate contractor for a two-unit ADU pitch

Hire the team that will file the legal stack and refuse to take a drawing retainer for two new detached ADUs as if they were ministerial in Los Angeles today. Split design and construction is how the second cottage gets drawn, the first cottage gets sited wrong, and the conversion sitting in the garage never gets a permit.

An owner can watch the Senate file. An owner can print the August 12 bill text. An owner cannot, from a floor plan, tell whether the lot is a 66323 single-family combination, an ordinance ADU, an SB 9 duplex that opens two multifamily detached ADUs, or a hillside-plus-VHFHSZ file that belongs in a different column of ZA Memo 143. That classification is the job. A California-licensed architect stamps architecture. A design-build contractor who also runs the permit strategy will not sell you two cottages that LADBS will bounce.

Architect-only plus a later bidder is the expensive version of “we will add the second unit when the bill passes.” The first unit’s foundation, sewer wye, and fire wall get designed without a reserved pad. The contractor who did not sit in schematic then value-engineers the placeholder away. Encino design-build is the other version: one site plan, today’s permits, a hold on the second detached envelope, and a construction number that includes utilities for the units that can actually be built this year.

If you already have an architect you trust, keep them — and put the permit strategy in writing before schematic hardens: conversion yes or no, JADU yes or no, one detached ADU now, second detached held, SB 9 off the table unless the lot qualifies and you want a second primary. If that memo does not exist, you do not have a two-ADU team. You have a rendering of a bill.

How can 121 Design Build help Encino owners with ADUs while AB 956 is still a bill?

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. 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: conversion, JADU, one new detached ADU, legalization if something is already there, and a site plan that reserves a second-detached envelope only as a hold.

We have not published a completed two-new-detached-ADU case study, and we are not going to invent one. What we will do is tell you whether the legal three-unit accessory mix fits, whether the garage is a conversion or a teardown, whether the JADU should have its own bathroom, and whether anyone pitching two cottages is actually talking about an SB 9 duplex. If the long-term play is a second primary dwelling, that is a different service and a different statute. If the extra unit is a pre-2020 unpermitted space, legalize it before you draw anything new.

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 ADU permit 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 sales pitch you were given for two new cottages. We will read it against LegInfo and ZA Memo 143, not against a headline.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did the Senate pass AB 956 on August 25, 2026?

Not according to the official pages fetched the morning of August 25, 2026. California Legislative Information still showed AB 956 as Item 146 on the Senate third-reading file for that date, last history action August 13, 2026, House Location Senate, type Active Bill — In Floor Process. The votes page showed Assembly floor passage on May 23, 2025, and later Senate committee votes, but no Senate floor passage. If the Senate votes later in the day, the status page will add a new history line. Until that line says passed, enrolled, or chaptered, it is not law.

Is AB 956 current Los Angeles ADU permit law?

No. A bill on the Senate third-reading file is not a statute. LADBS still permits single-family lots under Government Code Section 66323 as it reads today: one detached new-construction ADU in that category, combinable with a conversion ADU and a JADU, not two new detached cottages as a ministerial pair.

Can I already build two detached ADUs on my Encino lot?

Not as two new 66323(a)(2) cottages behind a single-family house. Two detached ADUs are already a state path on a lot with an existing or proposed multifamily dwelling. An SB 9 two-unit development can open that multifamily path. That is not AB 956, and it is not automatic on every R1 lot. Hillside, VHFHSZ, and historic overlays still have to be read on ZIMAS.

If the Governor signs AB 956 this fall, can I file two cottages the next morning?

Do not plan on it. The current bill is marked Non-Urgency. After Senate passage of the amended text, the Assembly would still need to concur, then the bill is enrolled and sent to the Governor. Regular-session non-urgency statutes generally take effect January 1 after a 90-day period from 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 the change.

Will two detached ADUs still be capped at 800 square feet?

The AB 956 text still lets a local agency impose a total floor-area limitation of not more than 800 square feet of livable space on a detached, new-construction ADU under the amended Section 66323(a)(2). Los Angeles could choose to be more generous. It is not required to. Do not hire for two 1,200-square-foot cottages on the assumption that AB 956 lifts the City’s size rules.

Can I have two new detached ADUs and a JADU?

Not as a state mandate under the August 12 text. AB 956 says a local agency is not required to ministerially approve a JADU on a lot where two detached, new-construction ADUs have been constructed. Today’s law is the other mix: conversion plus JADU plus one detached ADU.

Does a large Encino lot change the count?

No. Lot area does not rewrite Section 66323. A larger yard can make two buildings easier to site if the law changes. It does not make two new detached ADUs ministerial this week.

Should I wait to permit my first ADU until AB 956 is signed?

No. Waiting freezes rental income and construction pricing for a bill that is not law and, even if signed, would likely not take effect until the following January. Permit the conversion, JADU, and one detached ADU that the statute already requires the City to accept. Reserve a second-detached envelope on the site plan if you want the option later.

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 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

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

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