In 1976, my dad announced to us kids that he had purchased some property in Cloverdale. It was to be the family’s weekend get-a-way/summer retreat. Born and bred in San Francisco, my three brothers and I were very curious about this northern part of the state that we naturally pictured as rolling hills covered in masses of green clover!

My dad and mom were thrilled to retreat to the ramshackle ranch house where my father happily enrolled in viniculture classes and dabbled in wine making. The dazzling fall colors were a delight to my mother who was an amateur painter. She looked like a little Monet sitting in her chair in the middle of the vineyard.

We quickly felt the pure exhilaration of being able to run free in the meadows, chase jack rabbits, cruise down the Russian River in old, beat up tires and explore the perimeters of the town in our old jeep. We picked persimmons off the fruit trees and created freshly baked delights! Our somewhat raucous family dinners at Mamma Nina’s and lunches at the Owl Cafe were special bonding times amidst everyone’s busy lives. The winter in Cloverdale could have seemed gloomy and dreary, but to us, it was quiet, calm and welcoming. We looked forward to the traditional Citrus Fair and especially the 4-H Club. We City kids had never experienced the responsibility of caring for barnyard animals!

After rearing my five children in San Francisco, I found myself once again thinking about the little town of my youth. A few years ago, we announced to our children that we had purchased a summer retreat in Cloverdale – a weekend get-a-way. Now, our extensive brood eagerly escapes the crowded, noisy San Francisco city life for a quiet respite with their own families. Still, there are the hot summer nights and lazy floats down the Russian River in old, beat up tires. Still, there is the wise Owl who nods to the past from the roof of the old Owl Cafe. It’s the same old Cloverdale in many ways, but I came back, back to experience the best yet.

Across
4 Who had an online Holiday album?
5 Who sold Xmas trees to benefit our community?
8 Who has expanded their curbside service for book lovers?
9 What’s the name of the girls’ baking business?
10 What was collected to help with CHS project grad?
11 What might be available this year to combat COVID?
13 What was the name of the old brewery in town?
14 What appears in the woods after the rain?

Whether expanding your family’s homestead or looking for rental units to provide long-term income growth, an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) may be the answer.  Better known in the past as granny units, an ADU requires its own kitchen.  ADUs are now allowed by California state law, and all our cities and counties now cooperate to allow more infill housing, subject to some local conditions.  Since 2017, California ADU laws have greatly reduced local permit fees and reviews, simplified building codes, allowing optional separate utilities, and reduced or eliminated additional parking requirements. You can even convert legacy structures on your property to legal dwellings as ADUs.

Here in Cloverdale, my husband Michael Princevalle and I have built three new ADUs within the City of Cloverdale.  As local residents ourselves, our ADUs have been on existing single-family properties we have purchased in town since 2017 to use as rental housing.  I focused more on the designs and landscaping, and Michael focused on site planning, drainage, and irrigation needs.  The Cloverdale planning and building departments have been very cooperative.  We want to share our experience with others who may have a similar interest in building ADUs for additional housing.

Are you eligible to build an ADU?  To start with, you must own an existing residential property (either single or multifamily).  The ADU you develop may be attached to, or detached from, your existing dwelling. The ADU may be new construction or could be converted from a garage or carport.  For details on what is allowed in Cloverdale, see the brochure on the City’s building department at this link: https://www.cloverdale.net/DocumentCenter/View/4341/Accessory-Dwelling-Unit-Brochure

In our situation, our three ADUs were split across 2 single family home properties.  Luckily, many existing homes in Cloverdale have room for adding ADUs on their parcel.

Property #1 was a .25-acre parcel with an existing 4 bedroom home from the 1950s, where we did a garage conversion for the first ADU to create a studio apartment, and then added a standalone 2 bedroom modular/manufactured home on foundation to create the second ADU. Both new units fit within the total 1200 square foot ADU maximum limit for the parcel.  Our result was a 3-unit multi-family property.

Property #2 was a .20-acre parcel with an existing 2-bedroom home from the 1950s.  In this situation we added a separate 1-bedroom manufactured home on foundation to create the second ADU, resulting in a 2-unit property. 

In all cases, the remodeled existing homes and the new ADUs rented favorably at market rates to long-term renters, with anticipated rent payback of ADU construction costs within 5 years.  All units have their own gas, electric, and cable utilities with separate bills for tenants.  We provided dedicated driveways per unit to reduce the impact on street parking.   The two customized manufactured ADU home had a 6-month lead-time from placing order to occupancy, including underground utility extensions.  This 6-month turnaround was remarkable, especially since each home was provided by two different resellers representing different manufacturers.

Our recommendations for successful ADU development:

1. Consider unit orientations and access to allow privacy for all residents. Consider sound-proofing shared walls between units.
2. Buy manufactured homes whenever possible to save at least 60% on both time and money compared to onsite construction. Dealers have ADU floorplans to share with the latest building codes. Customizing upgrades on your home order is easy. Your home will arrive with all cabinets, appliances, trims, and window coverings already installed!  Plus, they have their own installation contractors to speed the building process.  As we know, traditional general building contractors in Sonoma County are scarce…busy mostly on replacing homes lost to fires. It is possible to purchase and install a nice, manufactured home between 500 and 1000 square feet for less than $100,000.

Resources:

American Dream Homes, dealer of manufactured/modular home plans and models, Santa Rosa

Anne Miserlian Baker, ADU savvy Cloverdale Realtor, 707-894-9201

Exchange Bank, good source for home equity lines of credit or short-term loans for homeowners

Cloverdale Planning Department ADUs, Rafael Miranda, rmiranda@ci.cloverdale.ca.us or 707-894-1726

Sonoma County ADU link for parcels outside City limits: https://sonomacounty.ca.gov/PRMD/Regulations/Housing/Housing-Types/Accessory-Units-and-Junior-Units/Accessory-Dwelling-Units/

Nancy Lloyd, for questions regarding this article, nancyalamo@yahoo.com