Pasadena's ADU Fee Cut Stops at 900 Square Feet, and the Line Is Worth About $13,500
The most useful number in Pasadena's 2025 ADU fee reductions is not the percentage. It is the size cutoff. A new accessory dwelling unit of 900 square feet or less is now exempt from the city's Residential Impact Fee. A unit of 1,000 square feet is not. In the city's own worked examples, that hundred-square-foot difference is a $13,545 fee that either disappears or stays.
This post walks through what the city changed, what the dollar figures looked like in its staff examples, and how to use the cutoff when you are deciding how big to build. If you want the broader picture first, our Pasadena ADU guide covers the types of ADU and the general process.
What the City of Pasadena actually changed
According to the City of Pasadena's announcement of reduced ADU fees, there are three tiers of relief, and which one you get depends on size and on how you apply:
Plan check fees drop 50% if you use one of the city's pre-reviewed Standard Plans or enter into an affordability (Housing) agreement. Size alone does not earn this cut.
The General Plan Maintenance, Technology and Construction Tax lines are fully waived for Standard Plan or affordability-agreement ADUs, and reduced 25% for any ADU up to 900 square feet.
The Residential Impact Fee (RIF) exemption was extended to ADUs up to 900 square feet, effective July 2025. Units with a Housing Agreement are exempt at any size.
The construction and demolition performance deposit is now a flat $1,000, and it is refundable.
The numbers, from the city's own examples
The figures below come from the city's March 2025 staff presentation on the fee proposal. They are illustrations the city chose, not quotes for your lot, and fee schedules get adjusted, so treat them as a way to see the shape of the savings.
For a 600-square-foot ADU, the city showed total permit fees of $9,275 before the change. With a Standard Plan or affordability agreement that falls to $4,417. For an ordinary under-900-square-foot design that is not a Standard Plan, it falls to $6,213. Plan check for the same 600-square-foot unit went from $2,831 to $1,416 where the 50% cut applies.
The Residential Impact Fee is where the cliff shows up. The city's examples: an 800-square-foot ADU on a 1,600-square-foot house was $12,196 and is now $0. A 900-square-foot ADU on a 2,000-square-foot house was $10,977 and is now $0. A 1,000-square-foot, two-bedroom ADU on a 2,000-square-foot house was $13,545 and is unchanged.
Read that last line twice. Going from 900 to 1,000 square feet does not add a little to your fees. It adds the whole impact fee back.
How we would use the 900-square-foot line
Do not design to 1,000 square feet by default. If your program is a two-bedroom that lands near 950, spend an afternoon finding the last 50 square feet before you commit. Fifty square feet is a shallow closet plus a slightly tighter hall. In the city's example, it is the difference between paying roughly $13,500 in impact fees and paying none. On a project where design and plans typically run $8,000 to $20,000, that is a real number to weigh against a slightly larger living room.
The other side of the trade: a bigger unit can still be the right call. If you are building for a multigenerational household and every square foot will be used, pay the fee and build the space. The point is to make that a deliberate decision rather than one you find out about at plan check.
Also note what does not qualify a unit for the smaller savings. Size gets you the 25% permit reductions and the RIF exemption. Only a Standard Plan or an affordability agreement gets you the 50% plan check cut and the full waivers. The City also states that Standard Plans cannot be modified, "regardless of how minor the changes are." That rules them out for many owners who want a layout fitted to an existing garage or a specific lot.
What this does not cover
These are city fees only. Water and sewer connection, utility service work, school district fees and the cost of the design itself are separate line items. On our own ADU page, we list design and plans at $8,000 to $20,000 and permits and fees at $5,000 to $20,000 before the reductions, with a full garage conversion at $120,000 to $150,000. Those are ranges for garage conversions we build; a new detached unit prices differently, and your number depends on the lot and the plans.
If you are converting rather than building new, read our garage conversion guide for the timeline and structural questions. An ADU also needs a working bathroom and a real kitchen, and those two rooms usually drive the budget more than square footage does. For the bathroom side specifically, see adding a bathroom in Pasadena. If your property is in a hillside or high fire-hazard area, our fire-resistant remodeling post covers the code side.
Before you sign anything
Confirm the current fee schedule with the City Service Center at (626) 744-7311, and check that your builder's proposal shows city fees as a separate line. Our post on what belongs in a Pasadena remodeling contract explains why, and you can verify any contractor's license on the CSLB license lookup. You can browse our project gallery, read the FAQ, or call us at (626) 744-0402 for a free estimate. If your ADU plan involves a second-story unit instead, start with our second story addition guide.
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