MUCH ADU ABOUT EVERYTHING
Uploaded in the Dec. 13, 2025 issue.
Notice anything new on 164 Mono Street? Caution tape, a gutted garage, construction vehicles?
What about a few doors down, on 158 Mono? See how the bottom unit’s walls are flushed together, like a closed garage door? Good eye! Maybe you’ve also wondered where all these people are going to park.
The answer?
“Don’t know,” said Nolan Bobroff, Mammoth’s community and economic development director.
These multi-unit properties are Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) projects. In the case of 164 Mono, three garages are being converted into a four-bedroom housing unit. The permit for the ADU was submitted in January 2025 and issued in October.
ADUs, also known as granny-flats, in-law units, or backyard cottages, convert areas that are already developed but underutilized, such as existing garages, basements, attics, or pool houses, into housing. California first passed legislation legalizing ADUs in 2016. The state advertises these units as a source of income for homeowners, a mechanism to allow extended families to be near one another while maintaining privacy, and a cost-effective way to create new housing.
In 2020, state legislation AB 64 and AB 881 streamlined building these units through overriding local ADU ordinances and replacing them with state-mandated rules.
These rule changes now allow ADUs to be built on multifamily properties and forbid requiring replacement parking if a parking garage is converted into an ADU. Moreover, in 2024, California Governor Gavin Newsom passed SB 66332, legislation which allows multi-family units to build as many ADUs on their property as existing units, up to eight.
Take 164 Mono. The property owner could theoretically build three more ADUs.
“It’s kind of ludicrous,” Bobroff said. “Sure, it’s sort of adding housing, but at the cost of livability.”
Since 2020, Mammoth has issued 25 ADU permits, nine of which have been completed. These permits are approved the way other building permits are, by individuals in the building division, the planning division, and the public works department ultimately reviewing and approving the project.
“We have to process things in accordance with state law,” said Public Works Director and Town Engineer Haislip Hayes. “It doesn’t give us a lot of flexibility.”
In Mammoth, state ADU legislation overrides local parking ordinances, which poses a particular problem in the winter.
Extra cars on the street are an issue for snow removal later in the season, precisely the reason why the town forbids overnight parking on city streets from November 1 to April 30.
“[In the case of ADUs] we are not allowed to require what we’ve determined are the normal parking requirements and snow storage for a regular development,” said Bailey Thompson, a permit technician and plans examiner for the town.
Every street in Mammoth north of Dorrance Street, which includes Mono Street and Lupine Street, which also has an ADU, is substandard, meaning these streets are only 40 feet wide, Bobroff added. This compounds the parking problem.
“We don’t have adequate snow storage there,” Bobroff said. “We’re utilizing every spot we can to put snow.”
Steve Searles, who has owned property on Mono Street since the ‘70s, described wintertime situations in which Mono Street becomes one lane, and drivers are forced to back down the street. He worried about the density ADU residents could add to Mono Street. Parking, he said, acts as a multiplier.
“[The ADUs] are a disaster,” Searles said.“It lowers the quality of life.”
Searles owns several garages on his property. He recognized that he could transform these into ADUs and make a significant profit from the process.
“Why wouldn’t I? Because I have morals,” Searles said. “I wouldn’t want to f*** over my town, my street, and my community.”
Although some town employees made it clear to the Sheet that they felt their hands were tied, and they couldn’t do anything to solve the ADU density problem, Searles disagreed.
“The town is just multiplying our problems,” Searles said. “‘We’re not interested in you,’ is what I hear the town saying.”
Bobroff explained the town’s efforts to lobby to the state haven’t worked. He threw out a couple other solutions, like creating extra parking in the Parcel, or creating an economic incentive to build ADUs for long term renters. But the town hasn’t actually made any moves towards this.
“Building parking is expensive,” Bobroff said.
The town is “trying to encourage people to build ADUs,” said newly minted Mammoth Lakes Mayor Amanda Rice.
The town has published five different ADU prospective design plans on its website, each outlining a different mechanism for building these units.
According to Bobroff, only one ADU permit has used one of these plans. He edited Rice’s statement.
“I think we’re to encourage people to build ADUs in the right places,” he said. He meant somewhere less-dense like the Bluffs.
Somewhere that isn’t Mono Street.
