Mountain View, CA Accessory Structures: ADU Owner Occupancy (2026)

Sec. 90 applies only to junior accessory dwelling units, the smaller units built entirely within the walls of an existing single-family home, and it draws a clear line from full-size ADUs: Sec. 80, which governs regular single-family ADUs, carries no owner-occupancy condition at all. For a JADU, though, the code requires that one of the dwellings on the property, either the main house or the JADU itself, be occupied by at least one legal owner, with a narrow exception for property owned by a governmental agency, land trust or housing organization.

That requirement isn't just a policy statement; Sec. 90's deed-restriction clause makes it a recorded, running condition on the property. Before the city will issue a building permit for the JADU, the owner must record a deed restriction, in a form the city attorney and zoning administrator approve, at the Santa Clara County Recorder's office and file a copy with the city. That deed restriction does four things: it bars selling the JADU separately from the single-family home, it restricts modifications that would make the unit nonconforming, it prohibits renting the JADU for fewer than 30 days, and it restates the owner-occupancy requirement itself so the condition survives a change in ownership.