Cathedral City, CA Accessory Structures: ADU Rental Restrictions (2026)

Section 9.114.050 of the Cathedral City Municipal Code, adopted by the City Council in Riverside County, sets the ownership and occupancy rule for every accessory dwelling unit in the city. Paragraph 16 allows an ADU to be rented separate from the primary residence. The same paragraph bars selling or otherwise conveying the ADU separate from the primary residence, except as provided by Government Code Section 65852.26. Its last sentence closes the vacation-rental route: an accessory dwelling unit shall not be utilized as a short-term vacation rental as defined in Chapter 5.96 of the code.

Chapter 5.96 reinforces that line. Its definition of "disqualified space" lists any accessory dwelling unit built or permitted after January 1, 2020, along with any portion of a dwelling unit rented separately from the main residential dwelling unit, and it states that home sharing is not permitted in any disqualified space. Section 5.96.010 also sets out a method to phase out short-term vacation rentals in the city within two years from and after the effective date of Ordinance 842, on October 9, 2020, with exceptions for certain common interest developments and for home sharing as permitted under the code.

Paragraph 17 adds a sequencing rule: the city shall not issue a certificate of occupancy for an accessory dwelling unit before it issues a certificate of occupancy for the primary dwelling.

The rest of Chapter 9.114 shapes what a rentable unit looks like. Section 9.114.030 requires a building permit, and the building official acts on the application ministerially, without discretionary review or a public hearing, within sixty days of a completed application when a dwelling already exists on the lot. Paragraph 13 limits a new detached or attached unit to eight hundred fifty square feet for a studio or one-bedroom unit and one thousand square feet for a unit with more than one bedroom, with no more than two bedrooms. Paragraph 14 requires one new parking space per ADU, with listed exceptions. A junior accessory dwelling unit under § 9.114.060 needs a recorded deed restriction against separate sale and is limited to five hundred square feet.