La Habra, CA Accessory Structures: ADU Rental Restrictions (2026)

Municipal Code § 18.12.150(H), titled 'ADUs as Transient Lodging,' states plainly that ADUs and JADUs may not be rented for periods of less than thirty-one days, closing off short-term rental platforms as a use for these units anywhere they are permitted in La Habra. The rule sits within the same section that otherwise treats ADUs as favored, ministerially approved housing, so the tradeoff for the city's streamlined sixty-day approval process and reduced fees under subsections B and D is that the resulting unit must go to longer-term occupancy rather than nightly or weekly tourist rental.

Because the restriction is written into the zoning code rather than a separate short-term rental ordinance, it is enforced by Community Development alongside the other ADU standards in § 18.12.150, such as the prohibition on selling or conveying an ADU separately from the primary dwelling in subsection F and the one-ADU-per-lot cap in subsection G. Subsection I.1 further classifies ADUs and JADUs as residential uses that count toward the city's housing supply rather than as commercial lodging, reinforcing why the code channels them into long-term occupancy under the thirty-one-day floor rather than short-term rental.