Ministerial (By-Right) Approval
Also: by-right · ministerial review
Ministerial approval means an ADU permit is reviewed against objective standards only — no public hearing, no discretionary design review, no neighbor appeal. California requires jurisdictions to approve or deny a complete ADU application within 60 days, which is why ADUs have a more predictable permit path than a conventional addition.
Ministerial review is the legal engine behind the ADU boom. It removes the discretionary hurdles that can stall ordinary residential projects for months. For a Sacramento homeowner this means the city checks the application against objective rules — the 4-foot setbacks, the height limit, the building code — and cannot route the project to a public hearing or let a neighbor appeal it. Once the submittal is complete, the 60-day clock starts; building from a pre-approved plan can move the actual plan check closer to 30 days. The trade-off is that everything hinges on a complete, code-correct package up front, since there is no discretionary back-and-forth to fix gaps.
Go deeper:California ADU law in 2026
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