WALNUT CREEK — Property owners of the roughly three dozen churches, synagogues, mosques and other properties used for religious services in Walnut Creek will soon be able to legally build up to two accessory dwelling units on their land.
But this change is not intended to spur projects like Hope Village at Grace Presbyterian Church, where six ADUs will soon be built alongside on-site supportive services such as counseling, health care referrals and laundry facilities to help support low-income seniors transitioning out of homelessness.
Instead, the Walnut Creek City Council unanimously approved amendments to the city’s ADU ordinance Tuesday night — creating a more conservative path for religious leaders to help residents struggling to secure an affordable home. In addition to allowing for approval without requiring input from the city’s planning commission or council, the intent is that owners of religious-based properties will not have to wade through extensive community pushback and environmental reviews that commonly disrupt higher-density blueprints.
Mayor Pro Tem Cindy Darling applauded this carveout to accelerate more modest ADU projects.
“This is going to be a way for a faith-based organization that is having a hard time getting a preschool teacher that can live in town — and I can see several churches that have those kinds of needs — to build something on site,” Darling said Tuesday. “(The ordinance is) for people that just need a place to live in a city without very many of those.”
Additionally, the amended ordinance fills a gap for projects that don’t take advantage of numerous state laws that further streamlined faith-based properties’ housing initiatives, such as SB 4and AB 2162, which facilitated Hope Village’s ongoing development.
Aaron Sage, principal planner, said during Tuesday’s meeting that the city issued 147 building permits for ADUs between 2015 and 2023. While that represents only 7% of all housing in Walnut Creek, those homes accounted for 55% of the city’s total below-market units.
But the city’s ordinance historically only allowed those kinds of homes — often called in-law units, granny flats or carriage houses — on properties with single- or multi-family dwellings.
The council voted to expand those building rules to include lots that are zoned for “religious assembly use.” Sage said Walnut Creek will allow construction on sites dedicated to religious worship and incidental religious education, but not private schools. These approved plots of land will now span neighborhoods that feature single-family homes, pedestrian retail centers and commercial uses, including the city’s downtown core.
These structures will be largely limited to 1000-square-foot floor plans and a 16-foot maximum building height, which will likely be single-story units. The ADUs must be designed, however, to visually match or compliment the architectural features of the religious-based structures on the same property.
Following Tuesday’s approval, the council is slated to adopt and implement the amended ordinance on June 18. Sage said the final ordinance also now aligns with the promises Walnut Creek made in its most recent Housing Element to increase affordable housing options within city limits. The effort will be implemented before the June 30 deadline set by state officials to maintain their certification of the city’s plan.
While ADU regulations are often a hot button issue at council meetings across the Bay Area, no residents spoke during Walnut Creek’s discussion Tuesday night when amendments to the ordinance were ironed out. Only threeresidents emailed their thoughts: one largely in support; one wary of impacts on safety, parking and tax equity; one in stern dissent, arguing that the city is already too overcrowded to sustain the “uncontrolled growth” feeding these kinds of housing projects.
“The streets are congested. Parking is horrible. At some point enough is enough,” resident Julie Fletcher wrote. “The charm of Walnut Creek is slipping away. Please ask yourself if current residents are interested in squeezing more people into this finite space. It’s too much!”
None of the elected officials shared those anxieties, but Councilmember Cindy Silva was concerned that a previous draft of the amended ordinance that aimed at protecting commercial areas from ADU construction would also prevent several of the city’s roughly 35 religious assembly properties from taking advantage of the new rules.
City staff ultimately clarified that up to two ADUs can be built on faith-based properties, as long as that land is zoned to permit both residential use and religious-based uses — narrowly avoiding a legal mess that would have excluded congregations at St. Mary’s Church, Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church and St Paul’s Episcopal Church, which are all located between Highway 680 and the city’s downtown.
Silva also suggested drafting objective design standards that would allow flexibility for the styles of windows, roofs and other features — intended to not only avoid forcing ADUs to include spires, minarets or stained glass, but also prevent those homes from inadvertently looking like commercial storage units.
“I think we need to be really cautious that we’re defeating the (ordinance’s) purpose, which is the mission of the faith-based communities,” Silva said. “They may find this a good opportunity for them.”
