The objective of the Compton ADU project, led by Woodsong Associates for the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) and City of Compton, was to provide planning assistance to help advance ADU implementation. In particular, the project aimed to accelerate ADU production to meet community needs. The arc of the project extended over 18 months, focusing on working with City staff to get up to speed on local ADU experience and aspirations, then pivoting into a design process to produce five plan check-ready ADU plans grounded in the desires of the residents of Compton. To ensure that the plan designs were truly based in local aspirations and would be attractive to homeowners, we first conducted on online design preferences survey. Making each of the plan sets greywater-ready supported our vision based in long-term environmental sustainability.

To support implementation, we produced a comprehensive Standard Plans Use Guidebook for Homeowners detailing how to use the standard plans on their lot, an overview of the City’s regulations, a breakdown of expected fees, and procedural differences between standard and custom plans.