A Conversation With an ADU Builder

By Kate Callen

A funny thing happened on the way to a March 27 conclave about accessory dwelling units (ADUs) featuring Mayor Todd Gloria and building industry VIPs.

It turned out there were two different ADU workshops in Mission Valley that night. I attended one of them. When I walked in and saw no mayor and no VIPs, I figured I was at the wrong event.

In fact, I had come to the right place.

The Gloria event would have trumpeted his ADU “reform” efforts to soothe public fury over massive projects by predatory developers. (One reform involves developer fees that would be “opt-in” or voluntary. Cool idea, Mr. Mayor! Let’s have “opt-in” trash fees!)

The other event took me back to the original “granny flat” concept where modest structures built by and for families create multi-generational housing with financial stability.

It was a wistful look at what might have been if Gloria and cronies hadn’t turned an innovative housing idea into a Frankenstein industry. And it offered hope that San Diego might yet become a city where land use policies are grounded in common sense.

The lead speaker at my event was Ivor McCallister. He and his wife, Lindsay, run Elemental Horizon Construction, a local firm that builds ADUs for homeowners on their properties.

The McCallisters are not flippers or speculators. They don’t speed-build ADU apartment complexes. They don’t trawl through property listings for single-family houses they can buy up and demolish.

For them, development is a family tradition – his father was a general contractor, her uncle is an appraiser – and its focus is human-scale livability.

“We’re trying to fill the big gap between the $1.3-million houses for established buyers and more affordable homes for people who don’t have that kind of money,” said Ivor.

“We don’t build giant ADU complexes with lots of units and no parking,” he said. “That’s what makes neighbors mad.”

“There are a lot of flippers who do bad structural work. But they make it look pretty, and they list it for a high price. Those inferior products make all contractors look bad, and that’s unfortunate.”

Ivor estimates that 20 percent of their business is building ADUs. Some will serve as home offices, but most provide extra living space for relatives.

ADUs often house adult children who just graduated from college and can’t afford rent yet. In other instances, the homeowner couple moves into the ADU so their children and grandchildren can live in the main house.

“Flexibility is a big part of what we do,” said Ivor. “For one of our clients, we’re going to build an ADU above the garage, and they will live in it while we remodel the house.”

I told Ivor about the first place “winner” in the Rag’s “Worst ADU in San Diego” contest, a multi-unit complex perched on a canyon rim. He didn’t see how that could pencil out.

“It’s very expensive to do that right,” he said. “You have to put in a proper foundation and proper drainage. You can’t cut corners. If you do things right, it’s hard to see how it would be profitable.”

That made the “worst ADUs” seem even more outrageous. Those builders must have cut corners. How did they get away with it? What happens when their shoddy construction gives way?

And why does Mayor Gloria want to keep encouraging such monstrous projects?

The City Council will soon make the final call. If its members can summon up the courage they showed in their remarkable March 4 meeting, they will do the right thing: Join the rest of California in a sensible policy that allows a single ADU on a residential house property.

Neighbors for a Better San Diego (NFABD) has urged the City to do just that since it began analyzing Bonus ADU data in 2021.

“Owners who live on their properties typically construct ADUs that complement the surrounding neighborhood, adding an absorbable increase in density,” said NFABSD Chair Geoff Hueter. “We think San Diego could pare the Bonus ADU program back to what’s required by State law.”