Legalizing a non-conforming unit in Hawthorne

The third largest market we serve

16,374 apartment units, more than two thirds of them built before 1980, and none of it in the coastal zone.

The city has a name for this

Hawthorne's adopted fee schedule carries a line item titled Permit to Legalize Unpermitted ADU or JADU. A city with a named fee for legalization has a process for it, which usually means a shorter conversation at the counter.

Already in the code

HMC Chapter 17.21 permits conversion of non-habitable space in multifamily buildings up to twenty-five percent of the existing unit count, and bars the city from requiring correction of nonconforming zoning conditions as a condition of approval.

Rent control

Hawthorne has no local rent stabilization ordinance. Rent increases are governed by the statewide Tenant Protection Act: five percent plus regional CPI to a maximum of ten percent, with units exempt for fifteen years from the date their certificate of occupancy is issued.

What the city can and cannot do

Hawthorne cannot deny a permit for a pre-2020 unit because it violates building standards or the local ADU ordinance. It can deny only if it finds that correcting the violation is necessary to meet the substandard-building threshold in Health & Safety Code § 17920.3.

That is a far narrower test than full compliance with current code. A unit can fall short of today's standards in a dozen ways and still be permitted, so long as none of them makes the building substandard.