Civic Data Works · Plans catalog · City of La Mesa

City of La Mesa — preapproved ADU plans

City of La Mesa ( County) posts 5 preapproved accessory dwelling unit plans on its own website, verified 2026-08-06.

Agency: City of La Mesa
County
Plans posted: 5
Verified: 2026-08-06

What’s posted

City of La Mesa 'Accessory Dwelling Units' page (cityoflamesa.gov/1821) hosts five named/numbered Pre-Approved ADU (PADU) plans directly on the city's own DocumentCenter: Plan A (224 sf Studio), Plan B (400 sf 1BR), Plan C (499 sf 1BR), Plan D (990 sf 2BR), Plan E (1,199 sf 3BR), all free to download.

Sources: https://www.cityoflamesa.gov/1821/Accessory-Dwelling-Units, https://www.cityoflamesa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/24937/010_LA-MESA-PRADU-1BED400SF_WEB-reduced, https://www.cityoflamesa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/24808/00_LA-MESA-PRADU-STUDIO_WEB, https://www.cityoflamesa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/25024/PLAN-C---499-SQFT---ONE-BEDROOM-ADU, https://www.cityoflamesa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/24945/PLAN-D---990-SQFT---TWO-BEDROOM-ADU, https://www.cityoflamesa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/24809/03_LA-MESA-PRADU-3-BED_WEB

First fetch of the city's ADU page confirmed 5 named PADU plans (A-E) with DocumentCenter links, hosted directly on cityoflamesa.gov, described as free/pre-approved. Adversarial re-verify performed: a fresh, second, independent WebFetch was made directly against the actual Plan B document URL (DocumentCenter/View/24937). It returned a 'maxContentLength exceeded' error rather than a parsed page — confirming a real, large binary file (consistent with genuine multi-page architectural drawings, not a broken/placeholder link) exists at that exact named-plan URL on the city's own domain. This corroborates the plan set is real and hosted directly by the agency; content itself could not be visually inspected due to file size, so plansCount/names are based on the city's page listing.

Any other agency can adopt these plans

Cal. Gov. Code § 65852.27, added by Stats. 2023, ch. 759, amended by Stats. 2024, ch. 7 (SB 477) (§ 65852.27(a)(5)) lets any California local agency admit into its own program plans “A local agency may also admit the following accessory dwelling unit plans into the program: (A) Plans that have been developed and preapproved by the local agency. (B) Plans that have been preapproved by other agencies within the state.” A city or county without a preapproval program of its own can post City of La Mesa’s plans as part of its own program instead of designing new ones — see the full statewide catalog for more options.

We build and maintain the program page, the plan library and the required third-party submission path for agencies that want to stand this up: $1,950 setup + $3,600/year (year one all-in $5,550).

Get started — $1,950 setup Questions? Email [email protected]

Data from Civic Data Works’ AB 1332 compliance scan. If City of La Mesa’s plans have moved or you find an error, write to [email protected] and we will correct this page. Back to the full catalog.